The 4th annual interdisciplinary symposium “Ethnographies of Outer Space” will be organized by the ERC-funded Research Project “FutureSpace” at the STS Department of the University of Vienna and will be held on 25-26 September, 2025.
This symposium brings together scholars working at the intersection of STS, SSOS, anthropology, geography, and artistic research to examine how outer space is shaped, imagined, and inhabited through social, political, and material practices. We address questions such as: how are future visions of human life in space constructed and communicated? What are the underlying forces, motivations, and objectives driving these endeavors? How are space technologies and infrastructures imagined, enacted, and maintained, and what kind of futures do they make (im)possible?
Through ethnographic methods and artistic engagement with the infrastructures, imaginaries, and everyday practices of space activities, we aim to interrogate how outer space entangles with lives on Earth as a site of power, struggle, care, responsibility, and possibility, especially in times of multiple planetary crises. In doing so, we can explore the multidimensional relationship between imaginaries and infrastructures—between large-scale technical objects and the technoscientific communities oriented around them—and how these mediate power relations, geopolitics, and speculative futures.
Key Facts
25 – 26 September, 2025
University of Vienna, Austria
Aula, Campus der Universität Wien (Hof 1)
1090 Wien
In-person conference attendance is limited to registered participants. If you are not presenting but would like to attend please send an email to eos.symposium25@gmail.com
The registration fees are indicated below and will cover coffee and lunch breaks on September 25 and 26, as well as a reception on September 25.
Regular: €150.-
Early career scholars (PhD candidates, PhD + 5 years): €70.-
More information to follow
For any comments, queries, or travel recommendations, please get in touch at eos.symposium25@gmail.com