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DPhil Katharina Lenski is a historian, sociologist and pedagogue. She works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Graduate College on ‘Asociality’. In 2016 she researched at the Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena on exclusion in state socialism with a transnational perspective. In the latter field she investigates stereotypes and social practices from the early 20th century to the present day.

In 2015 she finished her doctoral thesis about Secret Spaces of Communication: The Staatssicherheit at the Jena University. From 2015 to 2016 she drafted the successful application for the Graduate School “The GDR and the European Dictatorships after 1945”. She has initiated and realised many research projects on topics such as GDR history, state-socialist (secret) bureaucracies, history of education and university, youth and cultures, urban history and on the church after 1945.

Since 1991 she built up one of the most important GDR dissident archives, the Thuringian Archives of Contemporary History “Matthias Domaschk” in Jena, which she managed until 2011. In the GDR she studied medicine and was politically exmatriculated due to her dissident voice. From 1987 to 1989 she worked in the Berlin opposition groups. With her rehabilitation in 2001 it was re-possible to her to study history, sociology and pedagogics.

Recent Publications

Katharina Lenski, Geheime Kommunikationsräume? Die Staatssicherheit an der Friedrich-Schiller- Universität Jena, Frankfurt am Main/New York 2017, . [Secret Communication Spaces? State Security at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Frankfurt/New York 2017.]

Katharina Lenski, Zwischen Diktat und Diskurs. Oppositionelle Handlungsräume in Gera in den 80er Jahren, Erfurt 2006, mit Reiner Merker.[Between Dictate and Discourse. Oppositional Action Spaces in Gera in the 80s, Erfurt 2006.]

Katharina Lenski, „Asozialität“ in der DDR. Re-Konstruktion und Nachwirkung eines Ausgrenzungsbegriffs, in Enrico Heitzer u. a. (Hg.), Nach Auschwitz. Schwieriges Erbe DDR. Plädoyer für einen Paradigmenwechsel in der DDR-Zeitgeschichtsforschung, Schwalbach/Ts. 2018. [„Anti-sociality” in the GDR. Re-Construction and Aftermath of an Exclusion Concept, in Enrico Heitzer a. o. (Ed.): Auschwitz Afterwards. Difficult Legacy GDR: For a Paradigm Shift in East German Contemporary History Research, Schwalbach/Ts. 2018.]

Katharina Lenski, Post-War-Raum DDR. Pädagogische Forschungspraxis im Spiegel verdrängter Erfahrung, in: Jahrbuch für Historische Bildungsforschung (2018). [Post-War-Space GDR. Educational Research Practice as a Mirror of Repressed Experience, in: Yearbook of Historical Education Research (2018).

Katharina Lenski, Sozialistisches Menschenbild und Individualität. Die „Offene Arbeit“ – ein Ort der Freiheit? Entstehung, Konzepte und soziale Praxis alternativer Jugendkultur im Staatssozialismus (1961-1989), in: Deutschland Archiv, 15.3.2017, Link: www.bpb.de/242954. [Socialist Image of People and Individuality. “Open Work” as a Place of Freedom? Emergence, Concepts and Social Practice of Alternative Youth Culture in State Socialism (1961-1989), in: Deutschland Archiv 15.3.2017, Link: www.bpb.de/242954.]

Katharina Lenski, Im Schweigekreis. Der Tod von Matthias Domaschk zwischen strafrechtlicher Aufarbeitung und offenen Fragen, in: Jörg Ganzenmüller (Hg.), Recht und Gerechtigkeit. Die strafrechtliche Aufarbeitung von Diktaturen in Europa, Köln/Weimar/Wien 2017, S. 131-169. [Inside the Circle of Silence. The Death of Matthias Domaschk between Criminal Proceedings and Outstanding Issues, in: Jörg Ganzenmüller (Ed.), Law and justice. The Judicial Reprocessing of dictatorships in Europe, Cologne/Weimar/Vienna 2017, pp. 131-169.]

Katharina Lenski, 2016, University and Secret Police in East Germany and the Republic of Poland between the Berlin Wall and Fall of the Wall. Questions on Integration and Comparison. The Example of the University of Jena, in: Sebastiana Ligarskiego, Krzysztofa Ruchniewicza, Dariusza Wojtaszyna (Ed.): Ideologiczna współpraca. Władze wobec środowisk opiniotwórczych w PRL i NRD, Wrocław 2016, S. 110-126.]

Katharina Lenski, Der zerbrochene Spiegel. Methodische Überlegungen zum Umgang mit Stasi-Akten, in: Joachim von Puttkamer/Stefan Sienerth/Ulrich A. Wien (Hg.), Die Securitate in Siebenbürgen, Köln/Weimar/Wien 2014, S. 116-136. [The Broken Mirror. Methodical Reflections for Dealing with Stasi Files, in Joachim von Puttkamer/Stefan Sienerth/Ulrich A. Wien (Ed.), The Securitate in Transylvania, Cologne/Weimar/Vienna, pp. 116-136.

Katharina Lenski, Die Hauptamtlichen der Stasi. Schattenriss einer Parallelgesellschaft, in: Lutz Niethammer/Roger Engelmann (Hg.), Bühne der Dissidenz – Dramaturgie der Repression: ein Kulturkonflikt in der späten DDR, Göttingen 2014, S. 237-318, unter Mitarbeit von Agnès Arp. [The Officers of the Stasi. Silhouette of a Parallel Society, in: Lutz Niethammer/Roger Engelmann (Ed.), Stage of Dissidence – Dramaturgy of Repression: a Cultural Conflict in the Late GDR, Göttingen 2014, pp. 237-318.]

Katharina Lenski, Vom bedrohten Gedächtnis zum lebendigen Kulturspeicher. Die Entstehung, Überlieferung und Bedeutung privater Sammlungen im ThürAZ“, in: Reiner Merker (Hg.), Archiv, Forschung, Bildung. Fünfzehn Jahre Thüringer Archiv für Zeitgeschichte „Matthias Domaschk“, Berlin 2009, S. 27-38. [From Threatened Memory to Living Cultural Reservoir. Genesis, Tradition and Significance of Private Collections in the Thuringian Archive for Contemporary History „Matthias Domaschk“, in: Reiner Merker (Ed.), Archive, Research, Education. 15 Years Thuringian Archive for Contemporary History „Matthias Domaschk“, Berlin 2009, pp. 27-38.]

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Eastern Europe, Germany, Western Europe

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Modern, 20th century, 21st century

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Children & Youth, Emancipation, Gender, Holocaust & Nazi Persecution, Human Rights, Libraries & Archives, Local & Regional, Medicine, Military, Pedagogy, Science, Urban History, Women, World War II