Laura Kuen
Laura Kuen
QUALIFICATIONS
2018 M.A., Visual Anthropology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
2015 B.A., Social Anthropology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
PRINCIPAL RESEARCH INTERESTS
War and Environmental aspects; Human-Animal Relations; Environmental Humanities; Multimodal Anthropology and Ethnographic Film; Food and Eating; Gender; Rurality; Eastern Europe
RESEARCH PROFILE
I am a doctoral researcher in the ERC BOAR Project team at the Institute of Ethnology. During and after my study of social and visual anthropology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany, I have worked as an ethnographic filmmaker and exhibition curator engaging with diverse environmental topics.
My current research focusses on human-pig relations and small-scale farming in Western Ukraine. I examine how keeping animals is shaped by and responding to larger events such as Russia’s war against Ukraine. To make (changing) human-environmental relations comprehensible to audiences in but also beyond academia, I combine approaches from the environmental humanities and more-than-human anthropology with visual and multimodal methods.
I am a member of the European Conservation Humanities Network.
Documentary Films and Multimedia Work
2024 Keil, P. G., Szczygielska M, O’Mahony K, and Kuen L.J. rootling.place (interactive website)
2017 Kuen, L.J. & Snigirev, Y. Our Freedom. (Russian & German with English subtitles, 52’)
2014 Jost, M. & Kuen, L.J. Sitz!Platz!Aus! – Aber a Hund war er scho… (German, 34’)
Scientific Publications
2018 Kuen, L.J. & Snigirev, Y. ‘Our Freedom’: Sovereignty in Rural Russia. Journal of Extreme Anthropology 2(2).
Ongoing projects
2021 Veterinarization of Europe? Hunting for wild boar futures in the time of African swine fever. European Research Council Consolidator Grant (866350). Doctoral Researcher.
Awards
2019 Innovative Teaching Award for the MA course “Ecopolis Munich: Environmental Stories of Discovery.” Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
2017 Excellent Student Research Award for documentary “Our Freedom.” Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
Editorial work
2019 Ecopolis München: Umwelt- und Entdeckungsgeschichten. [Ecopolis Munich: Environmental Stories of Discovery] exhibition catalogue. Munich: Rachel Carson Center. (Co-editors Lüdecke G., Mauch C. )
2018 Forschungsjournal 2017. Studentische Feldforschungen am Institut für Ethnologie. [Research Journal 2017. Ethnographic Student Research at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology] Munich: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology. (co-editors Kuen, L.J., Sökefeld M.)
Networks and Memberships
Since 2023 Member of the European Conservation Humanities Network.
Since 2018 Founding member of the Rachel Carson Center Alumni Association e.V.
Invited Talks
2023 April, 26. Natürliche Grenzen? Periphere Landschaften des östlichen Europas in Diskurs, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. [Natural borders? Peripheral landscapes of Eastern Europe in discourse, economy and society.] public lecture with Pavla Šimková, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde e.V.
Co-curated Exhibitions
2024 Land.schafft.Klang. [Sounding Landscapes] Travelling exhibition, Germany.
2019 Ecopolis Munich: Environmental Stories of Discovery. Werksviertel-Mitte, Munich.
2018 Cosmos Coffee. Special exhibition, Deutsches Museum, Munich.
2017 Ecopolis München: Environmental Histories of a City. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich.
Conference and Workshop Organisation
2024 Symbiotic methods: more-than-human companions for knowing. Panel session for the conference of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), Amsterdam.
2024 Peasants? Smallholders? Farmers? Undoing and redoing categories for people working in agriculture through ethnography. Panel session for the Conference of the European Association for Social Anthropologists, Barcelona.
Public Outreach and Online Essays
2024 Rootling.place (a website for wandering and wondering with pigs). (co-designers Szczygielska, Marianna- Kuen, Laura- Keil, Paul G)
2024 Working Animals: Metabolic Labor and Resistance. etc. galerie, Prague.
2023 Kdopak to jí: o jedení a krmení jako vztazích zdaleka nejen lidských. [Who the eaters are: On eating and feeding relations beyond the human.] Academix revue 7: 46-49.
2022 Feral ethics. Thinking feral with pigs. New Alphabet School (HKW). (co-authors Szczygielska, Marianna- Kuen, Laura- Keil, Paul G)
2022 Waiting for the Frost: Slaughtering Day in Transcarpathia. Wildboar.cz
2019 The Freedom of the Forest. STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography.
2019 Ecopolis Munich: Environmental Stories of Discovery. Seeingthewoods.
2017 Zu Gast und zu Hause oder Wo sich in Russland die Freiheit findet. [Being a Guest and Being at Home or Where Freedom is found in Russia.] Research Journal 2016 – Ethnographic Student Research at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology. 11-26. (co-author Snigirev, Y.)
2017 Democratic Green. Ecopolis Munich, L.S. Gora (ed.). Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions 2017, no. 2. Rachel Carson Center. (Co-authors: Elders M, Schmitt M.)
2017 Kuen, L.J. Danube: Environments, Histories, and Cultures: Vienna – Bratislava. Seeingthewoods.
