Laura Kuen

Laura Kuen is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences.  She obtained a BA in social and cultural anthropology and a MA in visual anthropology at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. In 2019, Laura obtained the Environmental Studies Certificate at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society.

Laura has produced two ethnographic documentary films on human-environmental relationships in Russia and Germany and co-curated three exhibitions at the Deutsches Museum of Science and Technology and at the Rachel Carson Center, exploring topics such as urban environmental history, global food chains and more-than-human coexistence.

Laura’s geographical interests lie in Russia and Ukraine. She is fascinated how the relationships between people and their living environments are shaped through different settings and activities – be it gardening, foraging, hunting, or farming – and how these relations variably inform notions of freedom, security, or wellbeing. Combining approaches from multispecies ethnography, political anthropology, and environmental humanities with audio-visual and multisensory methods, Laura seeks to make these perspectives accessible to audiences in but also beyond academia.

Education
2018 | MA in Visual Anthropology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
2015 | BA in Social Anthropology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany

Selected publications

Documentary Films

• 2017 | Our Freedom. (Russian and German with English subtitles, 52 min) 
• 2014 | Sitz!Platz!Aus! – Aber a Hund war er scho… (German, 34 min)

Journal Publications

• 2021 | Review of Eating in Theory by Annemarie Mol. Czech Sociological Review 2021, 57(6): 750-752.
• 2018 | ‘Our Freedom’: Sovereignty in Rural Russia. Journal of Extreme Anthropology 2(2). with Yury Snigirev.
• 2017 | Zu Gast und zu Hause oder Wo sich in Russland die Freiheit findet. (Being a Guest and Being at Home or Where Freedom is found in Russia.) Research Journal 2016 – Ethnographic Student Research at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology. with Yury Snigirev. 

Co-curated Exhibitions

• 2019 | Ecopolis Munich: Environmental Stories of Discovery. Werksviertel-Mitte, Munich
• 2018 | Cosmos Coffee. Special exhibiton, Deutsches Museum, Munich
• 2017 | Ecopolis München: Environmental Histories of a City. Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich

Editorships

• 2019 | Ecopolis München: Umwelt- und Entdeckungsgeschichten. (Ecopolis Munich: Environmental Stories of Discovery) exhibition catalogue. Munich: Rachel Carson Center. Co-edited with Gesa Lüdecke and Christof Mauch.
• 2018 | Forschungsjournal 2017. Studentische Feldforschungen am Institut für Ethnologie. (Research Journal 2017. Ethnographic Student Research at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology) Munich: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Co-edited with Martin Sökefeld.

Other Publications and Online Essays

• 2020 | Lessons from the Garden: What Dachas Can Tell Us About Russian Civil Society. Вестник Набережночелнинского государственного педагогического университета (Herald of Naberezhnye Chelny State Pedagogical University, Tatarstan) 1(1): 42-49.
• 2019 | Ecopolis Munich: Environmental Stories of Discovery. Seeingthewoods.
• 2017 | Democratic Green. Ecopolis Munich, L. Sasha Gora (ed.). Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions 2017, no. 2. Rachel Carson Center. with Marlen Elders und Maya Schmitt
• 2017 | Danube: Environments, Histories, and Cultures: Vienna – Bratislava. Seeingthewoods.

Online Publications

• 2022 | Waiting for the Frost: Slaughtering Day in Transcarpathia. Wildboar.cz