Laura Schnieder

BACKGROUND: GRKMainz_BildHP_Schnieder-2
In February 2014 I received my master's degree in sociology from Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main with a master's thesis on the topic “Marketing Risk: Eine sozialwissenschaftliche Analyse von Plakatwerbung für die Teilnahme an klinischen Studien” (“Marketing Risk: A Social-Scientific Analysis of Posters that Advertise the Participation in Clinical Studies"). During my studies I was also working as a student assistant at the Cornelia Goethe Center for Women's and Gender Studies and for the BMBF research project “Genetic Discrimination in Germany: An Investigation into Experiences of Unfair and Adverse Treatment Due to Risks of Genetic Diseases” lead by Prof. Dr. Thomas Lemke. My scientific interests lie in today's reproductive technologies and the questions they pose, the discourse surrounding the commodification of the human body and the various forms, functions and meanings of predictive medical knowledge.

THE GRK IS...
an extraordinary chance to broaden my sociological perspective through interdisciplinary insights from the nexus of subjectivity and biomedical knowledge and to take a critical look at this perspective from the angle of the humanities and cultural studies as well as the life sciences in practice.

MY GOAL IS...
to further evolve as a researcher and to realise my own research project. I hope to get in touch with _MG_2097practitioners and representatives of various medical and public health fields and to be part of an intensive exchange of scientific positions and ideas.

MY PROJECT...
is titled “Experimental Subjects: Versuchspersonen in der klinischen Arzneimittelforschung in Deutschland.” (“Experimental Subjects in Clinical Pharmaceutical Research in Germany”). Clinical research involving drugs is dependent on so-called experimental subjects, i.e. persons who are willing to face the double liminal experience between being merely human experimental grounds and personal integrity, between experimental medicine and bodily intactness. My dissertation project aims to shed light on 'the' experimental subject in Germany, on demographic characteristics, motivations and experiences in these outlined areas of tension.

CONTACT: schnieder@uni-mainz.de