Christine von Oertzen is Principal Investigator of the research group “Data, Media, Mind” at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) and professor of media practices in the Media Studies Department of Berlin’s Humboldt-Universität.
Her research combines a focus on the material culture and epistemologies of personal data with a keen interest in pushing the boundaries of history of science further toward a history of knowledge by engaging with media and gender studies, the histories of bureaucracy, the social, human, and cognitive sciences, and citizen science.
Christine von Oertzen has published widely on gender relations in society and science and the material culture of collecting, processing, and visualizing data. In her current work, she examines the dependence of knowledge on materials and their supply. Looking at different epistemic media—such as paper forms or children’s toys—she examines the making, testing, and use of research tools and how they shape methods and practices of investigation, as well as workflows and communication within bureaucratic, domestic, social, and political realms.
A long-term research group leader at the MPIWG, Christine von Oertzen earned her PhD at Freie Universität Berlin and was a research scholar at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, before teaching at the Technische Universität Berlin and Technische Universität Braunschweig.
Christine von Oertzen is one of the IMPRS-KIR’s three Speakers.
Find out more about Christine von Oertzen on the MPIWG website.
