Prof. Dr. Jiré Emine Gözen
Professor of Media and Cultural Theory
Vice-President for International Affairs and University Development
University of Europe for Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany
Profile
Prof. Dr. Jiré Emine Gözen is Professor of Media and Cultural Theory and Vice-President for International Affairs and University Development at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany. She also served as Chair of the German Society for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft, GfM) from 2021 to 2025.
Her work is situated at the intersection of media theory, digital culture, artificial intelligence, sociotechnical imaginaries and future technologies. She focuses on the epistemological, cultural and political conditions that shape contemporary AI systems and emerging media environments with particular interests in desirable AI, human–machine relations, posthuman futures and the transformation of knowledge and subjectivity through algorithmic systems. Her work brings together critical perspectives on media, culture, gender and power with decolonial, media-theoretical and new materialist approaches.
Research and International Collaboration
Prof. Dr. Gözen’s research is particularly concerned with sociotechnical imaginaries and the cultural processes through which technological futures are articulated, circulated and made socially meaningful. She investigates how visions of artificial intelligence, posthumanism, and technological change are shaped and carried into public discourse through literature. media, art, design and aesthetic practice and how these imaginaries inform collective expectations, cultural narratives and epistemological frameworks.
She has developed and sustained international collaborations with partners including the University of Tokyo, the University of Cambridge, the University of Bonn, and DIJ Tokyo, connecting media theory, AI discourse, cross-cultural perspectives, and interdisciplinary research on technology and society.
Award-Winning Initiative
She is the initiator and co-organizer of the international seminar series Cross-Cultural Approaches to Desirable AI, developed in collaboration with the B’AI Global Forum at the University of Tokyo, the Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, the Center for Science and Thought at the University of Bonn, and the University of Europe for Applied Sciences. In 2025, the series received the AI ELSI Award (Perspective Division) from the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence.
The series places particular emphasis on building bridges between fundamental research and the applied sciences by exploring how theoretical and epistemological questions can be translated into practice through speculative design and other experimental forms of implementation.
Selected Research Areas
· Sociotechnical imaginaries and future narratives of artificial intelligence
· Future technologies, posthumanism, and human–machine relations
· Epistemological conditions and cultural politics of AI
· AI bias, desirable AI, and cross-cultural AI discourse
· Affect, media iconographies and anti-establishmentarian masculinities in digital cultures
· Media theory, digital culture and critical approaches to technology
Selected Publications and Works
Her publications include the monograph Cyberpunk Science Fiction. Literarische Fiktionen und Medientheorie(transcript, 2012), as well as more recent work such as “Chambers of the Past and Future: The Simulated Worlds of Baudrillard, Cyberpunk and the Metaverse,” “On the Entanglement of Contemporary Future Imaginaries: Conceptualizing the Matrix and the Brain-Machine Interface from Baudrillard and Gibson to Musk,” and “Von ‘Data Made Flesh in the Mazes’ zu ‘A Vessel that Accepts Nature as It Is’: Experimentelle Assemblagen zur Konzeptualisierung von KI.”
Across these works, she explores how contemporary visions of AI and future technologies are shaped through sociotechnical imaginaries circulating in literature, media theory, artistic practice and public discourse. In her work on experimental assemblages, she examines how artificial intelligence can be reconceptualized beyond narrowly computational models through indigenous concepts, relational epistemologies, and new materialist approaches. She has also published on Rei Naito and William Gibson, linking posthuman theory, Japanese aesthetic contexts, and alternative conceptions of technology, embodiment, and more-than-human relationality.
Previous Professional Experience
Before entering academia full-time, Prof. Dr. Gözen worked in art and cultural institutions in Tokyo, including the Mori Art Museum, 3331 Arts Chiyoda and Design Festa Gallery. These experiences continue to inform her interdisciplinary perspective on media, art, and technology.
Education and Distinctions
She completed her doctorate with distinction (summa cum laude) in 2009. She has received competitive funding and support from institutions including DAAD, DFG, ZEIT Verlag und Klaus Tschira Stiftung, and DWIH.
