Personal profile
Short presentation
I am the PI of the Swedish Research Council Secrets to Patents: Trans-Imperial Strategies for Keeping Medicines as Private Assets from 1500 to 1900 at Lund University and the Research Leader of the HEALTH & SCIENCE theme at the Centre for Privacy Studies, University of Copenhagen. I am currently researching the interplay between health and privacy in the early modern period and the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Beyond medical discourse on privacy, I focus on how popular healing knowledge survived in the private sphere despite the efforts to suppress these practices, paying particular attention to the relationship between popular healing and “official” medical knowledge, witch trials, the legal framing of healing practices, and colonial encounters. I am particularly interested in how health is framed in trans-continental and trans-imperial contexts of healing knowledge transmission and the cross-connections between health, death, superstition, secrecy, and privacy.
Education/Academic qualification
History, PhD, Rituals, Migrations, and Texts: German Charms in a Transcontinental Perspective, Free University of Berlin
25 Sept 2013 → 20 Feb 2017
Award Date: 20 Feb 2017
Religious Studies, MA, German Brauchbücher in Southern Brazil: A Case Study, University of Erfurt
10 Oct 2011 → 11 Mar 2013
Award Date: 11 Mar 2013
History, BA, Cadernos do Tio Artur: Registros Manuscritos da Magia, Federal University of Santa Maria
1 Mar 2005 → 5 Jan 2010
Award Date: 5 Jan 2010
External positions
Organizer at Contecte Humanidades Digitais UFSM, Federal University of Santa Maria
1 Sept 2024 → …
Research output
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Personal Gift-Giving: Attempts at Intimacy in Anna of Saxony's Letter Exchanges
Klein Kafer, N., 2025, Notions of Privacy in Early Modern Correspondence. Green, M. & Nørgaard, L. C. (eds.). Brepols Publishers, p. 173-189 17 p. (Early European Research, Vol. 22).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Downloads (Pure) -
Private Birth, Public Authority: Topic Changes from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century in German Midwifery Books
Klein Kafer, N., 2025, In: Current Research in Digital History. 8Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Open Access -
Artificial Intelligence and Privacy: Causes for Concern
Jurewicz, M., Klein Kafer, N. & Kran, E., 2024, In: Privacy Studies Journal. 3, 2024, p. 1-32 32 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile20 Downloads (Pure) -
Contingent Privacies: Knowledge Production and Gender Expectations from 1500 to 1800
Klein Kafer, N., 2024, Women's Private Practices of Knowledge Production in Early Modern Europe. Kafer, N. K. & , N. D. S. P. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, p. 129-137 9 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile24 Downloads (Pure) -
Dynamics of Privacy at Sea: An Introduction to Privacy Studies in Maritime History
Klein Kafer, N., 2024, Privacy at Sea: Practices, Spaces, and Communication in Maritime History. Käfer, N. K. (ed.). Palgrave Macmillan, p. 1-17 17 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile27 Downloads (Pure) -
Ethics of Interdisciplinary Research Across Multiple Ranges of Proximity
Klein Kafer, N., Klakk, E. & Bruun, M. B., 2024, In: Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies. 42, 1-2, p. 195-222Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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Excising Superstition from Knowledge: August of Saxony’s Book of Healing Charms
Klein Kafer, N., 2024, In: KNOW: A Journal on the Formation of Knowledge. 8, 1-2, p. 103-130 28 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
Language, Settings, and Networks of Early Modern Private Conversations
Ljungberg, J. & Klein Kafer, N., 2024, Tracing Private Conversations in Early Modern Europe: Talking in Everyday Life.. Palgrave Macmillan, p. 3-30 28 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile28 Downloads (Pure)
Activities
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Global History Seminar
Klein Kafer, N. (Organizer) & Broughton, O. (Invited speaker)
9 Dec 2025Activity: Participating in an event - types › Organisation of and participation in conference
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Global History Seminar
Klein Kafer, N. (Organizer) & Williams , M. (Invited speaker)
8 Dec 2025Activity: Participating in an event - types › Organisation of and participation in conference
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Global History Seminar
Klein Kafer, N. (Organizer) & Poulsen, F. E. (Invited speaker)
24 Nov 2025Activity: Participating in an event - types › Organisation of and participation in conference
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Global History Seminar
Klein Kafer, N. (Organizer) & Fricke, F. J. (Invited speaker)
18 Nov 2025Activity: Participating in an event - types › Organisation of and participation in conference
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Anacronismo Controlado: Como usar conceitos contemporâneos em estudos históricos
Klein Kafer, N. (Other)
5 Nov 2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Transdiciplinary Methodologies for the Study of History
Klein Kafer, N. (Organizer) & Tomazi, T. G. (Organizer)
5 Nov 2025Activity: Participating in an event - types › Organisation of and participation in conference
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Inteligência artificial no mundo acadêmico: transformações em pesquisa, produção e ensino
Klein Kafer, N. (Other)
3 Nov 2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Global History Seminar
Klein Kafer, N. (Organizer) & Benison, L. P. (Invited speaker)
14 Oct 2025Activity: Participating in an event - types › Organisation of and participation in conference
Press/Media
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Palestra de abertura da 40ª JAI aborda o uso da inteligência artificial na academia
03/11/2025
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Press / Media
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Natacha Klein Käfer: Health and privacy from a historical perspective
27/09/2024
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Press / Media
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Natacha Klein Kafer, egressa do curso de História, conta sobre como é fazer Pós-Doutorado na Universidade de Copenhague e compartilha sua trajetória na pesquisa.
14/07/2021
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Press / Media