Dr. Hanna Werner

Curriculum Vitae

Hanna Werner is an anthropologist and sociologist interested in the interplay of ecological, political, and epistemological change today. She received her PhD from Humboldt University of Berlin. She has conducted research in India and Tanzania and taught at several universities in Germany and abroad, including Heidelberg University, Humboldt University of Berlin, and the University of Chicago.

Since 2019, she has been a Post-doc Fellow at the Max-Weber-Kolleg, University of Erfurt. She is also a member of the M.S. Merian-R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies ‘Metamorphoses of the Political’ (ICAS:MP).

Hanna Werner’s work focuses on environmental transformation and conflict, social/socioecological movements, the politics of cultural identity, nationalism, political language and grammar, and social critique. She is interested in the intersection of social theory, (post)colonial history, and ethnography, as well as visual and multimodal methods.

Books

• 2015. The Politics of Dams. Developmental Perspectives and Social Critique in Modern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Articles and Book Chapters

• 2024. Ambivalent Allies? Environmentalism and Science in Contemporary India. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie/Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology 149(1):107-126.
• 2024. (with Hynek Bečka, Samiksha Bhan, Desirée Kumpf, Claudia Lang, Hanna Nieber, and Julia Vorhölter). Introduction to the Special Issue ‘Universality in Pieces? Mobilizations of Science in a Fractured World.’ Zeitschrift für Ethnologie/Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology 149(1):1–11.
• 2023. (with Pramiti Negi) Himalayan Youth Resist through Art: Debunking ‘Development’ in Kinnaur. A Photo Essay. Dastavezi, the Audio-Visual South Asia 5(1):64-95.
• 2014. The (Im)Possibility of Development Critique. In Environment, Politics and Activism: The Role of Media. Somnath Batabyal, ed. Pp. 17-38. New Delhi: Routledge.
• 2014. Rivers, Dams and Landscapes. Engaging with the Modern on Contested Grounds. In Large Dams in Asia: Contested Environments between Technological Hydroscapes and Social Resistance. Marcus Nüsser, ed. Pp. 125-147. Dordrecht: Springer.
• 2013. Wasser als Gegenstand (kultur)politischer Debatten in Indien. Südasienchronik/South Asia Chronicle 3:214-241.
• 2006. Knowledge, Interpretation and Practice: The Dynamics of Traditional Healing and Local Knowledge in Rural Tanzania. In African Indigenous Science and Knowledge Systems: Triumphs and Tribulations. Essays in Honour of Gloria Thomas Emeagwali. Olayemi Akinwumi, Okpeh Ochayi Okpeh, C. B. N. Ogbogbo, and Adoyi Onoja, eds. Pp. 333-356. Abuja: Roots Books & Journals.

Reviews

• 2009. Review of Debjani Ganguly and John Docker. eds., 2007. Rethinking Gandhi and Nonviolent Relationality. Global Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge. Asian Studies Review 33(4):553–555.
• 2006. Die Diskursivierung des Unverfügbaren. Review of Dominik Schrage, ed. 2005. Die Flut. Diskursanalysen zum Dresdner Hochwasser im August 2002. Ästhetik und Kommunikation 134(37):118-120.