Federal Cross of Merit for Professor Ulrike Pilarczyk TU Braunschweig educational scientist honoured
A great honour for Professor Ulrike Pilarczyk: the historian of education at the Institute for Educational Sciences at Technische Universität Braunschweig was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on 23 October for her services in general educational science and her dedicated social commitment. The award of the Federal President was presented to Professor Ulrike Pilarczyk by Berlin’s Senator for Science, Dr. Ina Czyborra.
Professor Ulrike Pilarczyk has pursued her academic interests, the development of innovative methods and the promotion of students with great commitment, the citation reads. “In addition, she has rendered outstanding services to the common good far beyond her official duties through numerous activities, such as the promotion and support of student initiatives and projects, including those on the topic of ‘Cosmopolitanism and Transparency’, as well as through her extraordinary commitment to the cultivation of German-Jewish cooperation.”
Professor Katja Koch, Vice-President for Organisational Development and Teacher Training at TU Braunschweig, congratulates her: “Professor Ulrike Pilarczyk is an excellent scientist who has decisively advanced both methodological issues and theory building in the field of general educational science. Ulrike Pilarczyk also takes on socio-political responsibility and collaborates with academics around the world, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. We are delighted that her extraordinary achievements have now been honoured with the Federal Cross of Merit.
Historical educational research
Professor Pilarczyk studied at the University of Leipzig and graduated with a diploma in German and French. After working as a teacher for a number of years, she found her way into academia through a doctoral scholarship. In 1986, she completed her doctorate at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences in Berlin, after which she taught and researched in the History of Education Department until 1991.
In 1994 Ulrike Pilarczyk worked on the DFG project “Umgang mit Indoktrination. Erziehungsintentionen, -formen und -wirkungen in deutschen ‚Erziehungsstaaten‘“ (Dealing with Indoctrination. Educational Intentions, Forms and Effects in German ‘Educational States’) at the Humboldt University in Berlin. It was during this time that she and Ulrike Mietzner developed the methodological standards for serial iconographic photo analysis – now a standard work. Ulrike Pilarczyk has been working at TU Braunschweig in the Department of General Education at the Institute for Educational Sciences since 2009 and has been an associate professor since 2012. Her research focuses on image-analytical research methods in educational and social sciences, historical educational research and the Jewish youth movement in the 20th century.
Research Award of the German Society for Educational Science
She opened up the research field of German-Jewish educational history – for example in the DFG project “Nationaljüdische Jugendkultur und zionistische Erziehung in Deutschland und Palästina zwischen den Weltkriegen“ (National Jewish Youth Culture and Zionist Education in Germany and Palestine between the World Wars) in cooperation with the Richard Koebner Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. Her achievements in the field of research in visual studies as well as her many years of research on the history of the Jewish youth movement in Germany and in Palestine/Israel were recognised in 2020 with the prestigious research award of the German Educational Research Association (GERA).
Further information:
Interview with Professor Ulrike Pilarczyk on being awarded the Research Prize of the German Educational Research Association (GERA) (1 April 2020):
https://magazin.tu-braunschweig.de/m-post/eine-bildwissenschaftliche-bildungshistorikerin/