About me:
I am associated with the cultural geography research group as a PhD candidate. I started my undergraduate studies in Geography at KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and obtained an M.A. in Human and Economic Geography from Goethe University Frankfurt with a thesis on “Digital smallholders – mobile information systems as sociotechnical devices of market-based agrarian development in Ghana”. I subsequently joined the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn as a Research and Teaching Assistant. After a research stay in Kenya funded through a DAAD scholarship I re-joined the University of Bonn working in the CRC 228 “Future Rural Africa: Future-making and social-ecological transformation” until April 2022.
Contact:
E-Mail: julian.rochlitz@uni-bonn.de
Research Interests:
Science and Technology Studies, Actor Network Theory, Human-Nature Relations, Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), Agriculture, East Africa
Research Projects:
In my PhD project I am concerned with questions on the production of mobile-phone based services and on the digitally mediated translation of environmental knowledge into agricultural practices in Kenya. In my research I particularly focused on cases of weather forecast services for small-scale farmers and digital applications in pest and disease management. My project therefore engages in broader debates on ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development), the transformation of small-scale agriculture in Africa and the relationships between society, technology and nature.
Activities:
- Conference presentation “Formatting Human-Plant Relations: Anticipatory Technologies in Pest and Disease Management in Kenya”, Digital Ecologies Workshop, Cambridge/Virtual, 29 March 2021
- Conference presentation “Sensing weather: anticipatory ecologies of meteorology, experiential forecasting, and small-scale farming in Western Kenya”, 4s Annual Meeting, Toronto/Virtual, 21 October 2021
- Co-organization of a workshop on interdisciplinary research and bridging gaps between natural sciences and humanities, December 2018
