Dr. rer. soc. Melike Şahinol
e-Mail: sahinol AT oiist.org
Senior Research Fellow, head of the research field “Human, Medicine, and Society” at the Orient-Institut Istanbul (Turkey), which is an independent turcological and regional scientific research institute of the Max Weber Foundation (Germany).
Co-founder and co-coordinator of the Turkish Scholarly Network for Science and Technology Studies (STS TURKEY).
Melike Şahinol (Dr. rer. soc.) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Orient-Institut Istanbul affiliated with the Max Weber Foundation and head of the research area »Human, Medicine and Society«. Şahinol studied sociology, political science, and psychology at the University of Duisburg-Essen and received her doctorate in 2015 in sociology at the Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen. Sponsored by a three-year scholarship at the DFG Research Training Group Bioethics at Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen (Germany), Şahinol examined the adaptation of humans and machines in neuroscience in particular Brain Machine Interfaces in patients with chronical stroke. She conceptualized this adaptation process as socio-bio-technical adaptation process. With the context of her PhD project, she was involved in several international neuroscientific research projects and has conducted ethnographic studies in hospitals, laboratories, and during various brain surgeries.
Her research interests lie in the field of Sociology of Technology and the Body, Medical Sociology and Crip Technoscience. In her current projects Şahinol continues to develop her concept of socio-bio-technical entities from a posthumanities lens. In her project Additive Manufacturing: Enabling Technologies in the Childhood she analyses the development of 3D printed prosthesis for children and disability beyond the technological fix narrative.
Şahinol received several grants and fellowships, including one at the program on »Science, Technology and Society« (STS) at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She led the founding of the Turkish Scholarly Network for Science and Technology Studies (STS TURKEY). The founding meeting took place on 3-4 October 2017 at the Orient-Institut Istanbul. As one of the co-coordinators, she co-organized several conferences and STS workshops in order to make STS more transparent and inclusive also for supporting young scholars in Turkey. She continues to provide contributions to the establishment of STS in Turkey.
- Posthuman Cyborg Love
- Cartography of Hair:y_less Masculinities
- Additive Manufacturing: Enabling Technologies in the Childhood
- Self-Tracking: Digital Health Data between Social Inclusion and Social Robustness (VALID-TR)
- Neuroenhancement: Practices and Techniques (NEPTurkey)
- Blurred Boundaries of Assistive Reproduction Technologies (B.B.ART)
Research interests
- Science and Technology Studies (in particular the development and use of innovative medical technologies and their consequences)
- Sociology of the body, Human Enhancement, cultural forms of self-expressivity, transformations of the human body (socio-bio-technical adaptations and ensembles)
- Bio(technology)policy in Turkey, economies of life and the impact of biogeopolitics
- Social conditions of the emergence and implementation of new technologies and the question of forms of change in social relationships and social processes through (bio)technical practices
- Practices and processes in knowledge networks (currently: Makerspaces and Do-It-Yourself as drivers of innovation)
Memberships / Research Networks
- dests – STS im deutschsprachigen Raum
- Dis/Ability und Digitale Medien – Scholars’ Network on Dis-/Abilities and Digital Media. Discourses – Practices – Materialities (DFG funded Scientific Network, DFG Nachwuchsnetzwerk)
- European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
- European Technology Assessment COST Action (ETACA) (COST proposal in preparation)
- German Sociological Association (DGS) (in addition, membership in following DGS sections:
- Science and Technology Studies
- Sociology of Knowledge
- Sociology of the Body and Sports (here: elected Executive Board member)
- Medical Sociology and Sociology of Health
- Gesellschaft für Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung (GWTF e.V.)
- Navigating Knowledge Landscapes (NKL), Research Network (COST-proposal in preparation)
- Network for Technology Assessment (NTA)
- Science and Democracy Network (SDN)
- Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)
- Society for the Studies of New and Emerging Technologies (S.NET)
- Society for Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies (GTOT)
- Turkish Scholarly Network of Science and Technology Studies (STS Turkey) – co-founder and co-coordinator of the network
Reviewer activities
Reviewer activities for following academic journals:
Journal for Medical Anthropology, Medical Humanities, NanoEthics – Studies of New and Emerging Technologies, Paladyn. Journal of Behavioral Robotics, Journal of Posthuman Studies. Philosophy, Technology, Media
Board member activites
Elected Executive Board member of the DGS (German Sociological Association) Section Sociology of the Body and Sports
Members of the coordination board of the Turkish Scholary Network of Science and Technology Studies (STS Turkey)
Extended Editorial Board member of Diyâr, the Journal of Ottoman, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies
Academic self-administration
- Equal Opportunities Officer‘s (Max Weber Foundation) regional women’s representative
- Research Staff Representative
The human as techno-cerebrally operating form – this study shows the adaptation of human and machine in neuroscience and describes the acting of a cyborg:
