CV Dr. Nina Klimburg-Witjes Personal Information
Date and place of Birth: 09.04.1983, Dortmund (Germany), 1 Son (born in 2006) Nationality: German
Address: Schönborngasse 12/5, 1080 Vienna (Austria) E-mail: nina.witjes@univie.ac.at
Phone: +43 676/9484342
2.1. Professional Experience
Since August 2018: University Assistant (Postdoc), Department of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna
February 2016-July 2018 University Assistant (Postdoc), Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), Technical University Munich, Research Group “Innovation, Society and Public Policy”
February-August 2018 Co-leader of the Engineering Responsibility Lab Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), Technical University Munich, Research group “Science, Technology and Security”
January-July 2018 Visiting Fellow, European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), Vienna. Research focus: “Space Security”
May 2014-February 2016 Head of Research Unit “Science, Technology and Foreign Policy”, Austrian Institute for International Affairs, (oiip) Vienna
March 2013-May 2016 Research Fellow, Austrian Institute for International Affairs, (oiip) Vienna, Research Unit “Science, Technology and Foreign Policy”
March-January 2015 Affiliate Researcher, Lund University, Sweden, Department of Economics and Management, Research Group „Research Policy“
April 2012-August 2012 Research Fellow, Institute for Sociology, Freiburg University in the research project “Universality and Potential of Acceptance of Social Science Knowledge: On the Circulation of Knowledge between Europe and the Global South.“
April 2010-May 2012 Research Fellow, Austrian Foundation for International Development, Vienna, Research Group „Science, Education and International Development“
2.2. Education
June 2017 Doctorate (PhD), Technical University, Munich, Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), Summa cum laude
Dissertation title: “The Co-production of Science, Technology and Global Politics. Exploring Emerging Fields of Knowledge and Policy”
June 2011 Master of Arts, University of Vienna, Department for Development Studies
MA thesis title: Knowledge Management in Development Cooperation: Lessons from the World Bank
August 2005 Bachelor of Arts, University of Erfurt, Department of Literature
& Department of North American History
2.3. Organization of international conference panels
& workshops
2021 Researching Security Communities of Practice:
Ethical Concerns, Challenges and Coping Strategies, European Workshops on International Studies (EWIS), Thessaloniki
2020 Making Europe through Infrastructures of In/Security.
International Workshop, University of Vienna (online)
2019 Sensing Security. Sensors and the Making of Transnational Security Infrastructures, Social Studies of Science Conference (4S), New Orleans.
2018 Sensing Security. Sensors and the Making of Transnational Security Infrastructures. Panel at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST), Lancaster.
2017 Visualizing Security: Remote Sensing, Visualization Technologies and the Making of Risk and (In)securities, Panel at the annual meeting of the Society for the Social Study of Science (4S), Boston.
Sensor Publics: A Workshop on the Politics of Sensing and Data Infrastructures, Munich Center for Technology in Society, Technical University Munich
2014-16: Transnational Lecture Series on the Internationalization of Science, Technology and Innovation, Austrian Institute for International Affairs, Vienna.
2.2. Invited talks
2022
Space Debris: Negotiating responsibility and sustainability in the
“New Space Age” Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge (UK)
2021
Der Weltraum als neuer Kriegsschauplatz? Militärische Aufrüstung im All und Möglichkeiten einer Friedensbewegung auf der Erde.
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Austrian Section).
Digital Infrastructures of In/Security. School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Sweden
Digital Transformation in Europe after 2020: Adaptation in Cyberspace, Conference, Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, organized by the Institute for International Relations Prague (IIR), supported by NATO and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Invitation declined due to time reasons)
Policy Implications: Drivers and Challenges to Cooperatives Space Initiatives. European Space Agency (ESA), Space Security Conference, Frascati, Italy
Sensing In/Security (Keynote). STS Austria Workshop “Digital Living, Digital Infrastructuring”, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Austria
Umweltschutz aus dem Weltall? Gesellschafts- und umweltpolitische Kontroversen zu Satellitenbildern und Weltraumschrott, Friedrich- Ebert Stiftung, Bonn.
Sensing In/Security: Sensoren, Infrastrukturen und die Herstellung von Un/Sicherheit Lecture series “Kontrolle und Überwachung” Gutenberg- University of Mainz, Germany.
Hacking Humans: Why we need a transdisciplinary approach towards Cyber Security International Workshop: Cryptic Commons: Transdisciplinary Probes of the Ideal and Real World in Actual Cyber-Physical Systems.
Department of Anthropology, Aalborg University.
Sicherheitsaspekte im Weltraum: Hochmoderne Bedrohungen im Erdorbit, Panel Discussion, Helmut-Schmidt-Universität der Bundeswehr, Hamburg.
Rise Above? Debating Political and Organizational Fragmentations in European Space Policies, Panel Discussion, Lecture Series Franco-German Strategic Dialogue, Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies, University of Bonn
2019
Innovating (in)securities: global threats, sociotechnical visions, and the re-making of order. Conference “War and Peace after the Human:
Scrutinizing the Conditions, Implications and Consequences of Posthuman Armed Conflict”. Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Schlaining
Übermächtiges China? Wie die chinesische Seidenstraßen-Initiative die internationalen Beziehungen verändert (Discussant of the talk by M.
Mayer, University of Nottingham Ningbo China), Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip), Vienna
Satellite Imagery and the Making of International Security Issues.
Symposium: Innovation Governance and Security Controversies, Austrian Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), Vienna.
Innovating (in)securities: global threats, sociotechnical visions, and the re- making of order. EWIS workshop on „Global reconfigurations of Science, Technology, and Security“. Krakow, Poland.
2018 Space Technologies, Secrecy, and Stupid Users: Where STS and Security (Studies) Meet. Vienna STS Talks, University of Vienna, Austria
2016 Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Geospatial Big Data: What about Responsible Research and Innovation? International
Ethics Summit: “Morality in the Global Era: Theory, Policy and Practice”. Doha, Qatar.
2.4. Conference presentations
2021 Non-Performances of Security: Field Dynamics and the Research-ability of Security Infrastructures. Annual Conference of the Swiss Political Science Association “Climate Change Politics in Times of Crisis”, Bern, Switzerland. (online) 2020 What´s (in) a European rocket? Infrastructural
arrangements in the Making of Europe Interdisciplinary Workshop “Making Europe Through Infrastructures of In/Security”, University of Vienna (online)
2020 Cracks in the security wall: unexpected lessons from researching the “field”. MIG-Tech Circle, Network of scholars at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS) and critical migration, security and border studies (online)
2020 The proliferation and dispersal of Sensors as Transnational Security Infrastructures. EASST / 4S Conference on Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and agency of STS in emerging worlds. Panel: Proliferation and Dispersal of Security. Prague University (online)
2020 Hacking Humans: Social Engineering and the Construction of “deficient users” in Cyber Security.
Science and Democracy Network Annual Meeting, Harvard University, Cambridge (online)
2019 Der Mensch als schwächstes Glied in der Kette? „Social Engineering“& Konstruktion des defizitären Nutzers in Cyber-Security Diskursen. Conference „Demokratische Wissenschafts- und Technikgestaltung heute“, University of Stuttgart, Germany
2019 Shifting Responsibilities of Care for Space Debris. Social Studies of Science Conference, New Orleans, USA.
2018 Troubled Orbits, Earthly Politics: The Securitization of Space Debris in the New Space Age. EASST
Conference, Lancaster, UK
2018 Tinkering with Humans: Social Engineering and the Construction of “deficient users” in Cyber Security, EASST Conference, Lancaster, UK
2017 Mutual Imaginaries of Space Programs and Regional Security. Science and Democracy Network - 15th Annual Meeting, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
Peer Review for international journals
MIT Press, Inside Infrastructure Series,
Science as Culture
Science, Technology and Human Values
Science and Technology Studies
New Media and Society
Security Dialogue
Big Data & Society
Journal of Human Rights
Earth System Governance
Politics and Governance
Information Polity
3. Publication List (Selection)
Klimburg-Witjes, N & Chlormann, M. (2022) Space Debris. Environment and Planning D: Forum on Space and Society. (forthcoming)
Klimburg-Witjes, N. & Wentland, A. (2021). Hacking Humans? Social Engineering and the construction of the “deficient” user. Science, Technology and Human Values 46(6). doi: 10.1177/0162243921992844
Klimburg-Witjes, N. (2021). Shifting Articulations of Space Security:
Boundary Work in European Space Policy Making. European Security. doi:
10.1080/09662839.2021.1890039
Clormann, M. & Klimburg-Witjes, N. (2021). Troubled Orbits and Earthly Concerns: Space Debris as a Boundary Infrastructure. Science, Technology and Human Values. doi: 10.1177/01622439211023554
Klimburg-Witjes, N. & Hüttenrauch, F. (2021) Responsible Innovation at the Smart Border.Science and Engineering Ethics 27(19). doi: 10.1007/s11948-021- 00292-y
Gugganig, M. & Klimburg-Witjes, N. (2021). Island Imaginaries. Introduction to a special section. Science as Culture, 30 (3), doi:
10.1080/09505431.2021.1939294
Wentland, A. & Klimburg-Witjes, N. (2021). „Die Nutzer sind das Problem, nicht das System“ – Verantwortung, Vertrauen und Vulnerabiltät in IT- Sicherheitsdiskursen. In: K. Braun, & C. Kropp (eds.), In digitaler Gesellschaft:
Neukonfigurationen zwischen Robotern, Algorithmen und Usern. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld.
Passoth, Jan-H., Bowker, G.C., Klimburg-Witjes, N., Van Mannen (2021). Hacking Satellites. In: Klimburg-Witjes, N., Pöchhacker, N., Bowker GC. (eds). Sensing Security. Sensors and the Making of Transnational Security Infrastructures.
Mattering Press: Manchester, UK.
Chlormann, M. & Klimburg-Witjes, N (2020). Space Debris Sustainability:
Understanding and Engaging Outer Space Environments. In: Madi, M. &
Sokolova, O. (eds.) The Space Debris Peril: Pathways to Opportunities. CRC Press.
ISBN: 978-0-367-51819-6
Witjes, N & Olbrich, P (2017). Fragile Transparency: Satellite Imagery and the Making of International Security Issues, Science and Public Policy, Volume 44, Issue 4, 1 August 2017, pp 524–534, doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scw0792 Witjes, N., Olbrich, P. & Rebasso, I. (2017): Big Data from Outer Space:
Opportunities and Challenges for Crisis Response. In: Al-Akabi & Barranes, B. et al: Access to Space and the Evolution of Space Activities. Springer:
Heidelberg, pp. 215-225. ISBN: 978-3-7091-4860-0
Olbrich, P & Witjes, N. (2016): Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Big Data:
Commercial Satellite Imagery and its Promise of Speed and Transparency, In: Mulqueen, M. & Zwitter, A. (eds): Big Data - Society, Security,
Innovation and Ethics. Palgrave MacMillan: Basingstoke, pp. 115-126. ISBN: 978- 1-349- 94885-7.
Witjes, N. & Sigl, L. (2015): Internationalization of Science, Technology &
Innovation (STI): an emerging policy field at the intersection of foreign policy and science policy? In: A. Franzmann, & A. Jansen, Legitimizing Science:
National and Global Public, 1800-2010. Campus: Frankfurt/New York, pp 245-272.
ISBN: 9783593504872
Editorial Work
Klimburg-Witjes, N., Pöchhacker, N., Bowker GC. (eds, 2021). Sensing Security. Sensors and the Making of Transnational Security Infrastructures.
Mattering Press: Manchester, UK.
Gugganig, M. & Klimburg-Witjes, N (2021): Island Imaginaries: Island imaginaries - from repositories to labs to lived experiences. Science as Culture, Special Issue
Guenay, C. & Witjes, N., (eds.) (2017): Border Politics. (Re-)defining Spaces, Mobility and Power Relations. Springer: Heidelberg. ISBN: 978-3- 319-46855-6.
