Heidrun Åm, Mag.a

Heidrun Åm
MA in Political Sciences (University of Vienna)

Short Biography
I was born in Leoben (Austria) in 1981 and studied Political Sciences (finished in 2007) and Communication Sciences (to be finished until 2009) at the University of Vienna. In my diploma thesis 'Nanotechnologies as a Governance-Challenge', I analyzed how the 'nanotechnology-hype' was generated and how "nanotechnology" was constructed as a coherent artifact. The purpose of the paper was to stress the political aspect in the development of nanotechnologies. In my subsequent dissertation project, I conduct empirical research on nanotechnology-policies. In my research, I pay special attention to the constitutive role of language, argumentative strategies and performances in nanotechnology governance.

PhD Topic
Nanotechnologies compared. Governance under Conditions of Uncertainty (working title)
The focus of the study is on the United Kingdom and Germany, in the context of the European Union and against the background of the situation in the United States.

Research Interests
Governance of Science, Food Policies, Risk Research, Power Relations, Interpretative Policy Analysis, Identity Politics

Current Work
ViGo Fellow
Editor of the Online-Newspaper of the University of Vienna, Public Relations Department: www.dieuniversitaet-online.at
Lecturer at the Department of Political Sciences, University of Vienna

Internship at Research Departments
July – August 2003 at the European Parliament, Directorate General for Research, Department for International Affairs
July – August 2004 at the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), Unit 2 Research and Data Analysis
September 2004 at the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance

Courses Taught
Teaching assistant at the Department of Communication Sciences, University of Vienna, Summer Term 2006 to Summer Term 2007
"Introductory Seminar: Political Systems in Comparison", Summer Term 2008, Department of Political Sciences, University of Vienna
"Introductory Course: Comparative Analysis of Politics", Winter Term 2008, Department of Political Sciences, University of Vienna
"Introduction to Critical Policy Analysis", Winter Term 2009, Department of Political Sciences, University of Vienna, together with Ursula Naue and Ingrid Metzler

Studies Abroad
August 2004 - June 2005, Erasmus Exchange Year at the Department of Political Science of the University of Lund (Sweden)
March - June 2009, Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham (Great Britain)
October - December 2009, Institute of Philosophy (nanoOffice), Technical University Darmstadt (Germany) 

Summer Schools visited
European Summer School on Public Policy Analysis (ESSPA), Summer 2007
Summerschool on the Ethics of Converging Technologies, September 2008

Presentations at Conferences
3rd International Conference in Interpretive Policy Analysis, 19-21 June 2008, Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Essex
2nd ECPR Graduate Conference, 25 - 27 August 2008, Universitat Autonòma Barcelona
4th International Conference in Interpretive Policy Analysis, 25 - 27 June 2009, University of Kassel, Germany

Co-organized Conferences & Workshop
Workshop "Nanotechnology compared", University of Vienna, (June 2009)

Contact
Email