IMPRS Office
The International Max Planck Research School "Knowledge and Its Resources: Historical Reciprocities" has its own office, which is responsible for organization and administration.
The IMPRS Office team currently consists of the academic coordinator Sophie Schwarzmaier, the secretary Liliane Sommer, and two student assistants, Constantin Böhm and Lisa Thiel. The team is the main contact point for the doctoral students, the Teaching Faculty, cooperation partners, guests, and everyone interested in the IMPRS-KIR.
Come and visit us or leave us a message:
International Max Planck Research School
“Knowledge and Its Resources: Historical Reciprocities”
Boltzmannstr. 22
14195 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 200549 401
Email: imprs-office@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
Sophie Schwarzmaier is the Academic Coordinator of the International Max Planck Research School “Knowledge and Its Resources: Historical Reciprocities”.
She is responsible for implementing decisions by the IMPRS Teaching Faculty and liaising with students, faculty members, and administrative staff in all four partner institutions. She also coordinates the activities of the predoctoral community at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
Sophie has a BA in Cultural Studies and an MA in Cultural History from the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder, having spent part of her studies at Sciences Po Paris and the University of Łódź. In her PhD dissertation on the Polish psychologist Józefa Joteyko (1866–1928), she analyzed gender orders in science and transnational expert networks between Belgium and Poland at the beginning of the twentieth century. The research was supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung) and the German Historical Institute Warsaw.
Prior to her PhD, Sophie worked as an administrative assistant at the Viadrina Center B/Orders in Motion and as a research assistant and teacher at the Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences at Viadrina University. She also assisted in the organization of conferences and projects fostering academic and cultural exchange between Germany and East Central Europe.
Email: sschwarzmaier@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
As office assistant, Liliane Sommer supports the work of the IMPRS Office.
This includes advising the doctoral students and guest scholars on administrative and organizational questions, organizing meetings and events, and communicating with the Institute's administration and scholars.
Liliane received her MA in Japanese Studies and East Asian Art History from Freie Universität Berlin. Her thesis examined the socio-historical image of women in 1920s–30s Japan through selected advertisements of the cosmetics company Shiseido.
Before Liliane came to the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, she worked as an art educator at the Museum of Asian Art, Dahlem, and spent many years in the travel industry specializing in travel to Japan. Through these activities, she was able to deepen her expertise and share her knowledge and love of Japanese culture and society with her clients.
Email: lrsommer@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
Constantin Böhm has worked as a research assistant and administrative support at the IMPRS-KIR since July 2022.
Having completed his BA in Art History, Visual History, and Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) and New York University, he is currently finishing his MA in Cultural History and Theory at the HU.
Constantin has previously worked on art exhibition and research projects during internships at Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Kunstverein Tiergarten in Berlin. As a volunteer, he also supported The Universal Sea, a nonprofit initiative combating plastic pollution, on its traveling exhibition project and workshops at the WeMakeThe.City Festival in Amsterdam.
Email: cboehm@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
Lisa Thiel has worked as a research assistant and administrative support at the IMPRS-KIR since September 2022.
Lisa is currently enrolled in the MA Global History program at Freie Universität Berlin und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She holds a double BA in History and Cultural Studies from Universität Leipzig, which she complemented with a semester at Goldsmiths College, London, and a DAAD-funded study visit to the Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico.
In the past, Lisa worked as a student assistant at the Department of History at Universität Leipzig. She supported the annual postgraduate program of the Academy of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation as a project and research assistant in 2021.
Email: lthiel@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
How to get there
The IMPRS-KIR is based in the premises of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in the Dahlem district of Berlin.
The doctoral students and the IMPRS Office staff work at Boltzmannstrasse 16, next to the main MPIWG building (Boltzmannstrasse 22).
The closest underground station is "Freie Universität/Thielplatz" (U3). Leave the station at the front exit (marked “Faradayweg”) and follow Brümmerstrasse, continuing onto Ihnestrasse. The Institute buildings are less than ten minutes’ walk from the station (see map). Public transportation in Berlin is run by the BVG (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe).
Information about reaching the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science by train, car, or plane can be found here.
Legal Notice
The responsibility under press law lies currently with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG).
Editorial responsibility lies with the IMPRS Office.
Website Design: Büro Weiss, Berlin
Website Development: The Weavery, Hamburg
Technical Responsibility: BConnect, Berlin
Photos:
© Arne Sattler 2022, 2023
© Lisa Onaga 2023 (welcome page, FAQs)
Images on the welcome page:
Needle making by female workers, 1800s (from Diderot's Encyclopédie). Daryl M. Hafter (2007), Women at Work in Preindustrial France.
Johann Heinrich Lambert, Color Pyramid, 1772. Johann Heinrich Lambert, Beschreibung einer mit dem Calauschen Wachse ausgemalte Farbenpyramide, Berlin 1772 © Wikimedia Commons.