Dr. Verena Lehmbrock

I am a historian of science with a focus on the human sciences, particularly the cultural history of (agricultural) economics and psychology. My research explores the co-evolution of knowledge, economy, and subjectivity from the early modern period to the long 1970s, with a particular interest in how meaning and social structures are mediated through expert practices. Methodologically, I draw on historical epistemology, analyzing conceptual change in everyday and institutional contexts. My latest project examined psychological leadership training under socialism with a focus on East Germany and in transnational context, funded by the German Research Council (DFG). I co-founded the Forum for the History of the Human Sciences (GWMT) and serve on the review committee of Cheiron and the board of the German Rural History Society. Since 2024, I am a participant in the DFG research network “The transnational history of attachment theory in post-war Europe: an interdisciplinary study of agents, discourses, and practices.”

Research Interests:

• History of Knowledge and Science in the Late Enlightenment and the Cold War: Transformations of Knowledge Practices, Concepts of Science, and Societal Ideals between 1750 and 1990
• Transnational History of Psychology and Social Psychology
• Psychological Practices and Governance in Political Systems
• Agricultural Knowledge around 1800: Enlightenment, Agriculture, and Societal Transformation
• The Interaction of Subjectivity and Social Change
• Historical Epistemology and the Application of Qualitative Social Research Methods in Historical Scholarship

• 2006 - M.A. Philosophy and Modern History (Humboldt–Universität zu Berlin)

• 2016 - Dr. phil. History of Science (Technische Universität Berlin/ Dissertation on Agricultural Improvement and Science in the German Agricultural Enlightenment/ Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Friedrich Steinle, Prof. Dr. Marcus Popplow, Prof. Dr. Stefan Brakensiek)

• 2025 - B.Sc. Psychologie (Fernuniversität Hagen/ thesis on the relationship between parenting and views on war and violence in Germany.)

Positions and fellowships:

• 2021–2025 - Research Associate (DFG Own Position)/ University of Erfurt, Faculty of Philosophy/ Chair of History of Science/ Project: The Social Psychological Leadership Training in the GDR as a Transnational Technology of the Self, 1960s–1990s.

• 2024–2025 - Acting Professor (Lehrvertretung) of the History of Psychology/ University of Lübeck/ Institute for Medical History and History of Science IGWMF

• 2022 - Visiting researcher/ York University, Department for Psychology/ Program Historical, Theoretical and Critical Studies of Psychology (6 Monate)/ Toronto, CA

• 2022 - Visiting Researcher/ University of Toronto, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology IHPST (10 Monate)/ Toronto, CA

• 2020-2022 - Research Fellowships at the German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C. (2 months); Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow (2 months); Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS), Amsterdam (3 months).

• 2016-2017 - Research and Teaching Assistant, Technical University of Berlin, Faculty I – Humanities, Institute for Philosophy, History of Literature, Science, and Technology.

Books:

• Varieties of Psychologization in Communist Europe, Ed. Verena Lehmbrock and Martin Wieser, New Histories of Psychology, Oxford University Press (forthcoming)
• Der denkende Landwirt. Agrarwissen und Aufklärung in Deutschland 1750–1820 (Norm und Struktur 50). Köln/Weimar/Wien: Böhlau 2020.

Recent Articles:

• Elevated to the ranks of a science: Manual labor and Albert Thaer’s doctrine of rational agriculture. Science in Context (2025): 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269889725000493
• From Intellectual Imperialism to Open System: Reassessing the 'Americanization' of Social Psychology through Festinger's Frustration with the SSRC's project on Transnational Social Psychology*, History of Psychology (2025, early view), doi.org/10.1037/ hop0000274.
• Paying attention to each other. An essay on the transnational intersections of industrial economy, subjectivity, and governance in East Germany’s social psychological training, Journal for the history of the behavioral sciences 59 (2023), 283–300, doi.org/ 10.1002/jhbs.22212.
• Eine Intervention zur Befähigung des sozialistischen Leiters. Funktion und Bedeutung des sozial­psychologischen Trainings in der DDR, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 48 (2023): 247– 271.
• Early modern echo chambers. Material improvement, social inequality, and the restricted circulation of knowledge in 19th Century Bavaria, Journal for the History of Knowledge 3 (2022), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.55283/jhk.11356.

Miscellaneous:

• Rezension: Solovey, Mark und Christian Dayé (Hrsg.). Cold War social science: Transnational entanglements, Palgrave Macmillan: 2021, Centaurus (2025, im Druck).
• Arbeitstagebücherprojekt: Wie entsteht eine geisteswissenschaftliche Tatsache? Interview mit Dr. Verena Lehmbrock über das Veröffentlichen von Arbeitstagebüchern, L.I.S.A. das Wissenschafts­portal der Gisela Henkel-Stiftung, 2023.
• Common and not so Common Serendipities of Research, Journal for the History of Knowledge Blog, 2022.

Recent Talks:

• 07/2025 - Book presentation: Varieties of Psychologization in Communist Europe, together with Martin Wieser and Mike Pettit, Panel: New Histories of Psychology, OUP book series/ Three Societies Meeting/ The American University of Paris, July 1-5/ Paris.

• 07/2025 - Conference talk: Attachment, Family, and Care: Evolving Discourses in East and West Germany since 1945, with Viola Balz/ Three Societies Meeting/ The American University of Paris, July 1-5/ Paris

• 05/2025 - Invited Talk: How competition feels: The Cold War Politics of Emotion in East-West Scientific Collaboration/ Professur für Wissensgeschichte moderner Gesellschaften/ Helmut-Schmidt-Universität Hamburg

• 06/2024 - Lecture: Psychologie und politische Systeme/ Institut für Medizingeschichte und Wissenschaftsforschung/ Ringvorlesung Modul Geschichte, Theorie, Ethik und Recht der Psychologie und Psychotherapie/ Universität zu Lübeck

• 10/2024 - Workshop talk: Psychologisierung, Therapeutisierung und Psycho-Boom in Osteurope nach 1945/ Workshop “Psychologisierung, Therapeutisierung, Psychoboom – Formen des Psycho-Wissens nach 1945”/ Institut für Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin, Berlin.

• 06/2023 - Conference talk: From intellectual imperialism to open system: Leon Festinger’s frustrations with the SSRC project on transnational social psychology/ 55th Annual meeting of Cheiron/ Fordham University, NYC

• 04/2023 - Conference talk: Untangling the Histories of Economy and Science: The Personae of Agricultural Improvement/ European Social Science History Conference/ Gothenburg

• 02/2023 - Discussant: Panel discussion Why early modern history? A critical review of the status quo (“Wozu Frühneuzeitgeschichte? Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme zu Ehren Prof. Dr. Stefan Brakensiek)/ University Duisburg-Essen/ Germany

Conference organisation:

• 06/2023 - Internationale Konferenz: 55th Annual Meeting of Cheiron – The International Society for the History of Behavioral and Social Sciences/ co-program chair mit Ian Davidson/Fordham University, NYC.

• 06/2022 - Internationaler Workshop: Psychology in Communist Europe: Expertise and Governance/ Konzept, Drittmittel, Planung, Durchführung mit Martin Wieser/ Universität Erfurt

• 03/2022 - Workshop: History of Psychology and the Sciences of the Human Mind/ Kooperation Forum Geschichte und Theorie der Humanwissenschaften, Erfurter Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschafts¬geschichte/ Konzept Planung, Durchführung mit Laurens Schlicht/ online