Anna Maria Echterhölter

Anna Maria Echterhölter is Professor of Modern History: History of Science at the Department of History, University of Vienna, a position she has held since March 2018. She also serves as spokesperson of the key research area History of Science at the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies since March 2019. Previously, she was Visiting Professor of History of Technology at Technische Universität Berlin (2018) and Visiting Professor of Cultural History at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (2017). Her academic journey includes fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and the German Historical Institute Washington DC.

Echterhölter's educational background includes a Magister programme in literature and cultural studies from Freie Universität Berlin (1994-2001), with additional studies in physics. Her academic credentials were solidified with her dissertation on "Epistemic values in obituaries on scientists 1711–1860" (2009) and her habilitation thesis defended in February 2017. Her international academic experience includes semesters at Goldsmiths College London (1998), summer school at the University of Silesia in Katowice (1999), and the Goethe-Institute in Manila (1996).

As a historian of science, Echterhölter specializes in social histories of quantification, particularly focusing on the measurement of resources and how units of measurement interact with patterns of justification in allocation schemes. Her research spans history of science (18th and 19th century), historical-political epistemology, epistemic decolonisation, and the history of quantification and modern data technologies. She has made significant contributions to understanding colonialism, measurement and quantification in Oceania, technologies of money, and the history of auxiliary sciences and historical methods including metrology and chronology. Her work on Pacific perspectives through the lens of epistemic decolonization has been particularly influential in challenging colonial narratives.

Echterhölter's recent publications reveal a clear trajectory toward examining the intersections of historical quantification practices with contemporary AI and data technologies. Her work increasingly focuses on how historical measurement systems inform current data practices, particularly in colonial contexts. A notable trend is her exploration of "enquétes" (colonial surveys) as serialized forms of knowledge production that shaped scientific fields and colonial administration. Her scholarship bridges historical analysis with critical examinations of modern computational methods, demonstrating how historical patterns of quantification continue to influence contemporary data practices and epistemological frameworks.

• Editor of Science in Context (since 2022)
• Editor of Historische Wissensforschung book series
• Founding member of ilinx magazine
• Reviews for ISIS, N.T.M., Centaurus, and other prestigious journals
• Supervisor in two sections of the Vienna Doctoral School of Historical and Cultural Studies

Professor Echterhölter leads the key research area History of Science at the University of Vienna, which includes the MA History program and the joint MA programme "Epistemologies of Science and Technology." She has organized numerous significant conferences and workshops, including "Beyond Quantity: Research with Subsymbolic AI" (2022), "The Metrics of Energy: Accounting for Nature in the History of Social Sciences and Ecological Economics" (2023), and "Scales, Norms, Limit Values in Times of (Digital) Change" (2021). Her collaborative work with institutions like the Institute for Historical Research London on "Anthropocene Histories" demonstrates her commitment to international scholarly exchange and interdisciplinary approaches to the history of science.