Award-winning dissertations

On 17 April, the Bielefeld University Society (UGBi) awarded prizes for the best doctoral theses at Bielefeld University. Two BGHS alumni were among the winners.

Julia Engelschalt (© Daniele Toro)

In her historical doctoral thesis entitled "The Great Obsession: Tropicality in U.S.-American Colonial Medicine and Domestic Public Health, 1898-1924", Julia Engelschalt analysed how climate determinism and scientific racism combined to form the idea of the 'tropics' in medical thinking in the USA in the early 20th century. In her habilitation project, which Julia is working on at TU Darmstadt, she is focussing on the connection between hunger, the grain economy and supply infrastructures in the Mediterranean region between 1770 and 1920.

Aziz Mensah (© Art Studio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Aziz Mensah's sociological doctoral thesis is also about health. In his work with the title "Work- and life-related social determinants of health and health differences among workers across Europe", he showed that work-related and life-related social factors have an effect on the health of workers and that this effect differs between men and women and in different European countries. Aziz now holds a postdoctoral position at the University of Mälardalen in Sweden, where he is studying the harmful use of alcohol by workers in gender-segregated industries.

Congratulations from the BGHS!