c:o/re Fellow 04/26 – 09/26
Estrid Sørensen is a professor for anthropology of knowledge at the Ruhr University Bochum. She has conducted research within a wide field of Science & Technology Studies, including educational technologies, media harm discourses, cyber security, digital methods and most recently she has turned towards researching data infrastructures. Her ethnographic and historical research addresses scientific data centres and high-performance computing and inquires the co-enactment of knowledge production and planetarity.
Cultures of Scientific High-Performance Computing and the Challenge of Energy Sustainability
Digitalisation – and particularly high-performance computing (HPC) – is currently responsible for the highest increase in energy consumption, among others due to increase in artificial intelligence use. This is the case in private and corporate contexts, as it is the case in science. The proposed project inquires how cultures of scientific HPC handle and are influenced by the paradox of the dual need for increased HPC in science and for reduction of energy consumption.
Publications (selection)
Çelik, L., Laser, S., Sørensen, E., & Abels, S. (2026). Staying with the planet: The university that tried to reckon with ecological reality, challenged excessive data infrastructures, and nurtured a few alternatives not planned for. transcript.
Pittroff, F., & Sørensen, E. (2025). Virtuelle Forschungsumgebung. In P. Breil, F. Sprenger, & S. Kokot (Eds.), Virtuelle Lebenswelten (1st ed., Vol. 7, pp. 419–424). transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839400340-053
Sørensen, E. (2025). Die Als-ob, die Langsame und die Planetare Universität: Drei Modi möglicher Universitäten. In P. Breil, F. Sprenger, & S. Kokot (Eds.), Virtuelle Lebenswelten (1st ed., Vol. 7, pp. 493–500). transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839400340-061
Sørensen, E. (2025). Erzählungen durch Daten: Distanzierte, engagierte, responsable, kollektive und planetare. In U. Holfelder, R. W. Peball, J. Schemmer, & K. Schönberger (Eds.), Alltage und Kultur/en der Digitalität: (Empirisch-) Kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf den soziokulturellen Wandel. Selbstverlag des Vereins für Volkskunde.
Kocksch, L. A., & Sørensen, E. (2023). Towards a Typology of Interdisciplinarity in Cybersecurity: Trade, Choice, and Agnostic-Antagonist. New Security Paradigms Workshop, 116–129. https://doi.org/10.1145/3633500.3633510