Dr.in Nina Klimburg-Witjes
University Assistant
(post doc)
Making Europe through and for its research infrastructures
Tel: +43-1-4277-49625
eMail: nina.witjes@univie.ac.at
Website: klimburg-witjes.com
Biography
Nina Klimburg-Witjes is a university assistant (post-doc) at the Department of Science and Technology Studies, Vienna University. She has studied Development Studies, Literature, History and Euroculture at the Universities of Vienna, Erfurt and Göttingen (2005-2011) with a specialization on knowledge and global politics. In 2017, she defended her doctoral dissertation on the “Co-production of Science, Technology and Global Politics” at the Munich Center for Technology (MCTS) at Technical University Munich in 2017.
From 2016-2018, Nina has been a post-doc researcher at the Munich Center for Technology (MCTS), research group “Innovation, Society and Public Policy” and a co-leader of the “Engineering Responsibility” Lab's research group “Science, Technology and Security”. In her work at the intersection of STS and Critical Security Studies, she explores the role of technological innovation and knowledge practices in securitization processes. Tracing the entanglements between industries, political institutions, and users, Nina is interested in how visions about sociotechnical vulnerabilities are co-produced with security devices and policy, and how novel security technologies interact with issues of privacy and democracy.
During her time as researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip) Nina worked together with stakeholders from ministries and funding agencies on internationalization strategies for science, technology and innovation. As head of the research unit “Science, Technology and Foreign Policy”, Nina conducted several research projects on science diplomacy, international collaboration and the role of satellite technologies in international security politics from a combined perspective of STS and International Relations.
Nina has also been a researcher with the Austrian Foundation for International Development (2010-2012), and a research fellow (2012) in the research project "Universality and Potential of Acceptance of Social Science Knowledge: On the Circulation of Knowledge between Europe and the Global South”, at the Department of Sociology, Albert-Ludwig University Freiburg, (funded by the BMBF). She has also been a visiting fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in 2018 and with the Research Policy Group at Lund University, Sweden in 2014.
Current Research Interests
- The global politics of science and technology
- Sociotechnical imaginaries of space programs and regional security in Asia
- Satellite technologies and visual politics
- The co-production of European research infrastructures and European integration processes
- Sensors, sensing and security infrastructures
- STS and critical security studies
Selected Publications
Michael, C., & Klimburg-Witjes, N. (2022). Troubled Orbits and Earthly Concerns: Space Debris as a Boundary Infrastructure. Science, Technology & Human Values, 47(5), 960-985. doi.org/10.1177/01622439211023554
Klimburg-Witjes, N. (Interviewpartner*in), & Staus, H. (Autor*in). (2022). Space Debris: An underestimated danger?. Webpublikation, Trending Topics GmbH. www.trendingtopics.eu/space-debris-an-underestimated-danger/
Klimburg-Witjes, N., Leese, M., & Trauttmansdorff, P. (Angenommen/Im Druck). Expanding boundaries: Unmaking and remaking secrecy in field research. Political anthropological research on international social sciences.
Klimburg-Witjes, N., & Wentland, A. (2021). Hacking Humans? Social engineering and the construction of the “deficient user” in cyber-security discourses. Science, Technology & Human Values, 46(6), 1316–1339. doi.org/10.1177/0162243921992844
Passoth, J-H., Bowker, G. C., Klimburg-Witjes, N., & Van Mannen, G-J. (2021). Hacking Satellites. in Sensing In/Security: Sensors as Transnational Security Infrastructures (S. 399-409). Mattering Press.
Klimburg-Witjes, N., Pöchhacker, N., & Bowker, G. C. (Hrsg.) (2021). Sensing In/Security: Sensors as Transnational Security Infrastructures. (1 Aufl.) Mattering Press. doi.org/10.28938/9781912729050
Gugganig, M., & Klimburg-Witjes, N. (2021). Island Imaginaries. Introduction to a special section. Science as Culture, 30(3), 321-341. doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2021.1939294
Klimburg-Witjes, N., & Hüttenrauch, F. (2021). Contextualizing Security Innovation: Responsible Research and Innovation at the Smart Border? Science and Engineering Ethics, 27(1), [13]. doi.org/10.1007/s11948-021-00292-y
Wentland, A., & Klimburg-Witjes, N. (2021). „Die Benutzer sind das Problem, nicht das System“ – Verantwortung, Vertrauen und Vulnerabilität in IT-Sicherheitsdiskursen. in K. Braun, & C. Kropp (Hrsg.), In digitaler Gesellschaft: Neukonfigurationen zwischen Robotern, Algorithmen und Usern (1 Aufl.). Transcript Verlag. Politik in der Digitalen Gesellschaft
Klimburg-Witjes, N. (2021). Shifting Articulations of Space Security: Boundary Work in European Space Policy Making. European security : ES, 30(4), 526-546. doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2021.1890039
Trauttmansdorff, P. (Autor*in), & Klimburg-Witjes, N. (Autor*in). (2020). Making Europe through Infrastructures of In/Security. Notes from a virtual workshop. Webpublikation, Reflections. Blog of the STS Department at Vienna University. blog.sts.univie.ac.at/2020/12/14/making-europe-through-infrastructures-of-in-security-notes-from-a-virtual-workshop/
Chlormann, M., & Klimburg-Witjes, N. (2020). Space Debris Sustainability: Understanding and Engaging Outer Space Environments. in M. Madi, & O. Sokolova (Hrsg.), Space Debris Peril: Pathways to Opportunities. : Capacity Building in the New Space Era (1 Aufl.). CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group.
Witjes, N., & Olbrich, P. (2017). A fragile transparency: Satellite imagery analysis, non-state actors, and visual representations of security. Science and Public Policy, 44(4), 524–534. doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scw079
Witjes, N., Olbrich, P., & Rebasso, I. (2017). Big Data from Outer Space: Opportunities and Challenges for Crisis Response. Springer. Yearbook on Space Policy
Günay, C., & Witjes, N. (2017). Border Politics: Defining Spaces of Governance and Forms of Transgressions. Springer.
Waller, L. (Autor*in), & Witjes, N. (Autor*in). (2017). Sensor Publics: Report from a workshop on the politics of sensing and data infrastructures. Webpublikation, EASST Review. easst.net/article/sensor-publics-report-from-a-workshop-on-the-politics-of-sensing-and-data-infrastructures/
Olbrich, P., & Witjes, N. (2016). Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Big Data: Commercial Satellite Imagery and Its Promise of Speed and Transparency. Palgrave Macmillan.
Olbrich, P., & Witjes, N. (2015). Earth Observation and International Security: The Role of Uncertainty in Satellite Imagery Analysis by Non-State Actors. ESPI Perspectives, (72). espi.or.at/publications/voices-from-the-space-community/publications-of-the-former-espi-perspective-series/send/10-publications-of-the-former-espi-perspective-series/183-earth-observation-and-international-security
Witjes, N., & Sigl, L. (2015). The Internationalization of Science, Technology & Innovation (STI): An Emerging Policy Field at the Intersection of Foreign Policy and Science Policy. in A. Jansen, A. Franzmann, & P. Münte (Hrsg.), Legitimizing Science: National and Global Publics, 1800-2010 (S. 245-272). Campus.
Mueller, R., & Witjes, N. (2014). Of Red Threads and Green Dragons: Austrian Sociotechnical Imaginaries about STI cooperation with China. in M. Mayer, M. Carpes, & R. Knoblich (Hrsg.), The global politics of science and technology: concepts and perspectives (Band 2). Springer.