European dissertation cultures in medicine

From its origins as preparation for the oral disputation to its later elevation as the decisive written product of doctoral training, the dissertation has mirrored the shifting relationship between theory and practice in medicine. It has carried the promise of professional prestige and higher income, while simultaneously raising doubts about standards, relevance, and scientific rigor. Today these tensions remain, with ongoing debates about plagiarism and authorship. At the same time, the rapid advance of digital technologies is altering the terrain in which such debates unfold. The ongoing process of digitalization not only reshapes healthcare interactions but also transforms how research is conducted and evaluated in daily academic life. Questions of authorship, originality, and data management take on new urgency in an environment where artificial intelligence and digital tools increasingly enter scholarly practice. 

Our Research Group likes to investigate how dissertation cultures have developed and how they differ across national and disciplinary boundaries.

Currently, we have three branches:

1. Doctoral candidates (Dr. med. / Dr. med. dent.), main supervisor Nils Hansson

Laura Klempp: Einhaltung ethischer Richtlinien bei der Vergabe von Co-Autorschaften in medizinischen Dissertationen

Maja Koschel: Trendthemen zahnmedizinischer Dissertationen 1919-1945: Eine sozialhistorische Analyse im Bestand der ZB MED

Ellen Schleicher: Die Dissertationskultur in der Zahnmedizin: Eine Analyse historischer Dissertationen im Zeitraum 1919-1945.

Sophie Lüttmann Ruiz: Modernisierungsschübe in der Gynäkologie und Geburtshilfe im Spiegel von Dr. med.-Dissertationen um die Jahrhundertwende 1900

2. Research Project “Dissify”

Our ongoing research project Indexing, digitization, and research of medical dissertations – legal challenges [Dissify], funded by the DFG, investigates the possibilities and limitations of digitising as many dissertations as possible from the German-speaking world in the 19th and 20th centuries, and analysing them using methods from the digital humanities.

3. Networks

In addition to our project collaboration with ZB Med in Cologne, we are pursuing a collaboration on the topic of dissertation cultures with colleagues from the Baltic Sea region. An initial conference took place in Düsseldorf in September 2025, and in March 2026 we presented our project at the 10th Conference on Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic regions. A first publication has already been released. A collection of selected conference papers is currently in preparation.

European dissertation cultures in medicine. Düsseldorf, 03.09.2025 - 05.09.2025. Conference report by Seywan Bayram: www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/fdkn-157765

Hansson N, Halling T, Ruschemeier H, Albers M: Dissify: Digitizing European doctoral dissertations. Lost in Abundance, Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic 10^th Conference (DHNB 2026), Aarhus, Denmark March 11, 2026.

Moll FH, Tammiksaar E, Padrini G, Halling T, Hansson N.  Eine frühe Dissertation zur Endourologie – Leben und Werk von Georg Adelmann (1811–1888). Urologie 64, 943–953 (2025). 
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00120-025-02653-y

Contact:

Nils Hansson, hansson@hhu.de

Thorsten Halling, thorsten.halling@hhu.de