Career Path Award 2025 for Kirsten Behr

In her habilitation project, Kirsten Behr wants to distinguish herself temporally and geographically from previous contributions to decolonial psychology and psychiatric criticism in that she does not focus on the peak phase of historical colonialism and its consequences, but, on the one hand, considers those European reports of first contact with the 'New World' that prepare, anticipate and legitimize its pathologization - and, in this context, focuses on Latin America, a space of encounter that has so far been (too) neglected in the questions raised by the so-called "space[s] of madness" (Keller 2007: 3) have so far received (too) little resonance. She is concerned both with external attributions that diagnose colonizers and colonized alike - albeit for different reasons and with different intentions - as 'mad', as well as with reports of experiences in which states of rapture are to be made sayable.

The DHV found the project draft to be: Promising! With the Career Path Award , the association wants to make the transitions in the career paths of postdocs with strong research skills easier.