Sophie Küsterling is a doctoral researcher in the research group Inclusion and Exclusion in European Societies of the 20th Century, headed by Prof. Dr. Christina Späti.
Since 2022, Sophie Küsterling has been employed as a research and teaching assistant of Prof. Dr. Christina Späti at UniDistance Suisse. Since 2023, she has also been assisting Prof. Dr. Patrick Kury with the bachelor's module "Historiography". She studied Political Science and History at the University of Lucerne. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Lucerne, focusing on the repatriation and expulsion of mentally ill Germans from the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Zurich between 1914 and 1945.
Her research interests include eugenics and social Darwinism, Nazi "euthanasia," as well as Swiss migration and population policies in the 20th century. In collaboration with Prof. Dr. Christina Späti, she is also conducting research on racial anthropology in Switzerland before 1900.
"Zudem sei die Sterilisation Anormaler nicht das [D]ümmste, was im [D]ritten Reich gemacht werde." Reaktion der Schweizer Behörden und Diplomatie auf die Zwangssterlisiation von Schweizer:innen in NS-Deutschland, in: Medizin, Gesellschaft und Geschichte (43), 2025, S. 79-111.
Faculty of History
Herbstsemester 2022: «Pionierhaft oder nachahmend? Eugenik und Sozialdarwinismus in der Schweiz und Deutschland bis 1945» (Proseminar), Universität Luzern.
