Hi,
I am Meta (she/ her), an interdisciplinarily trained sociologist interested in the sociology of (social) sciences and social theory from a critical global perspective. My work revolves around the (self-)governance and inequalities of science with a particular emphasis on global inequalities, colonial legacies and transnational dynamics.
I am a Senior Researcher at the Robert K. Merton Center for Science Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, working in an international collaborative project on "Predatory publishing practices”, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
Situated at the intersection of sociology of science approaches and global sociologies, my monograph on research and career practices of Anglo-Caribbean social scientists will be published by Bristol University Press in November 2025, you can pre-order the book here.
I am presently focussing on questions more broadly related to the governmentality of science. This includes thinking about research evaluation regimes and how they affect the work practices of scholars, disciplinary and regional publishing cultures, entrenched institutional and global inequalities and in doing so, building on critical social theory.
Together with M. Reinhart, I recently wrote an article that develops a heuristic of different research evaluation regimes from a global stance to better understand the governance of science from a transnational perspective. You can find a preprint version here.
We will present this work at the RESSH in Helsinki in May and the Congress of the German Sociological Association (DGS) in September in Duisburg. We also organised an Ad-Hoc group at the DGS together, which will adress the relationship of science and politics in transition.
Academic Background
I started my academic journey with an interdisciplinary Bachelor’s programme in "Sociology, Politics and Economics" at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen. Exchange semesters at the University of Oxford (Michaelmas 2017) and in Tel Aviv (Spring 2017) enabled me to experience different academic cultures first-hand. This inspired me to write my B.A. Thesis on student mobility in academia at the chair for sociological theory, supervised by M. Lehmann.
After finishing my B.A., I got the opportunity to work as a research assistant at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research and gained experience in video and situational analysis by assisting S. Malthaner in a project on escalation dynamics during the G20 protests in Hamburg in 2017.
Afterwards, I enrolled in the M.A. "Social Sciences" programme at Humboldt University Berlin, where I focussed on the sociology of borders and migration and (postcolonial) urban sociology. Additionally, I gained research experience by working as a student assistant for S. Mau. During another exchange semester at King's College London (Fall 2019), I further enrolled in Global and area studies courses in which I encountered works from post- and decolonial perspectives. I completed my Master's with a Thesis at the Chair for Science Studies at HU Berlin, analysing the emergence of the German Sociology of Violence as a group.
From 2020 until 2023, I worked on my PhD project at the University of Freiburg and investigated the research and career practices of Anglo-Caribbean social scientists within global inequalities and colonial legacies: supervised by M. Boatcă, I aimed to advance existing macro-theoretical works in post-, decolonial and southern contributions by a practice-focussed empirical study.
I am Meta (she/ her), an interdisciplinarily trained sociologist interested in the sociology of (social) sciences and social theory from a critical global perspective. My work revolves around the (self-)governance and inequalities of science with a particular emphasis on global inequalities, colonial legacies and transnational dynamics.
I am a Senior Researcher at the Robert K. Merton Center for Science Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, working in an international collaborative project on "Predatory publishing practices”, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
Situated at the intersection of sociology of science approaches and global sociologies, my monograph on research and career practices of Anglo-Caribbean social scientists will be published by Bristol University Press in November 2025, you can pre-order the book here.
I am presently focussing on questions more broadly related to the governmentality of science. This includes thinking about research evaluation regimes and how they affect the work practices of scholars, disciplinary and regional publishing cultures, entrenched institutional and global inequalities and in doing so, building on critical social theory.
Together with M. Reinhart, I recently wrote an article that develops a heuristic of different research evaluation regimes from a global stance to better understand the governance of science from a transnational perspective. You can find a preprint version here.
We will present this work at the RESSH in Helsinki in May and the Congress of the German Sociological Association (DGS) in September in Duisburg. We also organised an Ad-Hoc group at the DGS together, which will adress the relationship of science and politics in transition.
Academic Background
I started my academic journey with an interdisciplinary Bachelor’s programme in "Sociology, Politics and Economics" at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen. Exchange semesters at the University of Oxford (Michaelmas 2017) and in Tel Aviv (Spring 2017) enabled me to experience different academic cultures first-hand. This inspired me to write my B.A. Thesis on student mobility in academia at the chair for sociological theory, supervised by M. Lehmann.
After finishing my B.A., I got the opportunity to work as a research assistant at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research and gained experience in video and situational analysis by assisting S. Malthaner in a project on escalation dynamics during the G20 protests in Hamburg in 2017.
Afterwards, I enrolled in the M.A. "Social Sciences" programme at Humboldt University Berlin, where I focussed on the sociology of borders and migration and (postcolonial) urban sociology. Additionally, I gained research experience by working as a student assistant for S. Mau. During another exchange semester at King's College London (Fall 2019), I further enrolled in Global and area studies courses in which I encountered works from post- and decolonial perspectives. I completed my Master's with a Thesis at the Chair for Science Studies at HU Berlin, analysing the emergence of the German Sociology of Violence as a group.
From 2020 until 2023, I worked on my PhD project at the University of Freiburg and investigated the research and career practices of Anglo-Caribbean social scientists within global inequalities and colonial legacies: supervised by M. Boatcă, I aimed to advance existing macro-theoretical works in post-, decolonial and southern contributions by a practice-focussed empirical study.