Laura Kuen
Laura Kuen
Research profile
Laura Kuen obtained her BA and MA in social and cultural anthropology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany in 2015 and 2018 and has worked as an ethnographic filmmaker and exhibition curator. Combining approaches from the environmental humanities and ecological and more-than-human anthropology with audio-visual methods, Laura seeks to make human-environmental relations comprehensible to audiences in but also beyond academia. Laura is currently interested in human-pig relations, small-scale farming, and foraging practices. Her regional and ethnographic interest is Ukraine.
Laura is a doctoral researcher in the ERC BOAR Project: "Veterinarization of Europe? Hunting for Wild Boar Futures in the Time of African Swine Fever." She is also a member of the European Conservation Humanities Network and the Ukrainian Environmental Humanities Network.
Research outputs
2023 Kuen, L.J. Review of Eating beside Ourselves: Thresholds of Foods and Bodies by Heather Paxson, ed. Humanimalia 14(1).
2021 Kuen, L.J. Review of Eating in Theory by Annemarie Mol. Czech Sociological Review 57(6): 750-752.
2018 Kuen, L.J. & Snigirev, Y. ‘Our Freedom’: Sovereignty in Rural Russia. Journal of Extreme Anthropology 2(2).
Conference presentations and talks
2023 Kuen, L.J. (2023/03/22). Feral Practices? Wild boar hybrid breeding in rural Ukraine. Relations and beyond: Conference of the Finnish Anthropological Society, University of Lapland.
2023 Kuen, L.J. (2023/02/10). Has the salo arrived yet? Food and care in rural Transcarpathia. II. International Conference: “Identities at the Borderlands", Uzhhorod National University.
Film screenings
2020 Our Freedom. 15th Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival.
2019 Our Freedom. 16th Film Festival of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Bristol.
2019 Our Freedom. St. Petersburg International Historical Forum.
2019 Our Freedom. Baltic Summer School of Anthropology Latvia.
2018 Our Freedom. 7th International Ethnographic Film Festival Marburg.
2017 Our Freedom. flimmern&rauschen Film Festival Munich.
2014 Sitz!Platz!Aus! Aber a Hund war er scho... Ethno-Filmfest Munich.
2014 Sitz!Platz!Aus! Aber a Hund war er scho... flimmern&rauschen Film Festival Munich.
Awards
2019 Teaching Innovation Award for the MA course “Ecopolis Munich: Environmental Stories of Discovery.” Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
2017 Excellent Student Research Award for “Our Freedom.” Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
Documentary Films
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’)
Co-curated Exhibitions
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 München.
Online Essays
2022 Szczygielska M, Kuen L.J., O’Mahony K, and Keil P. G. Feral ethics. Thinking feral with pigs. New Alphabet School (HKW).
2022 Kuen, L.J. Waiting for the Frost: Slaughtering Day in Transcarpathia. Wildboar.cz
2019 Kuen, L.J. The Freedom of the Forest. STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography.
2019 Kuen, L.J. Ecopolis Munich: Environmental Stories of Discovery. Seeingthewoods.
2017 Kuen, L.J. & Snigirev, Y. 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.
2017 Elders M, Kuen, L.J., and Schmitt M. Democratic Green. Ecopolis Munich, L.S. Gora (ed.). Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions 2017, no. 2. Rachel Carson Center.
2017 Kuen, L.J. Danube: Environments, Histories, and Cultures: Vienna – Bratislava. Seeingthewoods.
Editorships
2019 Kuen, L.J., Lüdecke G., Mauch C. Ecopolis München: Umwelt- und Entdeckungsgeschichten. (Ecopolis Munich: Environmental Stories of Discovery) exhibition catalogue. Munich: Rachel Carson Center.
2018 Kuen, L.J., Sökefeld M. 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.
