apl. Prof. Dr. Marita Metz-Becker

Prof. Dr. Marita Metz-Becker is a scientific advisor in the project ‘Midwives in Hesse - Yesterday and Today’ of the Hessische Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung / Hessian State Centre for Political Education in Wiesbaden.
In her research focus ‘Medical Culture‘ she has published various scientific studies, among them the results of a several years‘ research project based on narrative interviews about the everyday life of midwives, now reflected in film productions under the keyword of ‘Birth Cultures’ on the science portal L.I.S.A. of the Gerda Henkel Stiftung / Gerda Henkel Foundation.

Research Focus Medical Culture

Metz-Becker examines the changing meanings of birth and with this the changes in the profession of midwifery.
Is it - as the body historian Babara Duden supposes - that ‘with the thorough medicalization, hospitalization, and technicalization of birth in the second half of the 20th century that, what birth was, has been removed, and this so thoroughly that the historic nature of  ‘birth’ has disappeared from collective memory’ (Duden 1998, 149)?

Research Focus Museology

As chairwoman of the association ‚Marburger Haus der Romantik – Museum für Kulturgeschichte der Romantik‘ / Marburg House of Romanticism – Museum for the Cultural History of Romanticism, Metz-Becker allows students to deal with historic museology/exhibition work/archive work in the context of the collection and preparation of cultural testimonies and their social contexts.

Museums do not only keep and preserve cultural objects but they become cultural constructs. Since they are a product of socially shared convictions, they are also subject to their changes. The manifold levels of museum culture are theoretically reflected and analyzed to be then realized in practical exhibition work.