Franziska Zirker
About
Franziska Zirker conducts research at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies and critical security studies. Her research focuses on data technologies used to detect and manage emergencies, such as pandemics, natural disasters, and geopolitical crises. She is particularly interested in the political epistemology of security—the relationship between knowledge production and security strategies.
She is pursuing her Ph.D. at the Collaborative Research Center Dynamics of Security at the University of Marburg and holds an M.A. in Sociology (Frankfurt) as well as B.A.s in Political Science and Social Sciences (Marburg). In her dissertation, she examines how COVID-19 dashboards made the pandemic “knowable” in real time, and analyzes the tension between the desire for immediate, unambiguous information and the inevitable entanglement of data with diverse temporal, spatial, affective, and power politics. Methodologically, she works primarily with situational analysis following Adele Clarke, combined with interviews as well as ethnographic and art-based methods.
During her doctoral studies, she was a visiting researcher at the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation at the University of Edinburgh. She is a member of the German Sociological Association’s STS Section, EASST, 4S, and EIAS, and has taught at the Institute of Sociology as well as at the Center for Gender Studies and Feminist Future Studies at the University of Marburg.
Positions
Research Associate, Research Group: Digitalization and Networked Security (since May 2026)
Former Research Fellow, Research Group: Reorganization of Knowledge Practices (01.04.-30.04.2026)
Contact
Fields of Research
Franziska Zirker conducts research on:
- Security data technologies
- Research at the intersection of STS and critical security studies
Memberships, committees and functions
- Ausschuss Soziologie als Beruf. German Sociological Association (DGS) (seit November 2025)
- Mitgliedschaft German Sociological Association (DGS) (seit Mai 2025)
- Mitgliedschaft European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) (seit September 2024)
- Mitgliedschaft Society for Social Studies of Science (seit November 2023)
Selected publications
- Zirker F. (2026). (im Erscheinen/forthcoming) How the COVID-19 Dashboard Went Viral: Affective Flows and the Mediation of Emergency. Science Technology & Human Values. https://doi.org/10.1177/01622439261464766
Publications
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