Dr. Sarah Schönbauer

Postdoc

Sociology of Science

Sarah Schönbauer is a researcher and lecturer at the professorship for Sociology of Science. Her research and expertise unfolds in two main areas: academic knowledge cultures in transition and environmental challenges. In her doctoral thesis at the Science and Technology Studies Department, University of Vienna, she examined the identity work of environmental scientists and how they would cope with systemic pressures in their work and more than work engagements. As part of her doctoral education, Sarah was a scholar in the postgraduate program “Sociology of Social Practices” at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna. In her first postdoctoral project, “Plastic – Publics – Politics” (Bmbf funded, together with Prof. Müller), she explored the social and political dimensions of the input of (sub)microplastic particles into the environment and concentrated on the perception of different societal stakeholders and possible scenarios of problem-solving. In her ongoing postdoctoral project, for which she has received funding from the Austrian Science Fund as Erwin Schrödinger fellow, Sarah researches how the role of environmental scientists is changing in contemporary societies with a focus on the marine sciences. She asks how marine scientists engage with environmental changes in their work and in public activities. Sarah is also a member of the DFG network “Waste in Motion” and researches visible and invisible waste (https://waste-in-motion.org/members/). From March 2022 to July 2022 she was a guest researcher at the CWTS, Leiden University. She also holds a diploma in biology from the University of Vienna, and is co-editor of the EASST Review.

You can find out more about Sarah here.