Parapsychology on the crossroads of scientific research, social inquiry, and public media: A comparative study from an international and transnational perspective (1930s to 1980s)

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Sylvia Paletschek
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 264492503

With an international comparative perspective, using the example of parapsychology, this research project explores the process of forming an academic discipline and the interplay between societal discourse and subsystems in the 20th century. Both the interactions between science and society, as well as the conditions of discipline formation become particularly evident in the examination of this widely contested, non-hegemonial academic discipline, which experienced, at intervals, strong public interest. The first stage of the project explored parapsychology in Germany, investigating how the relationship between the academic and societal environment was apparent throughout the discipline's formation. The first thesis focused on Hans Bender (1907-1991), founder of the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg in 1950, who was the first and only professor in this field in Germany since 1954. The project approached its research questions from three angles, drawing from scientific history and media history, as well as local and urban history. The empirical and analytical results of the first project stage generated questions which revealed similarities and differences between national characteristics, relevant to the foundation of parapsychology as an academic discipline. Thus, the proposed second phase will aim to investigate the processes of discipline formation in different countries, inquiring into and examining the various academic-institutional frameworks, social relevance, and (mass) media public spheres from a comparative perspective, whereby also uncovering and reconstructing interrelationships and crossovers. Therefore, the analysis will focus on five cases: Germany (Freiburg/Br.), France (Paris), Great Britain (Edinburgh), the Netherlands (Utrecht), and the USA (Durham), in the time period between the 1930s and the 1980s. The project aspires to contribute to the study of the history of science as well as to the history of knowledge, which, being a broad notion, this project would focus on mechanisms of knowledge production, reception and circulation. It also draws on approaches within the sociology of science, particularly those of Science in Context and Boundary Work. The project combines methods of comparative and transfer history. On a conceptual level, it combines in-depth archival research with the evaluation of other research studies. Finally, the second phase aims to result in a monograph, which using the example of parapsychology, surveys the relationship between non-hegemonic and hegemonic knowledge from a cross-cultural perspective.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants