21.07.2025

Today on air: Malin Wilckens' Interview in hr2 "Am Nachmittag"

In today's hr2 programme ‘Am Nachmittag’ (from 16:04), IEG scientist Malin Wilckenss talks to presenter Nicole Abraham about her dissertation project on skull comparisons.
For this project, Malin Wilckens received the Johannes Zilkens Doctoral Prize from the German National Academic Foundation in May for ‘outstanding dissertations in the humanities’.

In her doctoral thesis, Malin Wilckens traces how nineteenth-century scientists transformed the human skull into a collectible and measurable object of comparison, thereby establishing it as a key criterion for distinguishing and categorizing individuals and human groups. Her work, titled "Skull Comparisons and the Order of the World," aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the "racialization in science (1780–1880)," as indicated by its subtitle. The historian also takes a critical look at the role of science. She began her project five years ago, when many skull collections were still accessible to the public. ‘You can't even imagine that today,’ remarks Malin Wilckens with regard to the current debate on the repatriation of human remains and the restitution of artefacts.