Katrin Amelang
Katrin Amelang holds currently an interim professorship for anthropology / deputizes for Prof. Dr. Michi Knecht at the IfEK.
Prior she was deputy professor (SoSe 2023) and visiting fellow (2023/2024) at the Chair of Cultural Psychology and Anthropology of Knowledge at Ruhr-University Bochum and an associate of the RUSTlab Bochum (Studies of Science, Technology, Data & Planet). She already knows the University of Bremen: 2016-2023 she worked as research fellow and lecturer at the IfEK and was co-organizer of the Bremen NatureCultures Lab
She studied cultural anthropology & European ethnology and political science in Frankfurt /Main and received her doctorate at Humboldt University Berlin with an ethnographic study on the production of everyday life and normality after liver transplantation (transcript 2014). She has worked on various interdisciplinary research projects at the intersection of cultural anthropology and Science & Technology Studies in Berlin (HU 2004-2010) and Frankfurt/Main (2014-2016) and was teaching at the Institute for Cultural Anthropoloy/European Ethnology in Göttingen (20012-2014).
I am an feminist, STS-inspired cultural anthropologist, who is as interested in processes of normalization and the intricacies and embroilments of everyday life as she is in naturecultures and human-technology relations. Often I work on these issues in the field of biomedicine, body and health. In my recent work, I grapple with people’s every-day encounters and practices with digital technologies, with processes of datafiction and the cultural dimension of software, algorithms and data. Empirically, I last examined predicive algorithms used in preventive medicine and period-tracking apps.
Research Focus:
- Digital Everyday Life & Cultures, Critical Data & Algorithm Studies, Digital Anthropology
- Anthropology of Technology and feministische Science & Technology Studies (STS)
- Anthropology of the Body & Medical Anthropology
- Gender Studies & Queer Anthropology
- NatureCultures
Recent Work
RUSTlab (Katrin Amelang, Ryoko Asai, Leman Çelik, Ruth D. Eggel, Olga Galanova, Stefan Laser, Mace Ojala, Fabian Pittroff, Estrid Sørensen & Lynn Werner)(2014): “Please go away... we’re reading. A practice approach to a taken-for-granted academic craft”. In: On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture 16; http://www.on-culture.org.
Nicole Dalmer, Nicole; Newman-Giffis, Denis; Ibrahimi, Mergime; Jia, Xiufeng Jia; Allhutter, Doris; Amelang, Katrin & Jarke, Juliane (2024): “Configuring Data Subjects”. In: Jarke, Juliane & Bates, Jo (Hg): Dialogues in Data Power. Shifting Response-abilities in a Datafied World. Bristol University Press. https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/dialogues-in-data-power.
Amelang, Katrin; Klausner, Martina; Sørensen, Estrid & Straube, Till; mit Joscha Friton & Robert Queckenberg (2023): „Daten erfahren und situieren. Datenspaziergänge als explorative Methode ethnografischer Forschung. In: Eckhardt, Dennis & Klausner, Martina (Hg.): Digital(ität) Ethnografieren. Methoden für den digitalen Alltag. Kulturanthropologie Notizen Bd. 85, 111-138. https://doi.org/10.21248/ka-notizen.85.20
2023 Amelang, Katrin: „Wie Apps erforschen? Zum Zusammentreffen neuer Forschungsgegenstände und alter Methoden“. In: Hamburger Journal für Kulturanthropologie 16, 11-28. https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/hjk/article/view/2073
Amelang, Katrin & Klaas, Franziska (2013): „Daten/Träger/Trash. Zur verflochtenen Existenz von Datenmüll und Elektroschrott“. In: Kuckuck – Notizen zur Alltagskultur (Themenheft Trash), Heft 1/2023, 18-22.
Amelang, Katrin (2022): “(Not) Safe to Use: Insecurities in Everyday Data Practices with Period-Tracking Apps”. In: Hepp, Andreas; Jarke, Juliane & Kramp, Leif (Hg.): The Ambivalences of Data Power. New Perspectives in Critical Data Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 297-321. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-96180-0
Amelang, Katrin; Egermann-Krebs, Diana; Eisenmann, Clemens; Kehr, Janina; Kurz, Helmar; Uhlig, Mirco; Voss, Ehler (Hg.)(2020 & 2021): Curare Corona Diaries. A Collection of Diaries in the Strict Sense of the Term. https://boasblogs.org/curarecoronadiaries/ und Curare 43 + 44
Amelang, Katrin & Bauer, Susanne (2019): “Following the Algorithm. How Epidemiological Risk Scores Do Accountability”. In: Social Studies of Science 49:4, 476-502. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312719862049
Amelang, Katrin (2019): „Monatliche Blutflüsse als Gesprächsstoff? Zur Neuverhandlung der Menstruation in digitalisierten Zeiten“. In: Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde / Archives suisses des tradition populaires 115:1, 65-81. https://dx.doi.org/10.5169/seals-842281
Gesing, Friederike; Knecht, Michi; Flitner, Michael & Amelang, Katrin (Hg.) (2019): NaturenKulturen. Denkräume und Werkzeuge für neue politische Ökologien. Bielefeld: transcript
I have taught numerous courses in cultural anthropology programs (BA & MA), some in conjunction with gender studies or STS programs – at the HU Berlin, the universities of Göttingen, Frankfurt/Main and Bremen and the RUB (Bochum).
Teaching in Bremen in WiSe 2024/25 (mostly in German)
- M4: Technik in/und/als Kultur: Einführung in die Technikforschung (Technology in/and/as Culture: Introduction to Technology Studies)
- M5: Einführung in die qualitativen Methoden der Kulturforschung und Ethnologie (Introduction to Qualitative Methods of Cultural Research and Ethnology)
- M89: Ethnografien Lesen: Von Infrastrukturen, Menschen, Musik und Müll (Reading Ethnographies: Of Infrastructures, People, Music and Garbage)
- The Bremen NatureCultures Lab