I am professor for “Digital Cultures” at the department of media studies at Paderborn University in Germany. My work combines theories of (digital) media and technologies with approaches from political philosophy, cultural studies, and social theory.

Recently, my research has been focused on the entanglement of technology with concepts of subjectivity, affect, and autonomy — with a particular focus on algorithms and machine learning. I have published a book length study on “Algorithms: Technology, Culture, Politics” that introduces a relational and situated approach to algorithms that bridges technological detail with cultural and political dynamics. Earlier (and related) research has been dealing with normative theories of privacy. In particular, I am interested in ways of grounding the value of privacy beyond its traditional origins in liberal political thought.

I have studied philosophy and computer science in Karlsruhe, Rome, and Berlin and graduated with a “Diplom” (master’s degree equivalent) in computer science and a PhD in philosophy, both from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Before joining Paderborn University I have been working at the Internatial Centre for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities in Tübingen and at the department of philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York as a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Humboldt-Foundation.

Research Areas

theories of media and technology (in particular data and algorithms), political theory (in particular Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault and theories of privacy), new materialism, queer- and gender studies, critical phenomenology