Institute for Ethics, History and Philosophy of Medicine

OE 5450

Hannover Medical School
Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1
D-30625 Hannover
Phone: +49 511-532-4278

E-mail: steinbach.xenia@mh-hannover.de

Xenia Steinbach is a historian of knowledge and science with a background in sociology of science and biology. Since April 2024, she has been working on the sub-project "Bringing Gender into Science - and Back! Historical and Ethnographic Perspectives on Sex Development Research" of the Collaborative Research Center "Sexdiversity - Determinants, Meanings and Implications of Sex Diversity in Socio-Cultural, Medical and Biological Landscapes" (SFB 1665) at the Institute of History, Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine at Hannover Medical School. She studied biology and anthropology at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg i. Br. and the University of Vienna and was initially a research assistant in the Department of Biological and Differential Psychology at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg i. Br. She then researched and taught at the Chair of Sociology of Science at the Technical University of Munich and completed her doctorate in the History of Science and Technology at the Technical University of Braunschweig, where she was a lecturer at the Institute of History. Her dissertation was published by transcript Verlag under the title: "Hormones and Psyche: A History of Knowledge and Science of Psychoendocrine Ideas" and was awarded the Max Dessoir Prize 2023 for outstanding work on the history of psychology and the Dissertation Prize of the Prof. Rudolf Schmitz Study Foundation 2023. Her research interests lie in the history of endocrinology, medicine and psychology as well as the sociology of science and gender studies.

Publications

• Steinbach, Xenia (2026). Zur Entstehung und Entwicklung psychoendokriner Tatsachen. Erkenntnistheoretische Überlegungen mit Ludwik Fleck. [On the emergence and development of psychoendocrine facts. Epistemological considerations with Ludwik Fleck] In: Lessau, Mathis and Hans-Christian Riechers (eds.): Überzeugungskräfte - Über das Vertrauen in Wissenschaft (und Pseudowissenschaft). Leiden, Boston: Brill, 128-148.
• Steinbach, Xenia (2023): Hormone und Psyche – Eine Wissens- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte psychoendokriner Vorstellungen, 1900-1950 [Hormones and the psyche - A history of knowledge and science of psychoendocrine ideas, 1900-1950]. Bielefeld: transcript.
• Steinbach, Xenia & Maasen, Sabine (2018). Oxytocin: Vom Geburts- zum Sozialhormon. Zur hormonellen Regulation von Soziabilität aka Gesellschaft [Oxytocin: From birth hormone to social hormone. On the hormonal regulation of sociability aka society]. NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technologie und Medizin, 26(1), 1-30.