Lara Keuck

Lara Keuck is a Professor of History and Philosophy of Medicine at Bielefeld University and previously led the Max Planck Research Group Practices of Validation in the Biomedical Sciences (2021–2024) at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin. She holds a German-French PhD in History, Philosophy, and Ethics of Medicine from the University of Mainz and École normale supérieure in Paris, and a Diploma in Molecular Biomedicine from Bonn University.

• Education: Diploma in Molecular Biomedicine (2008, Bonn University); PhD in History, Philosophy, and Ethics of Medicine (2012, German-French program at Mainz/ENS Paris)

Her research focuses on the epistemology of medical classification systems, validation practices in biomedicine, and the historical framing of mental illness. She has explored Alzheimer’s disease through projects like Learning from Alzheimer’s Disease: A History of Biomedical Models of Mental Illness (2015–2021) at Humboldt University Berlin. Her work bridges medicine, philosophy, and history, emphasizing meta-methodological questions.

Scientific Awards:

• 2012 Prize for Philosophy in Psychiatry (DGPPN)
• Branco Weiss Fellowship (2015)
• Elected to Die Junge Akademie (2020)

Lara has lectured across disciplines and collaborated with scientists on themes like the role of history in biomedicine. She co-organized events including the Commoning Biomedicine Public Launch Event (2023) and symposia on diagnostic vagueness and chronic disease epistemology. Her recent publications analyze validity in psychiatric research, Alzheimer’s models, and interdisciplinary validation practices.