Dr. Sarah Schönbauer

First and foremost, I am interested in the ocean, in environmental changes, in knowledge cultures that work on these changes, in plastic and waste. These are topics that are at the core of my research interests. So my research and expertise unfolds in two main areas: academic knowledge cultures in transition and environmental challenges.

I am a researcher and lecturer at the STS Department, TU Munich. In my doctoral thesis at the Science and Technology Studies Department, University of Vienna, I examined the identity work of environmental scientists and how they would cope with systemic pressures in their work and more than work engagements. As part of my doctoral education, I was a scholar in the postgraduate program “Sociology of Social Practices” at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna. In my first postdoctoral project, “Plastic – Publics – Politics” (Bmbf funded, together with Prof. Müller), I explored the social and political dimensions of the input of (sub)microplastic particles into the environment and concentrated on the perception of different societal stakeholders and possible scenarios of problem-solving. In my ongoing postdoctoral project, for which I have received funding from the Austrian Science Fund as Erwin Schrödinger fellow, I research how the role of environmental scientists is changing in contemporary societies with a focus on the marine sciences. I ask how marine scientists engage with environmental changes in their work and in public activities. I am also a member of the DFG network “Waste in Motion” and research visible and invisible waste (https://waste-in-motion.org/members/). From March 2022 to July 2022 I was a guest researcher at the CWTS, Leiden University. I also hold a diploma in biology from the University of Vienna, and was co-editor of the EASST Review from 2020 to 2023.