WHO WE ARE
We bring them all together: Outstanding academics across disciplines, leaders with diverse backgrounds, skilled and enthusiastic young researchers, and students seeking to shape our digital futures
Principal Investigators
Professor of German, European and International Criminal Justice, Comparative Law and Legal Theory & Founding Speaker
Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard, LL.M. (NYU)
Christoph Burchard is the founding speaker of the C3S. He holds the chair for German, European and International Criminal Justice, Comparative Law and Legal Theory at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. He is also adjunct faculty of LUISS University Rome (program in Law, Digital Innovation and Sustainability), and principal investigator of the Normative Orders research network. In his current research, he inter alia focuses on the normative order of computational technology in postdigital societies, including on how AI impacts (stabilizes and transforms) the very core of normativity. He has co-published on argument mining in legal texts and the use of large generative AI models in legal writing.
"In Critical Computational Studies, both Cs – the Critical and the Computational – meet on equal footing. We complement computational (as in: operating with software, hardware, and data) with critical (as in: reflective and pertaining to significant transformative) approaches. Both Cs may prove challenging for one another. But they do not assail, let alone dissolve each other. Both Cs come together to constructively and creativly so that we - as researchers, teachers, users and citizens - enjoy the agency to shape our (post-)digital futures.
In the Center for Critical Computational Studies, or C3S, we hence set out to interweave these two Cs without prejudice. Neither is one C pushing boldly ahead while the other stands in the way of progress. Nor is one C meant to disentchant the other and its calamities.
This openness is what makes C3S unique, and why it can inspire innovative research across and beyond disciplinary boundaries.
Today’s (post)computational realities are characterized by anthropogenic climate change, pluralism and inequalities. Computational research and solutions hence need to be trustworthy and sustainable – or more generally speaking: they need to be justifiable. This is exactly what Critical Computational Studies is after.
At the same - remember C and C meeting on equal footing - computational approaches offer indispensable insights into complex systems, especially into critical points of their evolution and transformation. Such insights will, now or in some future, prompt vital solutions to impending challenges. For example, by exploring possible commonalities, even isomorphisms between and across different domains, I expect Critical Computational Studies to come up with novel cross-domain computational methods (e.g. multi-scale simulations of complex multi-actor networks). Such methods will generate deeper system understandings, including on how computational technologies are themselves shaping (for good or bad) these very systems and their understandings.
In working with social, political and industrial leaders as well as with our highly motivated students, C3S will advance - not only as an afterthought, but as a critical building block of our mission - Critical Computational Literacy as a necessary future skill to tackle our (post)digital planetary societies, and to shape them 'properly' for all those concerned and affected by computational technologies, including future generations."
Christoph Burchard, 21 April 2023
Professor of Complex Systems and Network Science & Co-Spokesperson
Prof. Dr. Tiago de Paula Peixoto
Tiago de Paula Peixoto is the Co-Spokesperson of the C3S. He is a Professor of Complex Systems and Network Science here and at the Institute of Computer Science, Goethe University Frankfurt. He is also a Fellow Professor at IT:U, and External Faculty at the Complexity Science Hub, Vienna, Austria.
His research group works at the interface between statistical physics, computational statistics, information theory, Bayesian inference, and machine learning, and has as its main focus the study of inverse problems in network science and complex systems.
Professor of Algorithm Engineering & Responsible for Research
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Meyer
Ulrich Meyer is the founding director for research at C3S. He holds the chair for Algorithm Engineering at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Ulrich Meyer is also a fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and PI in the ADYN and CMMS research consortia. From 2014 to 2022, he was the spokesperson for the DFG Priority Programme "Algorithms for Big Data". His current research encompasses both theoretical and experimental aspects of processing large data sets with advanced computational models including efficient generation of network training data, certifying computations, and computational methods to ensure fairness in data and resource consumptions.
"Almost every field of human endeavour nowadays requires some form of computer support and algorithmic expertise, and people are acquiring own programming skills and a basic algorithmic understanding, or they hire personnel with such a background. The problems addressed in academic algorithmic research, however, tend to be highly technical and specific, and often do not directly match the needs on the application side. Hence, users mostly select tools based on how easy they are available instead of how well they fit, or basic do-it-yourself solutions are employed. This is unfortunate, because better algorithms can often improve the performance or quality by orders of magnitude, or even enable new, unforeseen possibilities. Over the years this gap has become a critical brake on innovation. C3S with its multi- and trans-disciplinary approach is set out to narrow this gap."
Professor of Empirical Computational Ethics & Deputy for Research
Prof. Dr. Paula Helm
Paula Helm is Professor of Empirical Computational Ethics at the C3S. She specialises in Critical Computational Studies and Empirical Ethics. Originally trained in Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Research, her work is situated at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Ethnographic Methods, and Technology Ethics.
Before joining C3S, Paula was Assistant Professor of Ethics and Data Science at the University of Amsterdam, where she also served as Scientific Lead of the Empirical Ethics Research Group at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Studies and coordinated a new MA track in Cultural Data and AI that integrates critical inquiry with data science. The larger mission of Paula’s work is to move AI-Ethics from the PR- to the Engineering-, Infrastructural- and Development-Level.
Professor of Educational Theory and Practices of Critical Computational Literacy & Responsible for Education
Prof. Dr. Dan Verständig
Dan Verständig is Professor of Educational Theory and Practices of Critical Computational Literacy at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C³S), Goethe University Frankfurt. His research addresses learning in the context of digitality, with a focus on inequality, civic participation, and creative-critical approaches to coding and data literacy. He is a founding member of the Critical Big Data and Algorithmic Literacy Network (CBDALN) and works with experimental formats such as interactive installations, data-driven art, and playful methods to make digital infrastructures visible and reflect on their societal implications. He also advises NGOs on digital literacy and information security.
Professor of Educational Science with a Focus on School and Cultural Transformation & Deputy for Education
Prof. Dr. Juliane Engel
Juliane Engel is a Professor of Education focusing on schools and cultural transformation. In systematic and empirical studies, her work examines educational processes and learning considered in the context of dynamics of social transformation, such as processes of cultural pluralization and (post-)digitality, highlighting asymmetries of power. This analysis focuses on the materiality and mediality of processes of subjectification as well as on new forms of agency in postdigital realities. She is chair of the Commission for Qualitative Educational and Biographical Research of the German Society for Educational Science (QBBF), where she works on advancing the methodological development of digitized research. She is (co-)founder of an international research group on “becoming planetary” and co-editor of the journal Education in the Anthropocene: Sustainability, Transformation, Cultures.
"Society as well as academia are now firmly in a state of post-digitality: a state characterized by digital ubiquity and ongoing internalization of algorithmized orders that has been transforming cultures and societies. The Center for Critical Computational Studies is dedicated not only to studying these dynamics of transformation but also to rising to the task and taking responsibility by shaping them, in a joint interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary endeavor. I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to this exciting collaborative research from the perspective of education."
Professor for Political Science and Political Sociology & Responsible for Transfer
Prof. Dr. Natalie Welfens
Natalie Welfens is a Professor for Political Science and Political Sociology at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S) at Goethe University Frankfurt. Her research examines social inequalities, knowledge production, and inclusion/exclusion dynamics in migration and refugee governance with a focus on Germany, the EU and global contexts. A particular focus of her work lies on questions of gendered and intersectional inequalities and their role in shaping power relations and institutional practices.
Her current project, Technological Transformations in Migration and Asylum Governance (2026–2030), funded by a Volkswagen Change! Fellowship, investigates how emerging technologies and AI reproduce or challenge existing inequalities and explores pathways toward more inclusive and participatory digital infrastructures. She is also involved in the project Speculative Futures: Examining Data-Driven Models in European Security Policies (FUTURESEC), which critically examines the role of data-driven prognostic models in European security and migration governance.
Professor for Computational Earth System Sciences & Deputy for Transfer
Prof. Dr. Nico Wunderling
Nico Wunderling is a Professor for Computational Earth System Sciences at the Center for Critical Computational Studies and a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). His research focuses on interacting tipping elements in the Earth system—from components of the physical climate system, like ice sheets and ocean currents, to global ecosystems such as the Amazon rainforest. Using methods from complex systems science, nonlinear dynamics, and computational Earth System Modelling, his work aims to assess the risk for triggering (cascading) tipping events and outpacing adaptive capacities of global ecosystems. Nico Wunderling is also deeply interested in how social sustainability transformations—such as decarbonization—can reduce the risk of crossing dangerous climate thresholds.
If you are interested in this research, are looking for PhD- or PostDoc opportunities, or looking for a Bachelors-/Master’s thesis on related topics, please get in touch under wunderling@c3s.uni-frankfurt.de
Professor of Critical Data & Surveillance Studies
Prof. Dr. Azadeh Akbari
Azadeh Akbari is Professor of Critical Data & Surveillance Studies at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C³S) at Goethe University Frankfurt. Her research focuses on the geopolitics of digital transformation, digital authoritarianism, data justice, and ICTs for development. Azadeh is a director of Surveillance Studies Network and the founder and director of Surveillance in the Majority World Research Network. She is an associate editor at the journals Surveillance & Societyand Information Technology for Development. Azadeh was formerly Assistant Professor of Digital Transformation at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands, and an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Actions fellow with a project on authoritarian smart cities. She appears frequently in international media and consults policymakers and civil society on issues of surveillance and digital repression.
Professor for Mechanistic Modelling of Biodiversity and Ecosystems
Prof. Dr. Oskar Hagen
Professor for Environmental Economics
Prof. Dr. Manuel Linsenmeier
Manuel Linsenmeier's research focuses on the socioeconomic impacts of climate change and adaptation to climate change in the context of sustainable development. Using statistical methods, economic models, and interdisciplinary data sets, he investigates how our society can be made resilient and sustainable in times of climate change. His research focuses in particular on global interrelationships and socioeconomic inequalities. Manuel Linsenmeier is also particularly involved in transferring scientific findings into climate adaptation policy and practice and has thus contributed to national climate risk analyses in Germany and the United Kingdom and advised the World Bank. Among others, he has research collaborations with Columbia University, Princeton University, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Professor of Law and Philosophy
Prof. Dr. Sabine Müller-Mall
Sabine Müller-Mall is Professor of Law and Philosophy at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C³S) at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. Her research focuses on legal philosophy, constitutional theory and constitutional law. She is currently investigating fundamental legal and political issues arising from the use of computational techniques, legal normativity, the theory of legal judgement and the relationship between law and aesthetics.
Recent publications: Verfassende Urteile. Eine Theorie des Rechts (Suhrkamp, 2023); and Freiheit und Kalkül. Die Politik der Algorithmen (Reclam, 2020).
Professor for Computational Social Science
Prof. Dr. Lisa Oswald
Lisa Oswald is a Professor for Computational Social Science at the C3S.
Her research focuses on public discourse in online environments and the role of digital media for democratic politics. While integrating psychological and political science perspectives, she uses digital trace data and online experiments to examine social phenomena including climate change skepticism, online hate speech and political polarisation. In her work, Lisa engages equally in quantitative description as well as causal inference. Her most recent lines of work examine (1) dynamics of online political discussion participation and consequences for the visibility of different viewpoints and (2) behavioural interventions to boost media literacy in transforming information environments. Her work has been published in leading interdisciplinary journals (e.g. Science Advances and Nature Human Behaviour).
She holds a PhD in political science (Dr. rer. pol.) from the Hertie School in Berlin and worked as a Postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin where she remains affiliated as visiting researcher at the Center for Adaptive Rationality. She graduated from the University of Oxford with a MSc degree in Social Data Science, and from the University of Kassel with a BSc and MSc degree in Psychology.
Professor of Quantitative Social Science
Prof. Dr. Tobias Rüttenauer
Tobias Rüttenauer is a Professor of Quantitative Social Science at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S), Goethe-University Frankfurt. He is also an Associate Member of Nuffield College, University of Oxford. His research interests lie primarily in environmental sociology, spatial demography, and quantitative methods. In previous work, he has examined the spatial distribution of air pollution, the disproportionate exposure of ethnic minority groups, and patterns of selective migration. More broadly, he is interested in how environmental conditions and spatial contexts shape human behaviour. Prior to joining C3S, Tobias worked as an Associate Professor of Quantitative Social Science at University College London. He earned an M.A. in Sociology from LMU Munich, a Dr. phil in Sociology from the University of Kaiserslautern, and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Researchers
Postdoctoral Researcher
Brett Aho
Brett Aho is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Critical Computational Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt in the Working Group on Critical Data and Technology Studies. Broadly speaking, his research adapts comparative approaches to examine the construction and governance of data ecosystems. His work explores how institutions and stakeholder dynamics shape data ecologies, and highlights how data functions as a new strategic resource. He previously received his PhD from the University of California Santa Barbara, and completed masters degrees at Leipzig University and Roskilde University.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Martina Contisciani
Martina Contisciani is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S), Goethe-University Frankfurt. Her research focuses on the development of statistical methods and algorithms to analyze complex systems, with a particular interest in network inference. She is also passionate in applying these methodologies to real-world problems and is currently involved in the MOMA project, which aims to model the multiscale network structure of migration flows in Austria.
Martina completed a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of Tübingen, supervised by Dr. Caterina De Bacco, with a doctoral dissertation entitled “Probabilistic Generative Models for Inference on Complex Systems”. Her Ph.D. has been supported by the Cyber Valley and the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems (IMPRS-IS). Martina also holds a master’s degree in Data Science and a bachelor’s degree in Statistics for Business and Economics, both from the University of Padua.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Johannes Haaf
Johannes Haaf is a postdoctoral researcher at the C3S. He is currently also a visiting scholar at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. Johannes received his PhD in Political Science from TU Dresden in 2023, where he had been working as a research associate at the Chair of Legal and Constitutional Theory since 2016. Prior to that, he studied Political Science with a focus on Political Theory and Philosophy in Freiburg, Copenhagen, Toronto, and Frankfurt/M. From January 2020 to October 2023, he was a member of the German-French doctoral program “Construire les différences”.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Bukyoung Jhun
Bukyoung Jhun is a statistical physicist and network scientist whose research focuses on the inference and reconstruction of complex networks and their connections to epidemic dynamics, higher-order interactions, and critical phenomena. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Seoul National University in 2023, where he studied the prediction and control of complex contagion processes. His work encompasses network inference, hypergraph contagion, graph neural networks, and the latent geometry of complex networks.
Doctoral Researcher
Meg Kitamura
Meg Kitamura is a Doctoral Researcher in the Working group Critical Data & Technology Studies at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S) at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main. She is currently investigating the (dis)continuities of imperial logic in how multinational surveillance technology firms embed themselves in critical digital infrastructures and how they reproduce and reconfigure power dynamics.
Doctoral Researcher
Sebastian Kusch
Sebastian Kusch is a PhD Candidate at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S), Goethe-University Frankfurt.
Doctoral Researcher
Michael Lenke
Michael Lenke is a researcher at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S). His work in the field of computer science education focuses on educational approaches that foster reflective and meaningful interactions with digital technologies. He is particularly interested in artificial intelligence, (explainable) AI in educational contexts and computational thinking.
Doctoral Researcher
Niki Lohmann
Niki Lohmann is a research assistant at the chair for Computational Earth System Sciences at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C³S) and a guest researcher at the Earth Resilience Science Unit at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Their research focuses on tipping elements in the Earth system, and how risks of tipping points and cascades can be assessed under future global warming scenarios.
Doctoral Researcher
Samuel Manfredi
Samuel Manfredi is a doctoral researcher at the C3S.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Lena Mangold
Lena Mangold is a postdoctoral researcher working at the intersection of network science, statistical modelling, and computational social science. Her research focuses on the development of Bayesian inferential methods for studying structure in complex networks.
Alongside her methodological work, she is interested in the use of quantitative and computational approaches to investigate broader questions related to inequality, representation, and the dynamics of political and social organisation.
Her doctoral research focused on the diversity of block structure in networks, the relationship between metadata and such block structure, and an exploration of these phenomena in the specific context of online interaction networks.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Rodrigo Maruy
Rodrigo Maruy is a postdoctoral researcher at the C3S. Prior to that, he was a fellow at the Centre for Social Critique at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In the framework of the DFG Research Training Group 2638: Normativity – Critique – Change, Rodrigo worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Practical Philosophy and Social Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität, where he wrote a PhD thesis on the relation between law and emancipation in Frankfurt School critical social theory. He has studied Philosophy in Lima, Bordeaux and Berlin.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Kolja Möller
Kolja Möller is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S), Goethe-University Frankfurt. His research focuses on political theory, consitutionalism, and populism studies. He is currently a Research Associate (Postdoc) at the Centre for Critical Computational Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt and the Institute of Political Science. Möller received his PhD and habilitation from the University of Flensburg and has held academic positions in Dresden, Bremen, and Frankfurt. His research explores the dynamics of popular sovereignty, democratic transformation, and the evolution of constitutional orders under conditions of societal complexity. He is the author of several monographs, including Volk und Elite. Eine Gesellschaftstheorie des Populismus (Suhrkamp, 2024) and Volksaufstand und Katzenjammer (Wagenbach, 2020), and co-editor of the Cambridge Handbook of Legal Populism (forthcoming)
Doctoral Researcher
Rike Mühlhaus
Rike Mühlhaus is a research assistant at the Chair for Computational Earth System Sciences at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C³S) and a guest researcher at the Earth Resilience Science Unit at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). In her research, she analyses the likelihood of tipping points and cascading dynamics under future emission scenarios, with an emphasis on improving the policy relevance of climate risk assessments. Her work focuses on climate tipping elements in the Earth system, particularly on reframing tipping risk assessments from temperature-based pathways to CO₂-based metrics.
Doctoral Researcher
Ula Przybylska
Ula Przybylska is a researcher and digital creative with a background in cultural anthropology and immersive media. At the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S), she explores playful approaches to AI literacy as part of the TRR 318 project Constructing Explainability.
Moving between traditional and experimental research formats, her work combines critical inquiry with playful, embodied experiences that invite new ways of engaging with technology.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Bouwe Reijenga
Bouwe Reijenga is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C3S) at Goethe University Frankfurt, where he develops eco-evolutionary simulation models. His research explores why biodiversity varies across space and time by linking ecological communities with macroevolutionary processes such as speciation, extinction, and range expansion. His work has progressed from ornithological field studies to phylogenetic, genomic, and palaeobiological analyses, culminating in the development of theoretical models that integrate biodiversity patterns across ecological and evolutionary timescales.
Doctoral Researcher
Ella Streefkerk
Ella Streefkerk (she/her) is a doctoral researcher in Empirical Computational Ethics at the Centre for Critical Computational Studies (C3S). Her doctoral research is primarily located in the ELLIOT project, where she contributes to WP2 on the social and ethical dimensions of European multimodal AI foundation models. Drawing on feminist, queer, and post- and de-colonial perspectives, she studies how NSFW (not-safe-for-work) taxonomies move across ML pipelines, from platforms, to datasets and into model development and application.
Doctoral Researcher
Tomáš Koref
Tomáš Koref is a Project Associate at C3S and a joint PhD candidate in Legal Theory at Goethe University and Charles University. His research focuses on legal argumentation combining empirical and computational methods. He currently leads an interdisciplinary legal argument mining project analyzing hundreds of thousands of apex court decisions to examine reasoning practices in Central Europe.
Research Associate and Specialist for Education
Johanna Weckenmann, M.A.
Johanna Weckenmann is a Research Associate at C3S and part of the AC/DC project across the Goethe University Frankfurt. Her work focuses on critical perspectives on digital education, computational cultures, and transformative teaching practices. Within C3S, she contributes to the education resort and is responsible for the development of inter-and crossdisciplinary modules in Critical Computational Literacy, with a background in educational theory and qualitative methods and a particular interest in interdisciplinary and reflective approaches to computational education.
Research Associate and Specialist for Education
Dr. Friedrich Wolf
Friedrich Wolf is a Research Associate at C3S and part of the AC/DC project across the Goethe University Frankfurt. His work focuses on critical perspectives on digital education, computational cultures, and transformative teaching practices. Within C3S, he contributes to the education resort and is responsible for the development of inter-and crossdisciplinary modules in Critical Computational Literacy, with a background in quantitative research methods and a particular interest in interdisciplinary and reflective approaches to computational education.
