About us

We are a transnational collective of researchers and practitioners who are concerned, yet interested by the phenomenon of hype across science and technology. Initially gathered at the first hype studies panel at European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) conference, we decided to share our questions and mobilise a community of people with similar interests. We are committed to horizontal and transparent decision making practices and always welcome potential new co-conspirators - get in touch if you'd like to get involved!

Find out more about our governance practices.

Founders

Andreu Belsunces Gonçalves is a sociologist of design, technology, and imagination. His research practices engage empirical, speculative, design-led and artistic methods to explore how material futures emerge through the interplay of technology, industry, policy and finance, particularly in relation to uncertainty, hype and fiction. He is a lecturer in Science and Technology Studies, as well as critical and speculative design, across several BA and MA at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), ELISAVA and ESCAC among others. He is co-founder of the design futures studio Becoming and member of the ecosocial transition design cooperative Holon. His artistic research is presented at engineering-fiction.org.

Wenzel Mehnert is a futurologist focusing on the imaginaries of new and emerging technologies. He researches, writes and teaches experimental methods of futurology. In his work, Wenzel Mehnert focuses on the intersection between speculative fictions and the evaluation of new and emerging sciences and technologies (e.g. A.I., SynBio, Internet of Things, etc.). He worked as a researcher at the Berlin University of the Arts, co-founded the Berlin Ethics Lab at the Technical University of Berlin and currently lives in Vienna, where he works at the Austrian Institute of Technology and the ethics of new and emerging technologies.

Vassilis Galanos, SFHEA is Lecturer in Digital Work at the University of Stirling, investigating historico-sociological underpinnings of AI and internet technologies, and how expertise and expectations are negotiated in these domains to generate profit out of hype. Recent projects explore risks of Generative AI in journalism and its role in Higher Education, artist-data scientist interactions, and community-led digital innovation. Vassilis co-founded the AI Ethics & Society research group and the HaPoC’s Working Group on Data Sharing and acts as Associate Editor of Technology Analysis and Strategic Management. Abstains from meat and has jammed with the Sun Ra Arkestra. More info

Dani Shanley is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Dani's expertise is mainly within science and technology studies (STS) and the philosophy of technology, with a particular focus on reflexive, participatory design methodologies (or, responsible innovation), such as social labs and value sensitive design (VSD). Dani currently works on AI and robotics, thinking with and through the lenses of responsibility, hype, and bullshit.

Ola Michalec is a Lecturer in Digital Futures at the Bristol University Business School and Bristol Digital Futures Institute. Ola’s research interests revolve around understanding how experts from diverse fields resolve tensions between maintaining and innovating critical infrastructures, with a particular focus on energy systems. Her current project explores the ebbs and flows of hype in the context of developing digital twins in the UK. Ola plays an active role in several communities such as the Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security or the Advisory Board for the Alan Turing Institute Digital Twin Network+.

Jascha Bareis is a Political scientist, STS and Media scholar. His passion lies at the crossroads of questions of normativity, political communication and futures. Currently, he analyzes and comments on the politics of AI, tech oligarchy, and the field of autonomous weapons. Other fields of expertise include technology assessment, trust in technology, and democratic theory. He is senior researcher at the University of Fribourg, joining the HUMAN-IST institute to research the performativity of AI.

Pierre Depaz is a post-doctoral researcher across Media Studies and Digital Humanities at the University of Basel. His research focuses on how computational artifacts act as dynamic epistemic interfaces and agentic forces between humans and the world. He wrote a PhD on the aesthetics of programming, and the website where you're reading this (as well as others).

Associates

Marché Arends is a South African investigative journalist based in Cape Town. Her work lies at the intersection of Big Tech accountability and labour in the Majority World, with a current focus on AI hype as a mechanism of ideological control. In 2024 she was selected as a Pulitzer Center AI Accountability Fellow and conducted a year-long investigation into the exploitative labour practices of microtasking companies recruiting African workers to train Large Language Models. Her writing has been published in Africa Uncensored, The Continent, The Africa Report, Semafor Africa, The Daily Maverick and elsewhere. Read some of her stories here: marchearends.com

Jacek Mańko is a cognitive scientist by education, social researcher by vocation. Currently employed as faculty member at the Kozminski University in Warsaw Poland. Previous experience includes Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg and then various corporations in Poland. His research interests include critical AI studies, because there just too much hype and nonsense around AI. For this reason, he joined Hype Studies because it’s a super friendly and approachable community that is also dedicated to maintaining high academic and personal standards! Privately, he is an active Scrabble player.

Vardaan Nayar is a PhD scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, interested in synthesising the philosophy and policy of AI. Before his philosophical interests, he was a student of psychology working on the impact of social media on body esteem. During his Master’s degree, he worked on data doubles in surveillance societies and the integration of AI in humanities pedagogy. His research implements the philosophy of technology into understanding futures envisioned by AI policy. He is also interested in the discussions surrounding artificial moral agency and how we can discuss relational agency.

Andrea Bertazzoli is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy of science at Utrecht University, with a background in philosophy, public policy, and cognitive science, and a growing interest in STS. His research examines how hype is and should be framed (both conceptually and normatively) in current debates about hype in scientific communication, addressing questions such as "what is hype?" and "what makes it problematic in science compared to other contexts?" He is particularly interested in hype within scientific research itself and in how it is addressed by dominant meta-scientific narratives and mitigation strategies.

Past

Isa Luiten is a research assistant at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). She is currently pursuing a master's in Science and Technology Studies at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, building on her background in Cultural Anthropology. Her research explores the intersection of infrastructure studies and policy, with a focus on how governmental organizations structure emerging technologies. In her thesis, she examines policy as infrastructure in the European space sector, analyzing the ways in which conferences, funding schemes, and institutional networks shape the development of the 'hyped up' NewSpace imaginary.