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Prof. Dr. Estrid Sørensen

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Estrid Sørensen

Thinking through data – a textbook

The aim of the Denken durch Daten project is to write a German-language textbook on data research at the intersection of digital methods and Science & Technology Studies. We live in a time in which the coexistence of different practices, ways of life and epistemologies poses central challenges. Digital data, data analyses and data visualisations offer a special potential to develop new perspectives on current social challenges. Through them, incommensurable practices can be represented in different ways, compared, thematised and reflected upon anew. Situated and in collaboration with those affected by real-world challenges, data work can furthermore be renegotiated in practice. Thinking through data for in data research as a deeply theoretical practice.

Research Results

Apart from working on the first draft of my textbook – which turned out to focus on decolonial and feminist engagements with digital data – the fellowship allowed me time to give a keynote and a conference talk as well as publishing a paper together with a few colleagues on digital methods. Unexpectedly, the fellowship also gave way to collaboration with Michael Baurmann to write a funding application for a project on regional transformation as an effect of digitalisation. I remain in contact with several of the fellows.

  • Amelang, K., Klausner, M., Sørensen, E., Straube, T., Friton, J., & Queckenberg, R. (2023). Daten erfahren und situieren: Datenspaziergänge als explorative Methode ethnografischer Forschung. Kulturanthropologie Notizen, 85, 111–138. https://doi.org/10.21248/ka-notizen.85.20
  • Keynote Speech 18 May: Estrid Sørensen: “Von distanzierten zu engagierten Daten” at the conference „Kultur/en der Digitalität“ 30. Fachtagung der Österreichische Gesellschaft für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft (ÖGEKW) in Klagenfurt.
  • Conference talk 4 October: Leman Çelik & Estrid Sørensen: “Everydayness of Scientific Data Practices” at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft (DGEKW)

Research focus

  • Digital Methods, Science & Technology Studies
  • Decolonisation
  • Experimentalism

Curriculum Vitae

  • 2005 PhD. at the University of Copenhagen
  • 2006-2010 Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology, Aarhus University
  • 2007-2008 Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, Sociology, TU-Berlin
  • 2008-2010 Research Associate, Institute for European Ethnology, HU-Berlin
  • 2010-2016 Jun. Prof. Mercator Research Group, Ruhr University Bochum
  • Since 2016: Prof. for Cultural Psychology and Anthropology of Knowledge, Social Science, Ruhr-University Bochum

Publications and lectures

  • Bogusz, T., & Sørensen, E. (2019). Thinking with Stefan Beck’s “Sachen, Tat -sachen und Tatsachen” and “The Problem of Expertise”. Berliner Blätter: Ethnographic and Ethnological Contributions, 80, 137-152.
  • Helm, A., Kocksch, L., May, A. & Sørensen, E. (2019). The development and implementation of IT-
  • Security standards as a social negotiation process. Privacy and Data Security, 43(11),
  • 713-718.
  • Laser, S., Pasek, A., Sørensen, E., Hogan, M., Fehrenbacher, J., Hepach, M. G., Çelik, L., & Kumar, K. R. (2022). The environmental footprint of social media hosting: Tinkering with Mastodon. EASST Review 41(3). https://www.easst.net/article/the-environmental-footprint-of-social-media-hosting-tinkering-with-mastodon/
  • Özkula, S. M., Lompe, M., Vespa, M., Sørensen, E., & Zhao, T. (2022). When URLs on social networks become invisible : Bias and social media logics in a cross-platform hyperlink study. First Monday, 27(6). https://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/12568
  • Sørensen, E., & Kocksch, L. (2021). Data Durabilities: Towards Conceptualizations of Scientific Long-Term Data Storage. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 7(1), 12-21.

Prof. Dr. Estrid Sørensen

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Fellow at CAIS from April until September 2023