Elisabeth Brandt
Autor & Journalist
"Science is not only a disciple of reason but, also, one of romance and passion".
Stephen Hawkins
Elisabeth
Yes, the image of life as a journey is old-fashioned and fussy, yet it is a fitting label for Elisabeth Brandt's vita. Fate took her to different cities, countries and continents. Consequently, she can anchor key stages of her personal narrative to diverse places all over the world, while each town enriched her personality. Geography has thus coined her biography. Elisabeth was born in Cologne in 1965 and soon after her family moved for a few years to Argentina where she lived with her parents and two sisters in Buenos Aires, a famous stronghold of book lovers. No other town has as many and as grand bookstores as Argentina's melancholic capital. Bookstores serve as social hubs, librarians are revered as literary mentors and leaving through books is considered a sensual experience. No wonder, she contracted the reading bug as soon as she started school. After some years her family returned to Germany and lived in Munich, Bavaria’s vibrant and green metropolis. After graduating she began her professional life as a veterinary assistant before continuing her education to study biology.
"" Elisabeth Brandt can anchor key stages of her personal narrative to diverse places all over the world, in turn each town enriched her personality "
Shortly after finishing her thesis she moved with her own young family to dreamy--spired Oxford. During the following three years she fell under the spell of this ancient scholastic town whose beautiful colleges, winding lanes, secret alleys and absurd idiosyncrasies fuel scientific and artistic creativity alike. Therefore this very special place gifted her with a new perspective on academic tradition, the beauty of science and the importance of a good story. After returning yet again to Munich, she focused on her family, attending only occasionally conventions and doing further training. She also volunteered to teach German to refugees besides supporting her four children in their school careers. Mediating complex information in a digestible form turned out to be fun, hence she completed another degree, this time as a scientific journalist. Her ambition as a scientist and as a writer is to further natures cause by conveying biological facts in an engaging and accessible way.
milestones
1990 to 1997
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Study of biology at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-University in Munich. In-depth study of anthropology, ecology, biochemistry and zoology/neurobiology
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1998 to 2002
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Doctorate in the field of historical environmental research at the department for human biology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universtität in Munich
2002 to 2018
Family time and stay in Oxford/GB
Successful participation in the course 'Evolution of Human Behaviour' at the University of Oxford
2019 to 2021
Online-course of journalism at the Freie Journalistenschule
First Practical experiences (see article and blog)
Book: Pestilence- our long way with the epidemics
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book
Released December 2022
Publisher: Novum Verlag
ISBN 978-3-99131-740-1
also available as an e-book
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A
Pestilenz
unser langer Weg mit den Seuchen
Plagues are more than a medical catastrophe, that's what my book is about. It is a chronicle of the most devastating pandemics in human history, in which I deal not only with the medical but also with the evolutionary, social and ecological dimensions of mass diseases since the Stone Age. What has changed since the biblical plagues and medieval Black Death? What measures have proven effective in the fight against epidemics to date? In order to convey a little zeitgeist, I weave autobiographies and examples from painting, music and literature into my story. With this I want to illustrate how our perception of epidemics has changed, especially in industrialized, affluent societies. We now realize that our history is not only determined by culture, technology and outstanding personalities. As in primeval times, environmental influences have a decisive influence on the fate of peoples and states in the Anthropocene. Therefore, even after the corona pandemic, historians will deal intensively with infectious diseases as a particularly drastic environmental factor. However, the current pandemic has made us all very aware of the extent to which nature, business, politics, technology and our behavior are interconnected. It is no coincidence that systems research has become the new fad. So my book is not just about looking into the past, but I want to make visible recurring patterns in our long co-existence with infectious diseases. Even in our global, scientific age, we cannot escape inherited interactions with epidemics, which I demonstrate with numerous current examples. Only the general conditions have changed, including our ability to protect ourselves from infections and their consequences. On the other hand, in our networked world and through the overexploitation of nature, we open the door to pathogens. Nations with good medical care have forgotten how to deal with the primal danger of epidemics. It is time to rethink, also because we need a globally coordinated health policy if we want to successfully control the new, old danger of epidemics.
work in progress
Collaboration with
Natalie Beisswanger(denhamlily.com)
Terra Incognita
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Take an Australian and an European, one a dedicated artist, the other a scientists, both united by their passion for nature. Mix their diverging perspectives and you have the recipe for our book. It should please the eye and offer rich fare to the mind. The artist Natalie Beisswanger lovingly illustrates plants and animals from her Australian homeland. I frame her illustrations by creating profiles enriched with facts about ecology and behaviour of each species. As an extra I weave some historical and cultural context into my narrative. In the tradition of natural history tomes, we want to convey not just gray facts but also some of the magic and beauty of Australia's flora and fauna. This book targets expressly an audience without previous biological investment and wants to do away with preconceptions about Australias supposedly unfriendly and impoverished environment. Our vivid portraits will hopefully arouse curiosity about Australia's biome, which is starkly different from European ecosystems. For our readers with a background in biology and ecology, this book provides up-to-date information and detailed accounts of animals and plants that are little known, even in Australia. In a nutshell: we want to create a non-fiction picture book that informs and inspires our readers. As a bilingual team we aim to publish our book in English and German.