Felix Rietmann

Felix Rietmann is a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Fribourg, affiliated with the Department of History. His research focuses on the history of childhood, visual culture, and the intersection of science and film. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Fribourg (2018), advised by Katja Guenther and Keith A. Wailoo, with a dissertation titled *Seeing the Infant: Audiovisual Technologies and the Mind Sciences of the Child*. His work examines the cultural and scientific narratives surrounding child development, mental health, and medical imaging.

Rietmann’s research interests include art history, film studies, historical epistemology, and the history of medicine. He investigates how visual and audiovisual technologies have shaped perceptions of childhood and mental health, particularly in psychoanalytic and psychiatric contexts. His publications analyze topics such as the ‘refrigerator mother’ myth, infant mental health assessment techniques, and the historical development of pediatric psychiatry.

Recent contributions explore the cultural history of child health in the 19th century and the role of periodicals in shaping popular understandings of parenting. He also engages with interdisciplinary debates on materiality and knowledge production in the sciences. Rietmann’s scholarship bridges history, philosophy, and visual studies, offering critical perspectives on how scientific and cultural practices construct notions of childhood and human development.