Academic interests
Tanja's research draws from science and technology studies (STS), digitalSTS, infrastructure studies, critical data and algorithm studies, media theory, and social studies of AI. Her work deals with the politics of data intensive knowledge infrastructures, health data infrastructures, bioinformatics and the politics of categories.
In her PhD project, which is affiliated with the Norwegian Center for Artificial Intelligence Innovation (NorwAI), she examines the socio-technical implications of automating speech and language technologies. Here research follows the tech industry's push into health care and explores how the human mind and body are classified and enrolled in algorithmic data infrastructures. She investigates the development of data-intensive voice recognition systems—by both private and public sector initiatives in Germany and Norway—for diagnostic applications in telecare and health care, as well as the data infrastructures required to collect, curate, and maintain such unstable voice data that infer information about a person's mental state. She critically examines the expansive deployment of deep learning and its effects on sensitive domains, such as the diagnosis of mental well-being.
Besides her work on health data infrastructures, she also investigates the ecologies of deep learning and the value practices and value work involved in developing local LLMs.
Teaching
Spring term 2025:
TIK4011 - Science and Technology in Politics and Society - Lectures;
- STS and the Digital: Stakes and Challenges
- Digitization, Life Sciences and Publics
- STS and the Digital: The Digital Formation of Publics
- STS and the Digital: Studying AI, Algorithms and Infrastructures
- Obligatory Workshop: STS and Digital Infrastructuring
Background
I hold a BA in Information Design, MA in Media and Interaction Design both from the University of Applied Sciences, FH Joanneum Graz and an MA in Cultural Studies from the Department of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies at the Goldsmiths University of London with a focus in digital feminist cultures, software studies and critical data studies.
Partners
