Trained in sociology at Georg August University in Göttingen as well as Leipzig University, René’s research focuses on how science, technology, and medicine circulate in colonial and postcolonial contexts. He received his PhD in 2015 as part of the Bayreuth Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS). From then on René held several third-party funded postdoctoral research positions at universities in Halle, Leipzig and Berlin.
In his empirical and ethnographic work, he combines insights from medical anthropology, global health governance, science and technology studies as well as infrastructure studies. Along different mobile technologies such as diagnostic devices, mosquito bed nets, or humanitarian drones – he has examined how these devices take on new meanings, insert diffrent ways of knowing diseases, controlling environments and using infrastructures. His current research project – which also connects him to CryoCultures – examines the role and significance of (vaccine) cold chains in African contexts, with a focus on the socio‑technical arrangements and governance of these thermal infrastructures.