Projects per year
Personal profile
Quote
“If you want an easy answer, don’t ask a historian!”
Research profile
Karena Kalmbach holds a tenure track position in History at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Her areas of expertise include Social and Cultural History of Technology and the Environment (with a particular focus on Nuclear History), Politics of Memory, and Social Studies of Science and Technology. Karena has done extensive research on the question of how national and international nuclear politics have influenced the debate on the health effects of the Chernobyl accident in France and the UK. Furthermore, she researched how the commemoration of the accident has been used to underpin political arguments in various European countries. Taking up her position at TU/e, she set up an interdisciplinary research project with her TU/e colleagues Andreas Spahn (Philosophy) and Ginevra Sanvitale (Anthropology) in which they investigate the interrelation of Fear and Technology, focusing on the question: How does fear drive technological innovation?
Academic background
Karena Kalmbach obtained her PhD from the European University Institute in Florence (Department of History and Civilization). Her PhD thesis : “Meanings of a Disaster: The Contested 'Truth' about Chernobyl. British and French Chernobyl Debates and the Transnationality of Arguments and Actors”, won the 2015 Book Prize of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC). Karena holds a M.A. in History, Political Sciences and Communication Sciences from Freie Universität Berlin. During her M.A. and PhD, she received numerous fellowships that allowed her to study at Université de Lausanne, École Normale Supérieure Paris, Sciences Po Paris, and University of California, Berkeley.
Before joining TU/e, she was a postdoctoral researcher with the Environmental Policy Research Centre of Freie Universität Berlin where she worked on questions of conflicts, acceptance and acceptability in nuclear waste management. Since 2014, Karena has been the coordinator of the Nuclear International Research Group (NIRG) and in 2017, together with her colleague Claire le Renard (Sociology) set up the network “nuclear_hss – Humanities and Social Sciences Research on Nuclear Issues” (https://listes.services.cnrs.fr/wws/info/nuclear_hss).
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Projects
- 1 Finished
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Impuls projects between TU Eindhoven, RWS, and PON
Oldenziel, R., Oldenziel, R., Dekker, H., Petzer, B., Bek, P. K. B., Sun, Q., Jeekel, J. F., Verbong, G. P. J., Veraart, F. C. A., Wieczorek, A. J., Spahn, A. & Kalmbach, K.
16/12/15 → 31/12/20
Project: Research direct
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The Meanings of a Disaster: Chernobyl and Its Afterlives in Britain and France
Kalmbach, K., Dec 2020, New York / Oxford: Berghahn Books Inc. 236 p. (Environment in History: International Perspectives; vol. 20)Research output: Book/Report › Book › Academic
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Europe and Chernobyl: Contested Localisations of the Accident’s Environmental, Political, Social and Cultural Impact
Kalmbach, K., 2020, The Environment and the European Public Sphere: Perceptions, Actors, Policies. Wenkel, C., Bussière, E., Grisoni, A. & Miard-Delacroix, H. (eds.). White Horse Press, p. 54-69 16 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Academic › peer-review
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Crises and technological futures: experiences, emotion, and action
Kalmbach, K., Marklund, A. & Åberg, A., Jan 2020, In: Technology and Culture. 61, 1, p. 272-281 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
6 Citations (Scopus)56 Downloads (Pure) -
From Pripyat to Paris, from grassroots memories to globalized knowledge production: the Politics of Chernobyl Fallout
Kalmbach, K., Bauer, S. & Kasperski, T., Sep 2017, Nuclear Portraits: Communities, the Environment, and Public Policy. MacDowell, L. (ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 149-189 41 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Academic › peer-review
2 Citations (Scopus)2 Downloads (Pure) -
Revisiting the nuclear age: state of the art research in nuclear history
Kalmbach, K., Apr 2017, In: Neue Politische Literatur. 62, 1, p. 49-69 21 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
5 Downloads (Pure)
Prizes
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ICOHTEC Book Prize for Young Scholars
Kalmbach, Karena (Recipient), Aug 2015
Prize: Other › Career, activity or publication related prizes (lifetime, best paper, poster etc.) › Scientific
Activities
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Technikgeschichte (Journal)
Karena Kalmbach (Guest editor)
Oct 2019Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review › Scientific
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Technology, Sound and Fear
Karena Kalmbach (Speaker)
16 Oct 2020Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Popular
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Plenary round table: a history of technology for an age of crisis
Karena Kalmbach (Speaker)
16 Jul 2020Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
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Transnationale und gloabel Perspektiven auf die Rolle des Kernforschungszentrums Karlsruhe in der Atomgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts
Karena Kalmbach (Speaker)
23 Jan 2020Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
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Presentation: The Contested Memory of the Nuclear Age
Karena Kalmbach (Invited speaker)
16 Sep 2019Activity: Talk or presentation types › Keynote talk › Scientific
Press / Media
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Deutschlandfunk: Aus Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften
23/02/17
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research
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Dimensionen - die Welt der Wissenschaft: 30 Jahre Tschernobyl
22/04/16
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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"Nuclear power wouldn't have stood a chance - even without Chernobyl"
21/04/16
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities