Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ulrike Felt
Professor of Science and Technology Studies
Head of the Department of Science and Technology Studies
Head of the research platform Responsible Research and Innovation in Academic Practice
Member of the research platforms "Governance of Digital Practices" und "PLENTY - Plastics in the Environment and Society"
Consultation hour: by arrangement via eMail!
T: +43 1 4277 49611 (secr. -49601)
eMail: ulrike.felt@univie.ac.at
Biography
Ulrike Felt is Professor of Science and Technology Studies since 1999, and Head of the Departement of Science and Technology Studies and of the research platform Responsible Research and Innovation in Academic Practice
After having finished her PhD in theoretical physics at the University of Vienna in 1983, she worked for nearly five years in an interdisciplinary research team of science historians at the European Center for High Energy Physics (CERN) in Geneva studying social, political and scientific aspects in the foundation period of this first big European research institution. During this period her research interests moved into the field of science and technology studies (STS). After her stay at CERN she returned to Vienna, where she took up a position at the newly founded Institute for Philosophy of Science and Social Studies of Science headed by Helga Nowotny. In 1997 she received her habilitation in Science Studies/Sociology of Sciences.
Ulrike Felt has wide experience in running nationally and internationally funded research projects working with a broad spectrum of social science research methods. She has been visiting professor in a number of institutions, among them at GERSULP/Université Louis Pasteur (Strasbourg), at the Centre Interuniversitaire pour la Recherche en Science et Technologie, Universite du Québec à Montréal, at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris, at the Collegium Helveticum, ETH Zurich and at the STS group at Harvard. She has served as member of the council of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) from 1995 until 1999, and of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) from 2002 to 2004. From July 2002 to June 2007 she was editor of the international peer-reviewed Journal Science, Technology, & Human Values (Journal of the Society for Social Studies of Science). Most recently she has also engaged in setting up an interdisciplinary Masterprogramme "Science - Technology - Society" (taught in English language) at the University of Vienna.
Finally she engaged into policy advise both nationally and at the European level, e.g. as expert in the Advisory Group of the European Commission for the Science and Society priority of the 6th framework programme (2003-2006); as member of the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB; 2006/07); as rapporteur of the expert group Science and Governance (download the report as pdf) and most recently for the European Science Foundation (Science Policy Briefing: Science in Society - Caring for our Futures in Turbulent Times).
Since 1st September 2015 she is the Head of the interfaculty Research Platform "Responsible Research and Innovation in Academic Practice" at the University of Vienna, which will run until 20th December 2021. Addidionally she's a member of the Research Platform "Plastic in Environment and Society".
Main Research Interests
Over the past decades several interrelated lines of research have developed:
- Participation and governance of science/technology in democratic societies; science communication;
- changes in the institutional, social and epistemological regimes of knowledge production
- on the role of time/temporal regimes and futures in research as well as for the interfaces of science/technology with society
- Values and evaluation in science; science policy; research integrity; ethical issues
- Socio-technical infrastructures and their importance for science and society
- Digitization and Big Data.
The fields I engaged with were rather diverse over time but had a strong focus on biomedicine and the life sciences, environment (enery, plastics, environmental data sciences) and physics (new materials, sensors, nanotechnology, ...).
Publications
Felt, U. (Interviewee). (2012). Radiokolleg - Das Prinzip Ordnung (Teil 1). Radio show oe1.orf.at/programm/319906
Felt, U. (Interviewee). (2012). Radiokolleg - Das Prinzip Ordnung (Teil 2). Radio show oe1.orf.at/programm/320138
Felt, U., & Fochler, M. (2012). Re-ordering Epistemic Living Spaces: On the Tacit Governance Effects of the Public Communication of Science. In S. Rödder, M. Franzen, & P. Weingart (Eds.), The Sciences´ Media Connection - Communication to the Public and its Repercussions (pp. 133-154). Springer. Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook No. 28
Felt, U. (2011). Lauter Einschluss, leise Ausschlüsse - normative Visionen und gelebte Realitäten in der Forschung. In J. Dalhoff, & J. Girlich (Eds.), Conference Proceeding 'Fakten und Fassaden. Gleichstellungspolitiken und Geschlechterwissen in Wissenschaft und Forschung', 25-26.10.2010, Bonn, Deutschland (pp. 64-75).
Felt, U., & Fochler, M. (2011). Slim futures and the fat pill. Civic imaginations of innovation and governance in an engagement setting. Science as Culture, 20(3), 307-328.
Felt, U., & Müller, R. (2011). Tentative (Id)entities. On Technopolitical Cultures and the Experiencing of Genetic Testing. BioSocieties, 6(3), 342-363.
Felt, U. (2011). The Future of Science in Society (ESF Forward Look). European Science Forum.
Felt, U., Igelsböck, J., Schikowitz, A., & Völker, T. (2011). The Problem Multiple - Constructing 'the Research Problem' in Transdisciplinary Project Contexts. In B. Hofstätter, & G. Getzinger (Eds.), Conference Proceeding '10th Annual IAS-STS Conference: Critical Issues in Science and Technology Studies' Institute for advanced studies on science, technology and society (ias-sts).
Felt, U. (Interviewee), & Bochsler, K. (Editorial Journalist). (2011). Wissenschaft: Tummelplatz der Schummler? "Tatort Wissenschaft" (Schweizer Radio DRS2). Radio show www.drs2.ch/www/de/drs2/290809.hoerpunkt-tatort-wissenschaft.html
Felt, U. (Interviewee), & Scheucher, C. (Author). (2010). "Als ob". Zum Thema: Fälschen. Radio show oe1.orf.at/diagonal
Felt, U. (Author). (2010). Children's Universities: Science Communication, Role-playing Exercise or First Step of Being Tamed?. Web publication
Felt, U., Fochler, M., & Winkler, P. (2010). Coming to terms with biomedical technologies in different techno-political cultures: A comparative analysis of focus groups on organ transplantation and genetic testing in Austria, France and the Netherlands. Science, Technology & Human Values, 35(4), 525-553.
Felt, U., Fochler, M., & Strassnig, M. (2010). Experimente partizipativer ELSA-Forschung. Eine methodenpolitische Reflexion. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, (10), 33-67.
Felt, U. (2010). Forscher publizieren auch weniger kontrollierte Daten. Der Standard. derstandard.at/1262209011282/derStandardat-Interview-Forscher-publizieren-auch-weniger-kontrollierte-Daten
Felt, U. (2010). Leben in Nanowelten: Zur Ko-Produktion von Nano und Gesellschaft. In Petra Lucht, Martina Erlemann and Esther Ruiz Ben (eds) (2010), Technologisierung gesellschaftlicher Zukünfte. Nanotechnologien in wissenschaftlicher, politischer und öffentlicher Praxis (pp. 19-37). Centaurus.
Felt, U., & Fochler, M. (2010). Machineries for Making Publics: Inscribing and Describing Publics in Public Engagement. Minerva, 48(3), 219-238.
Schumann, S., Felt, U., Schwarz, C., & Strassnig, M. (2010). Making Future Present. On the Co-Production of Nano and Society in the Austrian Context.
Felt, U., Felder, K. F., Öhler, T., & Penkler, M. (2010). Perceptions and Imaginations of Obesity as a Socio-Scientific Problem in the Austrian Context. Poster session presented at Evaluierungskonferenz GEN-AU, Wien, Austria.