Anna Lena Menne, M.A.
- E-Mail:
- anna.lena.menne@uni-paderborn.de
- ORCID:
- 0009-0008-0744-9165
- Social Media:
-
- Office Address:
-
Pohlweg 47-49
33098 Paderborn - Room:
- P5.2.02.6
About Anna Lena Menne
Anna Lena Menne is a research associate in Digital Humanities at the Department of Media Studies at Paderborn University. She is part of the independent research group Development of Symmetrical Mental Models, which is affiliated with the Collaborative Research Center TRR 318 Constructing Explainability.
Her current research examines the epistemic-affective tensions that emerge in human-machine interaction, with a particular focus on encounters with large language models (LLMs) as technologies of anticipation. She is especially interested in how moments of rupture, or “cracks,” might open up transformative practices of explanation.
With an interdisciplinary background in media and communication studies and global studies, and academic experiences across Germany, the UK, South Africa, and Thailand, Anna Lena’s work draws on critical AI studies, science and technology studies (STS), and action- and design-oriented approaches. Guided by questions of socio-ecological transformation and epistemic justice, she explores how meaning and agency are negotiated in technologically mediated worlds, and how such negotiations can turn into imaginative spaces of possibility in the present.
Curriculum Vitae
29.07.2026: Social Context in HAI: Towards a Theoretical Framework Based on Multi-Perspectival Imaginaries
HCI International 2026: 28th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Poster Pitch Session Human-Centered Technology Design, Montréal Convention Centre, Montreal, Canada (work with Christian Schulz)
01.07.2026: Stay of Fix: Race to the Summit
With René Capella, María A. Barea, and Beatrice Bianco, PhD Game Session, Anticipation 2026, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
26.03.2026: Disconcerting Answers: Affective-Epistemic Friction in Human-AI Interaction and Alternative Futures
Symposium Teaming up with Generative AI: From Tool Use to Partnership, The Answering Machine, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germany
12.03.2026: Digital Imaginaries: Overview and Introduction
With Christian Schulz, Unpacking [Digital] Imaginaries, Paderborn University, Germany
21.11.2025: Cracks in the Loop: Stabilization, Recomposition, and the Ambivalence of Rupture
Workshop: Generative AI & The Faces of Power, Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin, Germany
18.09.2025: Cracks in the Imaginary: (Harnessing?) Disruptive Moments at LLM-Interfaces
Social Design Network Conference 2025 PhD Symposium, Bern Academy of the Arts & Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland
08.09.2025: Cracks in the Synthetic: LLM Interfaces as Thresholds for Transformative Explainability
Conference and Autumn School, Synthetic Imaginaries: The Cultural Politics of Generative AI, Siegen University, Germany
Research
Publications
Latest Publications
Unpacking [Digital] Imaginaries. Das Imaginäre im Kontext digitaler Medien
A.L. Menne, C. Schulz, eds., Unpacking [Digital] Imaginaries. Das Imaginäre im Kontext digitaler Medien, Transcript, Bielefeld, n.d.
Staying with the Cracks: From Quick Fixes to Transformative Explainable AI
A.L. Menne, in: 6th International Conference on Anticipation: Book of Abstracts, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, 2026, pp. 551–553.
Unpacking [Whose] Imaginary: Reflections from a Workshop on Digital Imaginaries
A.L. Menne, C. Schulz, Unpacking [Whose] Imaginary: Reflections from a Workshop on Digital Imaginaries, 2026.
Social Context in Human-AI Interaction (HAI): Towards a Theoretical Framework Based on Multi-Perspectival Imaginaries
A.L. Menne, C. Schulz, in: C. Stephanidis, G. Margetis, S. Ntoa, M. Antona, G. Salvendy (Eds.), HCI International 2026 Posters: 28th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2026, Montreal, QC, Canada, July 26–31, 2026, Proceedings, Part I, Springer International Publishing, 2026, pp. 93–106.
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Scientific Engagement
12.03.2026 - 13.03.2026 | Unpacking Digital Imaginaries: The Imaginary in the Context of Digital Media
Co-organized with Christian Schulz
Since 08.04.2026 | Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft (GfM)
Since 15.03.2026 | European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)