Profile

Anna Klassen studied philosophy and German language and literature (Bachelor) and the Master's Program "Philosophy of Forms of Knowledge" at the University of Kassel. Her focus for her MA was the philosophy of life sciences within the field of theoretical philosophy. After her graduation in December 2017 she worked as a PhD student at the Institute for Philosophy at the Ruhr-University Bochum in the DFG Research Group "Cooperation and Competition in the Sciences.” In 2019 she moved to the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, together with the project leader Prof. Christina Brandt. Here, she continues her work on the project "Competing for Sovereignty in Cooperative Committees: Bioethical Debates and the Development of a Regulatory Policy for the Life Sciences in Germany in the 1980s."

As part of the Research Program on the History of the Max Planck Society, Anna Klassen is examining the early German safety debate with respect to the social, political, and scientific negotiations concerning the risk assessment of modern life sciences following the Asilomar Conference (1975), at which Peter H. Hofschneider of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry was the only representative of German research organizations. The goal is to present the role of specific actors of the MPG in the relationship between science and politics, to trace lines of conflict, and to analyze strategies for cooperation and consensus.

https://www.en.kooperation-und-konkurrenz.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de/personen/mitarbeiter_innen/anna-klassen/index.html