New professor at the Institut of History: Kevin Liggieri

Since autumn 2022, the 36-year-old has been leading the Emmy Noether Research Group "Co-constructions of Learning and Technology. About the Change of 'Learning Subjects' in the 20th Century " and is researching the exciting interaction between learning and technology. Professor Liggieri 's previous professional positions were at the ETH Zurich as a DFG research fellow and Ruhr-Universität Bochum as a doctoral student.

We introduce Professor Liggieri in a short interview.

Why should students be interested in your topics? What is exciting about your topics?

Exciting and important in the history-of-science topics of my research and teaching is that you can investigate the origins and spread of current developments in, for example, machine learning, intelligence tests, “thinking”, but also profane things like multiple-choice tests. The historical material offers the opportunity to look behind the experiments and machines and thereby understand experimental systems in a new and different way. This access changes our current view on the history of knowledge and science.

The TU Darmstadt puts great emphasis on interdisciplinarity. Where in your field of work are overlaps with other disciplines?

Through my research on interaction of learning and technology, I see strong interdisciplinarity with psychology, pedagogy, and of course also with computer science. All three fields helped shape our current concept of learning within the 20th century.

The best compensation to a stressful day at work is …

My family and friends.