We would like to introduce our Fellow ELBOW research members – or FELBOWs – to our blog readers.

In the previous two blog posts, our project leader Soile Ylivuori and our researcher Annika Raapke introduced themselves. Next in line is our university researcher Stefan Schröder – who is he? Continue reading the interview and you will know!

Who are you?

Hi, I am Stefan, originally from Germany but now living in Helsinki for some years. I am a cultural historian specialized in cultural encounters, identity building processes, images of Otherness, uses of the past, the history of the body and the history of cartography. I have done this by examining travel reports, historiographical writings, maps and further sources, and now will expand my knowledge in medical history.

How did you get interested in history in the first place?

Well, probably my interest in history has been already shaped during my childhood by playing a lot with Playmobil – especially with building the knights’ castle over and over again. I have also read a lot of popular history books and novels playing out in historic settings in my youth. So, when thinking of what I wanted to study at the university, I gave history (and political sciences) a chance, even when not really having a clue for what kind of job I would qualify for after my studies.

What is your research topic in this project?

Currently, I analyze early source material on medical electricity from German-speaking regions (treatises, letters, references in journals) with the aim to learn more about the beginnings of the discourse on if, how and for what purposes the electrification of humans can/should be used.

I am interested in how supporters of the new phenomena argued in favor of the great possibilities of medical electricity and how tried to give their texts credibility. At the same time, I hope to find also something about how other authors were more cautious and sometimes critical. I try to interpret theses statements before the background of broader medical-theological discussions in the 18^th century: how processes within nature can be investigated, explained and how newly derived information can be integrated in knowledge-systems or have contributed to change worldviews. The role of experiences and empirical methods are important here as well.

What is the best part of being a historian or a researcher?

To read both literature and sources in order to learn more about how people in the past explained the world around them, of how they tried to make sense of their reality. It is fascinating again and again to get a glimpse of how people acted in the past and what they wanted to transmit to future generations.

What is the weirdest thing you have come up with in an archive?

Nothing weird, really. Frustration on the one hand when sitting in front of material that is too difficult to read, fascination on the other when dealing with century-old sources.

I still remember of how excited I was to access the autograph of a pilgrimage report from the late 15^th century. I wondered how much work the writer put into the work to produce a most exhausting text of his journey – three thick parchment manuscripts written with a quill needs a lot of time (the print edition has more than 1500 pages).

I realized that he not only changed/corrected sentences or whole paragraphs for erasing mistakes, but also frequently added new material that he found at a later point of time by using nearly every little space left in the margins of the manuscript. I learned that he had meticulously redacted and adjusted parts of his travelogue – a detail that the 19^th century editor of the report did not mark.

How would you describe ELBOW project in one sentence?

Wonderful team, fascinating topic!