Local Senior Fellow:
Prof. Dr. Juliane Jarke
Juliane Jarke is Professor of Digital Societies at the University of Graz. She is an internationally trained, interdisciplinary scholar with a background in computer science, philosophy and science and technology studies (STS). Juliane’s research attends to the transformative power of digital technologies such as AI-based systems in the public sector, education and for ageing populations. Theoretically and conceptually, her research is situated in the areas of critical data studies, new materialism and feminist STS. Methodologically, Juliane follows a design-oriented and participatory approach. This means that she collaborates on the design of socio-digital innovations with a variety of stakeholders (e.g. public authorities, citizen groups, social care service providers, NGOs), often over an extended period of time. In her research she adapts empirical social research, digital and ethnographic methods, combining them with methods of human-machine interaction (HCI) and speculative design research.
https://www.sociodigitalfutures.info/
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Local Junior Fellow:
Ren Aldridge
Ren is an artist, writer, researcher and vocalist of feminist punk band Petrol Girls. She has just started a PhD in sociology at the University of Graz exploring gendered experiences of vulnerability, anticipation and fear through creative methods. She is involved in feminist activism in Graz, mostly against femicide and gender-based violence. Her community art project, The Resistance Quilt Project was recently exhibited at Forum Stadtpark and she is a member of local Kunstverein Roter Keil.
Project collaboration: September 2025 – April 2027
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Senior incoming fellow:
Prof Helen Manchester
Helen is Professor of Sociodigital Futures at the University of Bristol. Helen is an interdisciplinary scholar with a background in cultural studies, feminist science and technology studies, co-design and material culture. Helen’s participatory and design based research foregrounds experiences of ageing, gender, culture and the arts, connectivity and digital inclusion. She is particularly interested in feminist and post human approaches to researching digital inclusion, in particular ageing and digital technologies, just futures, and participatory methods. She has had international peer reviewed journals published on subjects such as ‘care-full co-design’, drawing on posthuman feminist research and design practice and ‘intersectional participatory methods’ drawing on theories of intersectionality when working alongside minoritized communities.
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Helen-Manchester-9d214996-dff3-4e31-b8d6-0c7ad33f09d9/
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Junior incoming fellow:
Steve Symons
Steve Symons is an experienced instrument maker, performer and artist working with technology. He is known for a series of early locative audio works and as a member of the three person collective, Owl Project. He is currently a doctoral researcher at The University of Sussex, UK, exploring how post-human theories of entanglement can be used to inspire novel forms of multiplayer musical experiences.