Univ.-Prof. Dr. Anna Echterhölter

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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Anna Maria Echterhölter, M.A.

Universitätsring 1
1010 Wien
Room: O1.102

T: +43-1-4277-40865
anna.echterhoelter@univie.ac.at

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Teaching and Exams, Consultation hours,
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Anouncement of a Tenure Track Professorship for the History of the Natural Sciences [Jobcenter Uni Wien]

For events and the calendar of the key research area "history of science"

For the joint annual meeting "Scales, Norms, Limit Values in Times of (digital) Change" [more...]

CV including publications [more...]

Curriculum Vitae

As historian of science I specialize in social histories of quantification. In particular, I am focusing on the measurement of resources, and how units of measurement and patterns of justification interact in allocation schemes. For this I investigate administrative and economic sciences or types of knowledge. Given the rich material heritage of the Pacific in Viennese collections I have not given up on the topic when I became full professor of the history of science at the University of Vienna in 2018, after several years at Humboldt-University Berlin, and fellowships at the MPIWG and GHI Washington. While clearly aiming at oceanic perspectives I also found several enquétes on specific topics in the German colonial archive. I argue that read through the lens of epistemic decolonization these may help to leave the perspective of the violent German rule. The enquéte as serialized form of knowledge production (often it was left to missionaries or bureaucrats to talk to informants and to fill out the lengthy questionnaires) formed the basis for two things: Firstly, the formation of scientific fields such as the comparative research on indigenous law from 1890s onwards. Secondly, the enquétes were consulted before metricizing and monetarizing the colonies or before cadastral surveys and statistics were deployed.

With insights from several reading groups, a cooperation with the University of the South Pacific and a project on categories, clusters and colonial statistics which is part of the Volkswagen Foundation’s new initiative on “How is AI Changing Science?” (Karlsruhe, Bonn, Wien). Two books are scheduled for completion in the near future. One gives an overview of the lively field of history of data for Junius Hamburg: “Political Epistemology of Data”. The other has a longer trajectory and pursues patterns of justification of resources in the Pacific during German colonialism. My habilitation on the history of metrology, as discussed in several humanities and social sciences, will appear with the press house of Wallstein Göttingen in a book series on science studies “Historische Wissensforschung”, a special issue on “Data at the Doorstep” is under way as well as a translation of Mary Douglas’s fascinating take on resource regulation via tokens and administrative moneys – which could even turn money into an instrument of degrowth. In addition, I am one of three editors of Science in Context and spokesperson of the key research area history of science at the University of Vienna, which is in constant dialogue with working groups at, e.g., the academy OEAW, WU, CEU, various museums and the MedUni with its longstanding tradition in the history of medicine.

Since March 2018: Professor of Modern History: History of Science at the Department of History, University of Vienna and since March 2019 spokesperson of the key research area History of Science at the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies
2018: Visiting Professor of History of Technology at the Institute of Philosophy, History of Literature, Science, and Technology, Technische Universität Berlin
2017: Visiting Professor of Cultural History at the Institute for Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin | Habilitation thesis defended on 8 February 2017
2016: Fellow in the History of Knowledge, German Historical Institute Washington DC
2015: Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin (Department II)
2014: visiting junior professorship of History of the Humanities, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
2009-2016: research assistant at the Institute for Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 50% at the cluster of excellence TOPOI – The Formation and Transformation of Spaces and Knowledge in Ancient Civilizations, previously at the collaborative research centre Transformations of Antiquity (March 2008-May 2009)
2009: dissertation thesis on Epistemic values in obituaries on scientists 1711–1860,
March 2007-July 2007: Predoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin (Department II and III)
January 2004-July 2006: visiting lecturer at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, and at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities; fellowship of the Gerda Henkel Foundation
October 2001-December 2002: research assistant to the curators of a science and art exhibition of the Volkswagen Foundation: Science + Fiction. Between Nano World and Global Culture
1994-2001: magister programme in literature and cultural studies (Freie Universität Berlin), two semesters of physics. Semesters abroad and work experience: Goldsmiths College London (1998); summer school at the University of Silesia in Katowice (1999); Goethe-Institute, Manila (1996); editorial team Text + Kritik, Göttingen (1997); student radio Dahlemer Diwan (Institute of Comparative Literature, Freie Universität Berlin); radio station Berliner Rundfunk (1994)
1980–1993: school education in Göttingen, experience abroad in Pau, Melbourne, Dnipro

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Research

Conference organisation

"BEYOND QUANTITY Research with Subsymbolic AI" October 21-23, 2022, in cooperation with Sorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI) at Paris, Opening Conference of the research project "How Is AI Changing Science" (Karlsruhe, Bonn, Wien)
"Scales, Norms, Limit Values in Times of (Digital) Change", main organizer of the annual meeting of the GTG (Society for the History of Techonlogy) and the GWMT (Society for the History of Science, Technology, Medicine), together with Anne Ebert of the Technical Museum Vienna, 17. -- 19. September 2021
“Anthropocene Histories,” partnership seminar in twelve parts at the Institute for Historical Research London, twelve parts over the course of 2021, co-convened with Sophie Page (UCL), Amanda Power (Oxford), John Sabapathy (UCL), Sujit Sivasundaram (Cambridge)
2nd Pre-and Postdoctoral Workshop "Central, Eastern and South Eastern European Histories of Science and Humanities", organized together with Claudia Kraft, Lukas Bothe, Bernhard Kleeberg and Friedrich Cain of the working group (East) European Epistemologies, University of Vienna: 2.10.2020
Graduate Workshop II: »Medizingeschichte und Public Health« (Pre-Circulated Papers, Online Kommentare) Dr. Birgit Nemec, Institut für Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin, Universität Heidelberg und Prof. Dr. W. Weninger, Anatomical Institute of MedUni Vienna, June 18th, 2020
»Data at the Doorstep. Sites and Side Effects of Interrogation (c. 1800-1950)« January 23.-25., 2020, Laurens Schlicht / Sophie Ledebur / Anna Echterhölter in cooperation with the working group “The State Multiple. Bureaucracy, Politics, and Accounting”, University of Vienna and the Research Plattform “Social Sciences History” at the Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna [more]
Graduate workshop I: »Human Scales -- Die Quantifizierung menschlicher Körper«, January 9, 2020
»Reweighing Antiquity: Material Practices of Precision between Science and Humanities.« Panel gemeinsam mit Cesare Pastorino, Annual History of Science Society Meeting 2018, Seattle
»Measuring Risk and Human Needs: New Perspectives from the History of Knowledge,« Spring Lecture Series 2016 at the German Historical Institute Washington DC in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. Organised in cooperation with Simone Lässig and Christine von Oertzen.
»The Points of Conversion: Quantification and Measurement in Rural India, Germany and Mexico (1800-1940)«, panel at the conference The Making of Measurement, by Daniel Jon Mitchell, Hasok Chang and Eran Tal, at CRASSH, University of Cambridge/UK, 23/24 July 2015.
»Rationierung. Logiken, Formen und Praktiken des Mangels«, conference organised in cooperation with Frederike Felcht (Institut für Skandinavistik, Goethe University Frankfurt on Main), 4/5 July 2014, at the Weltkulturen Museum Frankfurt, funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
»Marginal Economies and Economic Marginalisation since Antiquity«, workshop of the CSG-II at the cluster of excellence TOPOI, 27/28 April 2012, organised in cooperation with Iris Därmann.
»Praktiken. Handliches / Unhandliches«, workshop of the CSG-II, TOPOI, 17 June 2011, organised in cooperation with Iris Därmann.

Research projects

Research interests

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Professional Service

Reviewer

Editorship

Science in Context -- Editor with Moritz Epple, Jürgen Renn, Yossef Schwartz since 2022.
Historische Wissensforschung -- Editor of this key German book series for historical science studies in published by Wallstein Göttingen and edited with Bernhard Kleeberg und Andreas Langenohl (before their reorientation the series appeared with Mohr Siebeck).
ilinx Founding member of ilinx magazine (peer review) and the book series ilinx.kollaborationen. In 2010 we founded the first German research journal dedicated to cultural theory, which implemented a peer-review process. Also the book series "ilinx.kollaborationen" was initiated as a forum for joint writing projects. After the Hamburg press agency Philo Fine Arts Verlag had to cease operation, the projects were restarted with the independent publishing house Spector Books Leipzig.
- ilinx 7, 2022 – Augury, ed. by Rebekka Ladewig, Angelia Seppi
- ilinx 6, 2021 – Administrative tools, ed. by Tilman Richter, Caspar Fridolin Lorenz, Anna Echterhölter
- ilinx 5, 2020 – Fallows, ed. by Birgit Lettmann, Katja Kynast, Stephan Zandt
- ilinx 4, 2017 – workarounds, ed. by Holger Brohm, Sebastian Gießmann, Gabriele Schabacher, Sandra Schramke
- ilinx 3, 2013 – economic practices, ed. by Anna Echterhölter, Dietmar Kammerer, Rebekka Ladewig
- ilinx 2, 2011 – Mimesen, ed. by Eva Johach, Jasmin Mersmann, Evke Rulffes
- ilinx 1, 2010 – turbulences, ed. by Mark Butler, Anna Echterhölter, Sebastian Gießmann, Rebekka Ladewig
- ilinx.kollaboration 1: Margit Berner / Anette Hoffmann / Britta Lange: Sensible Sammlungen. Anthropologische Objekte im Depot / Fundus Band 210 – Philo Fine Arts, Hamburg 2011.
- ilinx.Kollaboration 2: Hendrik Blumentrath /Anna Echterhölter/ Frederike Felcht/ Karin Harrasser: Jenseits des Geldes. Aporien der Rationierung / analyse & exzess – Spector Books Leipzig 2019.
- ilinx.kollaboration 3: Angelika Seppi / Rebekka Ladewig: Techno-ästhetische Perspektivierungen des Milieus. Spector Books Leipzig 2020.
- ilinx.kollaboration 4: Angelika Seppi/ Michael Friedman: Grenzen der Formalisierung. Mathematisch-philosophische Bemerkungen. Spector Books Leipzig (in Vorbereitung).

Exhibitions and Projects

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Publications

All Publications

Publications Anna ECHTERHÖLTER (PDF)

Publications in u:cris

Human-Mineral-Classification. Taxonomy, Totemism, and the Technofossils of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene Markers Project MPIWG 2022. Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW, Berlin) and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG, Berlin), . Echterhölter, Anna Maria (Author). 2022.

Publication: Electronic/multimedia output › Web publication

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Anna Echterhölter

ABOUT

u:find - Information about

Curriculum Vitae

Research

Professional Service

Publications

All Publications

Publications in u:cris

Activities

Activities in u:cris

AI and the Digital Transformation

Wissenschaftsgeschichte 2032

Helvet Workshop Luzern: At War with Measures. Point Prices and the Development of Value Rationing

Emerging Scales of Value. Bernhard Laum and Philip Grierson on the Sacred Origin of Money,

Panel in honor of Dietlind Hüchtker

Antiquarische Zahlen und Hafenhandbücher. Zur Standardisierung von Gewichten in Deutsch Neuguinea

Participant and discussant in a network meeting: Towards Global Histories of Surveying Cultures: Administrative Knowledge Production and Statistics 17th – 21st Century

"Mismatched Filiations. The Family in German Colonial Surveys on Indigenous Law (c. 1910)" Cambridge HoS, pre-circulated papers reading group

Realfiktion Klimarechnungshof

Gemeinsame Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Technikgeschichte (GTG) und der Gesellschaft für die Geschichte der Wissenschaften, der Medizin und der Technik (GWMT)

Introduction“ to the conference “Scales, Norms, Limit Values in Times of (Digital) Change,

"How is AI Changing Science?"

"Perspectives from the History of Data,"

Surveying Rules. Extending the Enquete to German Colonial Situations via the Commission for the Study of Native Law, 1907 – 1930 (precirculated paper)

Realfiktion Klimarechnungshof

"In/accessible fields of technology."

"Worlds of Management: Transregional Approaches to Management Knowledge since 1945"

"Anthropocene Histories," commentary at the first of twelve partnership seminars at the Institute for Historical Research London, over the course of 2021, co-convened with Sophie Page (UCL), Amanda Power (Oxford), John Sabapathy (UCL), Sujit Sivasundaram (Cambridge)

AG Wissenschaftsgeschichte