Barbara Macek

Barbara Macek (born in Bruck/Mur, Austria) studied psychology in Vienna with focus on psychopoetology. As an author she published short stories and poems in Austrian, German and Swiss literary magazines and anthologies. In 2006 her novel “sehen & nicht sehen” was published by the Viennese publisher Czernin. She received several state grants for her literary projects, most recently a scholarship for literature 2017.

In July 2017 she was a contributor at the conference “Produktive Äquivalenz” in Berlin and gave a talk about metaphors in medicine. From 2017 to 2018 she worked as a tutor at the Medical University of Vienna within a transdisciplinary project to develop new ways of anamnesis.

In September 2018 her Art & Science-project on pain:  Between Agony and Ecstasy – Investigations into the Meaning of Pain was published in the Journal for Artistic Research (JAR). 
 

In November 2018 she received the Award of Excellence of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research for her Master’s thesis “Lycanthropus erythematosus”.

In March 2019 the Prize for Excellent Research Catalogue Exposition 2018 was awarded to Barbara in the scope of the 10th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste for her work “Between Agony and Ecstasy - Investigations into the Meaning of Pain”.

Link to Pain Project
https://www.dieangewandte.at/aktuell/news/news_detail?news_id=1552993685489
 

In August 2021 she received a two-year DOC Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) for her doctoral project: “Autoimmunity and Anthropological Difference”. Within this Art & Science-project at the intersection of medicine, mythology, philosophy and poetry she explores the cause and meaning of autoimmunity.

In December 2023 Barbara defended her dissertation “Autoimmunität und anthropologische Differenz” (Autoimmunity and Anthropological Difference) with honors! Congratulations!

www.transpoetry.net

Link to Barbara’s Portrait on MASTERS PORTRAITS. March 2025