Dr Oliver Leistert

Person

Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck
Department of Media, Society and Communication
Grauer Bär, Universitätsstraße 5-7, A-6020 Innsbruck

Office 1S13, 1st floor

+43-512-507/73611

oliver.leistert@uibk.ac.at

ORCD ID

Oliver Leistert works as a university assistant for media studies, specialising in media dynamics and social change. His research focuses in particular on the relationship and connection between media change and climate change. He also deals with the histories and theories of the Internet, media and technology theories, social media and their consequences for subjects and societies, cryptography from a cultural and social science perspective, algorithm cultures and surveillance studies.

He studied Philosophy, Modern German Literature and Computer Science at the University of Hamburg. He wrote his doctoral thesis on (media) activism, surveillance and neoliberalism, specifically on the mobile media practices of social movements in various countries and their surveillance, as part of the graduate programme Automatisms at the University of Paderborn. His work was honoured with the Surveillance & Society Prize 2014.

He was a research fellow at the Central European University in Budapest, post-doc at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg in the project "Complexity or Control? Paradigms for Sustainable Development", and subsequently also in Lüneburg for three years in his own DFG-funded position, where he focussed on the promises and dangers of blockchain technologies and related areas.

Focal points
  • Media change and climate change
  • Socio-ecological consequences of digital communication
  • Protest and surveillance media
  • Technology criticism
Research projects / research collaborations

  • since 2024 member of Research Area “Cultural Encounters – Cultural Conflicts", Uni Innsbruck.

  • seit 2024 member of IMS, Innsbruck-Media-Studies. Research centre at Uni Innsbruck.

  • 2020 - 2023 "Blockchains. Media of Sovereignty" (own position, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, DFG project number 440949657)
  • 2015 - 2018 Member of the DFG research network "Affect and Psychotechnology Studies".
Research stays

  • 2019 - 2020 Research Fellow at MECS, Institute for Advanced Study on Media Cultures of Computer Simulation, DFG Collaborative Research Centre, Leuphana University of Lüneburg
  • 2011 - 2012 Research Fellow at the Centre for Media and Communication Studies, Central European University, Budapest.
  • 2004 - 2005 Sarai Programme Residency, Center for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, with the research project "Open Source Software and the Global South - Apropos Digital Divide

Awards
  • 2014 Surveillance & Society Book Prize for From Protest to Surveillance: The Political Rationality of Mobile Media : Modalities of Neoliberalism. Frankfurt am Main; New York: Peter Lang, 2013.
  • 2013 Early career research award for "Resistance against Cyber-Surveillance within Social Movements and how Surveillance Adapts", in Surveillance & Society 9, no. 4 (2012): 441-56.

Monographs and edited volumes

(ed.) Streifzüge an den Nahtstellen von Medien, Bildung und Philosophie. Innsbruck: innsbruck university press. (with Günther Pallaver, et al.). https://doi.org/10.21240/978-3-03978-164-5 (Second, extended edition)

(ed.) Streifzüge an den Nahtstellen von Medien, Bildung Und Philosophie. Medien – Wissen – Bildung. (with Günther Pallaver, et al.) Zürich,Switzerland: OAPublishing Collective.

(ed.) Hamburg Maschine: _revisisted: Artistic and Critical Investigations into Our Digital Condition. (with Isabella Kohlhuber). Hamburg: adocs publishing, 2022.

(ed.) Thinking the Problematic: Genealogies and Explorations between Philosophy and the Sciences. (with Isabell Schrickel) Bielefeld: transcript-Verlag, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839446409.

(ed.)  Critical Perspectives on Social Media and Protest: Between Control and Emancipation. (with Lina Dencik).London: Rowman & Littlefield. 248 p. 2015.

From Protest to Surveillance. The Political Rationality of Mobile Media, Frankfurt/M, New York: Peter Lang. 280 p., 2013. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3- 653-03268-0

Articles in academic journals (since 2018)

(with Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Mary Shnayien): ""Das Protokoll ermöglicht eine Bruderschaft": Zu Offenheit, dem Sozialen und der Dekolonisierung von Protokollen." Journal of Media Studies 15 (2023): PP. 86-94. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/zfmw-2023-150109.

(with Alexander Galloway and Mary Shnayien): ""Whether or not you can do something is a purely mechanical or material question": On the Politics and Effects of Internet Protocols and the Possibilities of Historicising Them". Journal of Media Studies, 15 (2023), pp. 71-85. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19409.

(with Mary Shnayien): "Protocols: Introduction to the focus." Journal of Media Studies 15 (2023): PP. 8-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/zfmw-2023-150103.

(with Gerd Beuster and Theo Röhle): "Protocol." Internet Policy Review 11-1 (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.1.1651.

"Control is good, trust is better, payment is best: On the sovereignty of blockchains." Journal of Media and Cultural Research 10-2 (2019): PP. 155-69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.28937/1000108359.

(with Ulrike Bergermann, Maren Grimm and Siri Keil): "Asking the format question. The Alternative Media Centre FC⚡MC on the G20 Summit." Journal for Media Studies 10 (2018): PP. 111-29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/zfmw-2018-0111.

Contributions to anthologies and encyclopaedias (since 2018)

“KI als generelle Prekarisierungsmaschine”, in: G. Pallaver, et al. (eds.), Streifzüge an den Nahtstellen von Medien, Bildung und Philosophie, 263–289. Innsbruck: innsbruck university press. https://doi.org/10.21240/978-3-03978-164-5_14

“KI und Nachhaltigkeit”. In: P. Missomelius, T. Hug, & H. Ortner (eds.), Künstliche Intelligenz im Diskurs: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven zur Gegenwart und Zukunft von KI-Anwendungen, pp. 115–125. Innsbruck: innsbruck university press.

"Hashing in digital cultures: how cryptography secures the apparatus of capture." In: Adelmann, Ralf; Matzner, Tobias (eds.): Filter. 4. DFG- Symposium Medienwissenschaft.  Paderborn: University of Paderborn, 2024, pp. 1-9. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/22944.

"Vectors of Digitalities (and a Virus)". In: Kohlhuber, Isabella and Oliver Leistert (eds.): Hamburg Maschine_revisisted: Artistic and Critical Investigations into Our Digital Condition, Hamburg: adocs, pp.10-34.

"Ad.Watch: Opening the Black Box of Propaganda", in: Kohlhuber, Isabella and Oliver Leistert (eds.): Hamburg Maschine_revisisted: Artistic and Critical Investigations into Our Digital Condition, Hamburg: adocs, pp. 102-106.

"Das Phänomen Trump als Effekt von Microtargeting und Psychometrie." In: Bachor, Martina, Theo Hug and Günther Pallaver (eds.): DataPolitics: zum Umgang mit Daten im digitalen Zeitalter, Innsbruck: innsbruck university press, 2021, pp.19-33. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/19958.

"Soziale Medien als Technologien der Überwachung und Kontrolle" In: Schmidt, Jan-Hinrik and Monika Taddicke (eds.): Handbuch Soziale Medien. Springer Reference Social Sciences. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2021, pp. 1-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-03895-3_13-2.

"Governing Objects from a Distance: Blockchains as Organisers of Environmentality". In: Burkhardt, Marcus; Shnayien, Mary; Grashöfer, Katja (eds.): Explorations in Digital Cultures. Lüneburg: meson press, 2020, pp. 1-21. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/14853

"From Social Data to Body Data to Psy Data: Tap, Tap, Tap". In: Bösel, Bernd, Serjoscha Wiemer (eds.): Affective Transformations: Politics-Algorithms-Media. Lüneburg: meson, 2020, pp. 73-85. DOI https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/15021.

"Introduction to Thinking the Problematic: Decentring as Method and Ethos". In: Leistert, Oliver and Isabell Schrickel (eds.), Thinking the Problematic, Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 9-34 (with Isabell Schrickel). DOI https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839446409-002

"Relations of dissolution are relations of constitution - on individuation and the relationship between the transindividual and the interindividual according to Gilbert Simondon." In: Eke, Norbert Otto and Patrick Hohlweck (eds.): Zersetzung. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2018, pp. 155-69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846763315_011.

"On the Question of Blockchain Activism." In: Meikle, Graham (ed.): The Routledge Companion to Media and Activism. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge, 2018, pp. 376-84.

"Social bots as algorithmic pirates and messengers of techno-environmental agency." In: Seyfert, Robert and Jonathan Roberge: Algorithmic Cultures, Bielefeld: transcript, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/2756.

"Mobile phone signals and protest crowds. Performing an unstable post-media constellation." In: Leeker, Martina, Imanuel Schipper and Timon Beyes (eds.): Performing the Digital. Performativity and Performance Studies in Digital Cultures. Bielefeld: transcript, 2017, pp. 137-154. DOI: 10.25969/mediarep/2129

Invited lectures (since 2017)

  • 2025 „AI & Climate Change“, as part of the lecture series Climate Protection, 03.12.2025, Uni Innsbruck.

  • 2025 "Was ist kritische Medienwissenschaft?" as part of the lecture series "Was ist kritische Wissenschaft?", 10.04.2025, Universität Innsbruck.

  • 2025 „Social Media als Überwachung und Kontrolle“. Conference "Private Gewinne, soziale Kosten? Social Media zwischen Vernetzung, politischer Radikalisierung und psychischer Gesundheit", 20.06.2025, Akademie für politische Bildung, Tutzing.

  • 2024 „Plattformen und Demokratie“, as part of the lecture series Mediale Meinungsbildung und Manipulation im Superwahljahr 2024, 13.12.2024, Uni Innsbruck.

  • 2021 „Zur Demokratisierung der digitalen Kontrolle: Warum die Politik es allein nicht schaffen wird“, 18.11.2021, Innsbruck, Media Day 2021 at the University of Innsbruck.
  • 2019 (Keynote) "The ghosts of IT security. On some problems of the IT security discourse" at the annual symposium of the NRW Research College SecHuman at the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security at Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, 30 September 2019.
Presentations at conferences (since 2017)
  • 2025 "KI und Prekarisierung". Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaften, 17.09.2025, Paderborn.

  • „KI als Prekarisierungsmaschine“, 25.04.2025, Uni Innsbruck, Tagung MedienWissenBildung.

  • 2022 "Hashing in digitalen Kulturen. Wenn erst durch Zerstückeln alles zusammenhält. Kryptographie als Schere und Kleber eines apparatus of capture“, 18.10.2022, Münster, 4. Medienwissenschaftliches Symposium der DFG.

  • 2022 "Proof of work? Zum Begriff des Arbeitsnachweises im Bitcoin-Protokoll", 29.10.2022, Halle, Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaften.
  • 2019 "Object-oriented scarcity as a technology of governmentality", Money Lab #6: Infrastructures of Money, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, 07-08 March 2019.
  • 2018 "Administration 2.0: the Blockchain Model", Digital Cultures: Knowledge / Culture / Technology, Leuphana University Lüneburg, 19-22 September 2018.
  • 2018 "Control and Sovereignty via Blockchains", Data Justice Conference, Cardiff University, 21-22 May 2018.
  • 2017 "Relations of dissolution are relations of constitution. Reflections on ontogenesis following Gilbert Simondon", Conference Automatisms and Structure, University of Paderborn, 25-27 January 2017.

Activities
Peer review activities
  • Ad-hoc reviews for the journals: Big Data & Society, International Journal of Communication, Social Movement Studies, Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, Medienpädagogik.
Organisation of conferences and workshops

  • 2026 (with Andreas Beinsteiner): Workshop "KI ent­zau­bern (3.2): Anthro­po­lo­gie künst­li­cher Intel­li­genz: KI und praktisches Wissen" with Daniel Martin Feige. 08.05.2026.

  • 2026 (with Andreas Beinsteiner): Workshop "KI entzaubern (3.1): Anthro­po­lo­gie künst­li­cher Intel­li­genz: Expert:innen des Nichtfunktionierens?" with Martina Heßler, 24.04.2026.

  • 2025 (with Andreas Beinsteiner): Workshop „KI entzaubern (2): Automatisierung und/von Kreativität“, with Dieter Mersch, Florian Cramer, Elke Hövel, Universität Innsbruck. 12./13.06.2025.

  • 2025 (with Petra Missomelius, et al.): International MedienWissenBildung-Conference, Universität Innsbruck. 24.- 26.04.2025.

  • 2025 Workshop „KI entzaubern (1): "KI in der Bildung" with Ralf Lankau, Universität Innsbruck. 21.03.2025.

  • 2019  (with Erich Hörl, Andrea Bardin): International Workshop „Between primary and secondary information: Gilbert Simondon and the question of complexity and control“, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. 15.05.2019.

  • 2019 (with Érik Bordeleau): „On the Intricacies of Planning, Governance, and Finance“, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. 04.02.2019.

  •  2017 (with Erich Hörl, Martin Savransky): International Workshop „Thinking the Problematic“, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. 22.-23.06.2017.

Non-university
  • Expert in the public hearing of the Digital Agenda Committee of the German Bundestag on "Digital Currencies, especially Libra", 25 September 2019.
  • Advising the Bündnis90/Die Grünen parliamentary group in an internal expert discussion on "Facebook's Libra and other cryptocurrencies", German Bundestag Berlin, 11/09/2019.
  • Co-conceptualisation and co-organisation of the FC⚡MC media centre for the G20 in July 2017 in Hamburg at the Millerntorstadion of FC St. Pauli (see ZfM 18, 111-138).

Master's thesis can only be written in English.

Topics

  • Media theory
  • Theory of media technologies
  • Political economy of media
  • Critique of AI
  • Surveillance and social media
  • Surveilance and AI
  • Ecological impact of media technologies
  • Climate change & media technologies
  • Subjectivation processes and social media
  • Media and social movements
  • Media philosophy
  • Critical data studies
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