Tanja Knaus

Tanja Knaus is a Research Fellow and PhD candidate at the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK) within the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Oslo. Her work focuses on the societal implications of AI, particularly voice AI, speech emotion recognition (SER), and vocal biomarker research. She investigates how voice data is digitized, automated, and infrastructured in healthcare, telecare, and call centre systems. Knaus holds a BA in Information Design from FH Joanneum Graz, an MA in Media and Interaction Design from FH Joanneum Graz, and an MA in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths University of London, specializing in digital feminist cultures and critical data studies.

Her research bridges Science and Technology Studies (STS), software studies, and media studies, addressing issues of accountability, automation, and human-nonhuman agency. She teaches courses such as TIK4011 (Science and Technology in Politics and Society), emphasizing STS perspectives on digital infrastructures and AI. Her publications analyze the epistemological challenges of database ethnography, the infrastructuring of health data, and the materialization of voice into affective data.

Knaus is affiliated with the Norwegian Centre for Artificial Intelligence Innovation (NorwAI) and participates in projects like AI in Society. Her work critiques the ethical and epistemological dimensions of AI systems, particularly in contexts where automation intersects with human agency and societal consequences.