Prof. Dr. Asta Vonderau

SoCuM Project: Discursive Crossings: Subversion and Affirmation of Power Relations
(Within the scope of AG 4)

This project deals with cultural, symbolic and social aspects of inequality in light of the inter-relatedness of power and knowledge. It also aims at creating methodical and theoretical instruments for an interdisciplinary discussion and examination of discursive power constructs. On completion of my project on theTransnationalization of Public Spheres, I am publishing an anthology entitled Transnationalität und Öffentlichkeit. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven (Transnationality and the Public Sphere, Interdisciplinary Perspectives), to be released in Spring 2014.

Research Interests
Political Anthropology and Economics, Cultural Scientific Technology and Infrastructure Research, Europe and Europeanization Research, Post-Socialist Transformation in (Eastern) Europe, Migration and Mobility

Academic Background
Asta Vonderau has been Junior Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the Institute for Film-Theatre and Empirical Cultural Studies at JGU, since 2010. Her current research project Infrastrukturen der Exzellenz: Die Hochschulreform als politisches Projekt und alltagsweltliche Erfahrung (Infrastructures of Excellence: High school Reform as Political Project and Everyday Experience) deals with political concepts, public representation and everyday implementation of the current High School reform process in Germany as well as the social and cultural effects of these measures. Vonderau studied and obtained her PhD at the Humboldt University of Berlin in the Faculty of European Ethnology. Her dissertation is entitled Leben im ‚neuen Europa’. (Life in The New Europe)

Publications (Top 5)

2014

Audit-Cultures and Infrastructures of Excellence: Studies and Teaching Reform at German Universities. In: Learning and Teaching. The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences (forthcoming).

2013

Die Schatten der Transparenz. Europäisierung, Standardisierung und ungehorsame Märkte an den Rändern Europas. In: Volkskunde in Sachsen 25. P. 7-28.

2013

Audit Kultur: Verwaltungssysteme, unternehmerische Subjekte, Regierungsweisen an einer Deutschen Hochschule. In: Reinhard Johler et. al. (eds.): Kultur_Kultur. Denken, Forschen, Darstellen. Münster, New York, Berlin: Waxmann Verlag. P. 417-423.

2010

Leben im ‚neuen Europa’. Konsum, Lebensstile und Körpertechniken im Postsozialismus. Bielefeld: Transcript.

2008

Yet Another Europe? Constructing and Representing Identities in Lithuania Two Years after the EU Accession. In: Tsypylma Darieva, Wolfgang Kaschuba (ed.): Representations on the Margins of Europe. Politics and Identities in the Baltic and South Caucasian States. Frankfurt, New York: Campus. P. 220-241.