Books by Susanne Schregel
With this AHR History Lab contribution, we intend to invite a debate about our historiographical ... more With this AHR History Lab contribution, we intend to invite a debate about our historiographical perspectives and choices when it comes to addressing questions of war and peace. In particular, we wish to encourage those in our craft to consider the potential the field of peace history has to offer the discipline, and share ideas about its further development. Not least, we want to illustrate the manifold ways in which people involved in making sense of the past can contribute to envisioning less violent presents and futures.
Das Wechselspiel von Frieden, Konflikten, Gewalt und Krieg prägt unsere Gegenwart ebenso wie die ... more Das Wechselspiel von Frieden, Konflikten, Gewalt und Krieg prägt unsere Gegenwart ebenso wie die Vergangenheit. Dieser Band bietet einen aktuellen Überblick über die programmatischen und methodischen Einsichten der Historischen Friedens- und Konfliktforschung und gibt Impulse zu ihrer konzeptionellen und thematischen Weiterentwicklung. Dabei werben die Beiträge für einen Ansatz, der Gewalt und Krieg nicht als Ausgangspunkt setzt, sondern problematisiert und erklärt. Dies macht Alternativen zu Gewalt und Krieg, Bemühungen zu deren Einhegung und Überwindung und das Streben nach Frieden zu einem wichtigen Fluchtpunkt der Erzählung.
https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/hhsa/33/5
https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/saca/23/4
https://moving-the-social.ub.rub.de/index.php/MTS/issue/view/94
Papers by Susanne Schregel
Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung fordert heraus. Seit der Formierung der Forschungsper... more Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung fordert heraus. Seit der Formierung der Forschungsperspektive im Umfeld des Ost-West-Konflikts streiten sich Historiker:innen darüber, was ihren eigentlichen Gegenstandsbereich ausmachen und mit welchen Ansätzen und Methoden er am besten erforscht werden sollte. Auch die Frage, welche Rolle Studien etwa zu historischen Ansätzen zur Vermeidung von Krieg und Gewalt oder zu vergangenen Gewaltkonflikten in politischen Konstellationen der Gegenwart einnehmen sollten, sorgte immer wieder für Debatten. Dieses Kapitel führt daher in die Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung ein, indem es sie entlang des Bildes von der »Quadratur des Kreises« charakterisiert.
Geschichte und Gegenwart von Gegenunis, 2023
Von den „kritischen Unis“ der 1960er Jahre bis zu den „offenen Klimaunis“ und „anti-woken Gegenun... more Von den „kritischen Unis“ der 1960er Jahre bis zu den „offenen Klimaunis“ und „anti-woken Gegenunis“ der Gegenwart reicht die Geschichte von Gegenhochschulen. Obwohl sie sich als Alternativen zu ihren etablierten Vorgängern sehen, bleiben sie untrennbar mit ihnen verknüpft, argumentiert die Historikerin Susanne Schregel in einem Gastbeitrag.
In zweifelhaften Fällen mag der Geist der Milde den Ausschlag geben"-Korrektur und Benotung des d... more In zweifelhaften Fällen mag der Geist der Milde den Ausschlag geben"-Korrektur und Benotung des deutschen Abituraufsatzes in historischen Debatten und Praktiken .
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliograf... more Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografi e; detaillierte bibliografi sche Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar.
This special section evolved out of a workshop entitled 'Minds and Brains in Everyday Life: Embed... more This special section evolved out of a workshop entitled 'Minds and Brains in Everyday Life: Embedding and Negotiating Scientific Concepts in Popular Discourses', held at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. Our discussions at the workshop and for this special section began with the observation that scientific interpretations and everyday explanations regularly meet and come together in debates about aspects of the mind and the brain. Such entanglements between science and the wider public have already been studied from multiple perspectives in history and the social sciences. Recently, however, warnings have intensified that researchers also need to take into account the limitations that certain scientific claims may encounter in everyday life, and to remain methodologically open to alternative explanations that are not derived from forms of (neuro)psychological knowledge. We suggest that focusing on contested narratives of the mind and the brain may be one approach to studying the interaction between science and the larger public, as well as investigating the ignorance, limits, counterforces, and outright rejection that scientific concepts may encounter in everyday life.
This article explores the history of British Mensa to examine the contested status of high intell... more This article explores the history of British Mensa to examine the contested status of high intelligence in Great Britain between the late 1940s and the late 1980s. Based on journals and leaflets from the association and newspaper articles about it, the article shows how protagonists from the high IQ society campaigned for intelligence and its testing among the British public. Yet scathing reactions to the group in newspapers suggest that journalists considered it socially provocative to stress one's own brainpower as extraordinarily high. To better understand such disagreements, the article analyses communicative patterns that were used to make judgements about intelligence. This case study sheds light on how aspects of difference and the ascription of social positions are negotiated in public understandings of intelligence.
Keywords
giftedness, high IQ society, intelligence, intelligence testing, meritocracy
Special Treatment for the Elites? Social Inequality and Individual Differences in Debates over In... more Special Treatment for the Elites? Social Inequality and Individual Differences in Debates over Intellectual Giftedness in the Federal Republic of Germany (1980 –1985)
Questions of intellectual giftedness became a battlefield for controversies over social inequality in West Germany in the 1980s. Educational practitioners and politicians argued that strengthening special education opportunities for intellectually gifted children and teenagers might further entrench inequalities in income and education. Yet proponents and parents who suspected their child might be exceptionally talented or intelligent tended to interpret giftedness rather in terms of human difference. The issue of special education for intellectually gifted children was central to political struggles in which collective paradigms of inequalities could be challenged in the name of more individualized interpretations of difference. The ascription of specific abilities and inabilities played a formative role in this process.
Degrees of Elevation – Modes of Reflection, 2020
Above – Degrees of Elevation
Special Issue for “Space and Culture”
Introduction
Im Laufe der konservativen Wende der 1980er Jahre wurde Hochbegabung in der Bundesrepublik zu ein... more Im Laufe der konservativen Wende der 1980er Jahre wurde Hochbegabung in der Bundesrepublik zu einem Schlüsselbegriff, um das Verhalten und die Bildungserfahrungen von Kindern und Jugendlichen zu deuten. Susanne Schregel zeigt, wie sich Debatten um das Wohl und Wehe des hochbegabten Kindes mit Auseinandersetzungen um Elitebildung, Gerechtigkeit und Leistung in der Demokratie verbanden. Sie macht deutlich, wie sich das hochbegabte Kind in einer politisch polarisierten Situation als eine Kippfigur konstituierte, die je nach Wahrnehmung und Betrachtungswinkel ein anderes Motiv ergab: Mit Referenzen der Spitzenbegabung und Elite verhieß das hochbegabte Kind besondere Fähigkeiten, Leistung und Erfolge. Diese Termini der Spitze und der Führung negierte die Figur jedoch sogleich wieder, indem sie in solche der Gefährdung und Hilfe übersetzt wurden. Durch ihre inneren Ambiguitäten erweist sich die Figur des hochbegabten Kindes damit als symptomatisch für die Widersprüche einer Gesellschaft, die in Abwendung von bildungspolitischen Leitlinien der 1970er Jahre individuelle Auslese und Spitzenförderung zu betonen begann, ohne jedoch das Versprechen der Gleichheit ausdrücklich aufgeben zu wollen.
Abstract During the conservative Wende (turnaround) in the Federal Republic in the 1980s, giftedness became a keyword in the interpretation of the behaviour and educational experiences of children and adolescents. Susanne Schregel shows how debates about the weal and woe of the gifted child were connected with controversies about elite formation, justice, and merit in a democracy. She makes clear how, in a polarised political situation, the gifted child became an ambiguous figure which could be viewed in various ways according to different points of view: With references to top talent and elites, the highly gifted child promised special abilities, merits and successes. However, the figure immediately negated these terms of apex and leadership, as they were translated into terms of endangerment and the need for help. Through inner ambiguities, the figure of the gifted child is thus symptomatic for the contradictions of a society, which in turning away from the guidelines of educational policy of the 1970s began to emphasise individual selection and the promotion of elites, yet without explicitly wishing to abandon the promise of equality.
This introductory paper seeks to stimulate discussion on entanglements between protest campaigns,... more This introductory paper seeks to stimulate discussion on entanglements between protest campaigns, social movements and academic processes of generating knowledge in the USA and Western Europe since the 1960s. It examines how protagonists from social movements and counterculture have contributed to understandings of academic knowledge formation and its relationship to the public sphere, the role of the scientist, and the practical processes involved in generating and acquiring knowledge. Focusing on drafts of both 'alternative' and 'conventional' science and their impact on each other, the paper in particular suggests enquiring into the creative and experimental aspects of alternative scientific projects and the media in which they took form. In pursuit of this goal, it proposes to transcend the existing compartmentalisation of research in social movements and the formation of knowledge into numerous specialities, and to further broaden the dialogue between the history of social movements and the history of science and of knowledge.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, citizens in the South Pacific region, Australia, New Zealand, ... more In the late 1970s and early 1980s, citizens in the South Pacific region, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Europe and Northern America declared spaces in their everyday surroundings to be " nuclear-free zones ". Despite a tendency to dismiss the relevance of such grassroots declarations, this essay approaches them as a significant reinterpretation of international politics through spatial rhetoric and practice. As a strategy of micro-politics framed as " global " , grassroots nuclear-free zones were aimed at opening up alternative approaches to arms control, disarmament, and environmental protection in a historic time frame that was shaped by intensifying globalization discourses. Drawing on various sources from antinuclear and peace initiatives, the essay first traces the roots of nuclear-free zone campaigning across the continents. Pointing to the historic character of spatial settings and related conceptions of politics, it then examines the role of the " local " and the " global " in nuclear-free zones' legitimating rhetoric. Finally, the chapter discusses global-local dynamics in activists' spatial frames and imageries.
Drafting Interdisciplinarity. Forms of Thought and Knowledge Production in the Federal Republic o... more Drafting Interdisciplinarity. Forms of Thought and Knowledge Production in the Federal Republic of Germany (1955–
1975)
This article traces the history of interdisciplinarity as a contemporary form of thought and of producing knowledge in
the Federal Republic of Germany from 1955 to 1975. It establishes that concepts of interdisciplinary research and
teaching circulated in diverse fields of knowledge and modes of articulation, and evaluates the transformations that
interdisciplinarity underwent along the way. After detailing the process by which the adjective ‘‘interdisciplinary’’ first
came into usage in scientific publications in the late 1950s, this article discusses how interdisciplinary research and
teaching began to feature in debates about university reforms and the founding of new universities in the 1960s. The
article then draws on the examples of Bochum, Konstanz, and Bielefeld to illustrate how debates about disciplinary
specialization and interdisciplinary connections unfolded in visual modes of expression such as diagrams or sketches.
In a last step, the article examines how visual and textual reflections connected interdisciplinarity to the
architecture of envisioned universities, and hence related this time-specific form of thought and knowledge production
to the material environments of future research and teaching.
Places and Spaces of the Peace Movement, in: Christoph Becker-Schaum u.a. (eds.), The Nuclear Crisis: The Arms Race, Cold War Anxiety, and the German Peace Movement of the 1980s, New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books 2016, 173–188., 2016
Many of the political actions carried out by the peace movement
were deliberately arranged spati... more Many of the political actions carried out by the peace movement
were deliberately arranged spatially: agents of the peace movement assembled
in specific, often symbolically charged places, such as the West German capital
of Bonn, their local town hall, or in front of military installations and bunkers.
In demonstrations protesters employed forms of action that intentionally manipulated
space. For instance, they positioned their bodies in protest marches,
in human chains, or in silent vigils. The debate about NATO’s Double-Track
Decision was, as a consequence, not limited to geopolitical boundaries, but
from the beginning had a wider territorial orientation. Peace activists explicitly
involved a spatial dimension in practical action and in finding a political
self-definition: actors in the peace movement articulated common political
positions and demands in specific places and with the help of particular spatial
arrangements or deliberate spatial strategies. This chapter discusses the
1980s peace movement’s use of space, place, and spatial strategies.
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Books by Susanne Schregel
Papers by Susanne Schregel
Keywords
giftedness, high IQ society, intelligence, intelligence testing, meritocracy
Questions of intellectual giftedness became a battlefield for controversies over social inequality in West Germany in the 1980s. Educational practitioners and politicians argued that strengthening special education opportunities for intellectually gifted children and teenagers might further entrench inequalities in income and education. Yet proponents and parents who suspected their child might be exceptionally talented or intelligent tended to interpret giftedness rather in terms of human difference. The issue of special education for intellectually gifted children was central to political struggles in which collective paradigms of inequalities could be challenged in the name of more individualized interpretations of difference. The ascription of specific abilities and inabilities played a formative role in this process.
Abstract During the conservative Wende (turnaround) in the Federal Republic in the 1980s, giftedness became a keyword in the interpretation of the behaviour and educational experiences of children and adolescents. Susanne Schregel shows how debates about the weal and woe of the gifted child were connected with controversies about elite formation, justice, and merit in a democracy. She makes clear how, in a polarised political situation, the gifted child became an ambiguous figure which could be viewed in various ways according to different points of view: With references to top talent and elites, the highly gifted child promised special abilities, merits and successes. However, the figure immediately negated these terms of apex and leadership, as they were translated into terms of endangerment and the need for help. Through inner ambiguities, the figure of the gifted child is thus symptomatic for the contradictions of a society, which in turning away from the guidelines of educational policy of the 1970s began to emphasise individual selection and the promotion of elites, yet without explicitly wishing to abandon the promise of equality.
1975)
This article traces the history of interdisciplinarity as a contemporary form of thought and of producing knowledge in
the Federal Republic of Germany from 1955 to 1975. It establishes that concepts of interdisciplinary research and
teaching circulated in diverse fields of knowledge and modes of articulation, and evaluates the transformations that
interdisciplinarity underwent along the way. After detailing the process by which the adjective ‘‘interdisciplinary’’ first
came into usage in scientific publications in the late 1950s, this article discusses how interdisciplinary research and
teaching began to feature in debates about university reforms and the founding of new universities in the 1960s. The
article then draws on the examples of Bochum, Konstanz, and Bielefeld to illustrate how debates about disciplinary
specialization and interdisciplinary connections unfolded in visual modes of expression such as diagrams or sketches.
In a last step, the article examines how visual and textual reflections connected interdisciplinarity to the
architecture of envisioned universities, and hence related this time-specific form of thought and knowledge production
to the material environments of future research and teaching.
were deliberately arranged spatially: agents of the peace movement assembled
in specific, often symbolically charged places, such as the West German capital
of Bonn, their local town hall, or in front of military installations and bunkers.
In demonstrations protesters employed forms of action that intentionally manipulated
space. For instance, they positioned their bodies in protest marches,
in human chains, or in silent vigils. The debate about NATO’s Double-Track
Decision was, as a consequence, not limited to geopolitical boundaries, but
from the beginning had a wider territorial orientation. Peace activists explicitly
involved a spatial dimension in practical action and in finding a political
self-definition: actors in the peace movement articulated common political
positions and demands in specific places and with the help of particular spatial
arrangements or deliberate spatial strategies. This chapter discusses the
1980s peace movement’s use of space, place, and spatial strategies.
Keywords
giftedness, high IQ society, intelligence, intelligence testing, meritocracy
Questions of intellectual giftedness became a battlefield for controversies over social inequality in West Germany in the 1980s. Educational practitioners and politicians argued that strengthening special education opportunities for intellectually gifted children and teenagers might further entrench inequalities in income and education. Yet proponents and parents who suspected their child might be exceptionally talented or intelligent tended to interpret giftedness rather in terms of human difference. The issue of special education for intellectually gifted children was central to political struggles in which collective paradigms of inequalities could be challenged in the name of more individualized interpretations of difference. The ascription of specific abilities and inabilities played a formative role in this process.
Abstract During the conservative Wende (turnaround) in the Federal Republic in the 1980s, giftedness became a keyword in the interpretation of the behaviour and educational experiences of children and adolescents. Susanne Schregel shows how debates about the weal and woe of the gifted child were connected with controversies about elite formation, justice, and merit in a democracy. She makes clear how, in a polarised political situation, the gifted child became an ambiguous figure which could be viewed in various ways according to different points of view: With references to top talent and elites, the highly gifted child promised special abilities, merits and successes. However, the figure immediately negated these terms of apex and leadership, as they were translated into terms of endangerment and the need for help. Through inner ambiguities, the figure of the gifted child is thus symptomatic for the contradictions of a society, which in turning away from the guidelines of educational policy of the 1970s began to emphasise individual selection and the promotion of elites, yet without explicitly wishing to abandon the promise of equality.
1975)
This article traces the history of interdisciplinarity as a contemporary form of thought and of producing knowledge in
the Federal Republic of Germany from 1955 to 1975. It establishes that concepts of interdisciplinary research and
teaching circulated in diverse fields of knowledge and modes of articulation, and evaluates the transformations that
interdisciplinarity underwent along the way. After detailing the process by which the adjective ‘‘interdisciplinary’’ first
came into usage in scientific publications in the late 1950s, this article discusses how interdisciplinary research and
teaching began to feature in debates about university reforms and the founding of new universities in the 1960s. The
article then draws on the examples of Bochum, Konstanz, and Bielefeld to illustrate how debates about disciplinary
specialization and interdisciplinary connections unfolded in visual modes of expression such as diagrams or sketches.
In a last step, the article examines how visual and textual reflections connected interdisciplinarity to the
architecture of envisioned universities, and hence related this time-specific form of thought and knowledge production
to the material environments of future research and teaching.
were deliberately arranged spatially: agents of the peace movement assembled
in specific, often symbolically charged places, such as the West German capital
of Bonn, their local town hall, or in front of military installations and bunkers.
In demonstrations protesters employed forms of action that intentionally manipulated
space. For instance, they positioned their bodies in protest marches,
in human chains, or in silent vigils. The debate about NATO’s Double-Track
Decision was, as a consequence, not limited to geopolitical boundaries, but
from the beginning had a wider territorial orientation. Peace activists explicitly
involved a spatial dimension in practical action and in finding a political
self-definition: actors in the peace movement articulated common political
positions and demands in specific places and with the help of particular spatial
arrangements or deliberate spatial strategies. This chapter discusses the
1980s peace movement’s use of space, place, and spatial strategies.
We particularly welcome contributions addressing the following topics:
- “Political”/”Critical”/”Free”/”Anti”-universities of the 1960s and 70s, and their offshoots
- Women’s universities; feminist university projects; gay and queer counter-universities
- Counter-universities and learning spaces in art (historical and contemporary)
- “Democratic”/”citizens’”/”people’s” universities; counter-universities and trade unions
- Ecological and green counter-universities’ past and present
- Mobile/Travelling Universities
- Populist and right-wing counter-universities
- Counter-universities and social struggles of the present
- PLEASE NOT: state reform projects in higher education, if there is no direct connection to movement’s / artists’ activities
Deadline for abstracts: May 16, 2024
Die Buchreihe "Frieden und Krieg. Beiträge zur Historischen Friedens-und Konfliktforschung" sucht innovative wissenschaftliche Arbeiten. Die Reihe ist seit über zwei Jahrzehnten ein zentraler Publikationsort für historische Studien im Themenfeld von Frieden, Krieg, Gewalt und Konflikt. Sie erscheint seit 2021 im Campus Verlag und wird in Kooperation mit dem Arbeitskreis für Historische Friedens-und Konfliktforschung herausgegeben (https://www.campus.de/buechercampus-verlag/reihen.html?tx_campus_series%5Bseries%5D=188 &cHash=76e8020cb56d365d410a55c9c75024472447).
There is no conference fee, and guests are warmly invited. Please register by May 30: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/minds-and-brains-in-everyday-life-tickets-21426827217.