Anna Lena Menne, M.A.

Research Associate
Member - Associated Collegiate
Associated Doctoral Researcher, Independent Research Group “Development of Symmetrical Mental Models”
Office Address:
Pohlweg 47-49
33098 Paderborn
Room:
P5.2.02.6

About Anna Lena Menne

As a research associate in the division of Digital Humanities at the Department of Media Studies at Paderborn University, Anna Lena Menne works within the independent research group “Development of Symmetrical Mental Models, which is affiliated with the Collaborative Research Centre TRR 318 “Constructing Explainability.” 

Her current research explores epistemic-affective tensions in human-machine interactions, particularly in engagements with large language models (LLMs) as technologies of anticipation. She is especially interested in how such moments of rupture (“cracks”) might be harnessed as generative liminal spaces for societally transformative practices of explanation. 

Anna Lena holds a transdisciplinary background in Media and Communication Studies and Global Studies, shaped by academic and personal experiences across Germany, the UK, South Africa, and Thailand. Her work explores the intersection of critical technology studies and participatory design, grounded in an ongoing engagement with socio-ecological transformation and epistemic justice. From this perspective, her research contributes to the collective renegotiation of meaning and agency in the context of digital futures as spaces of imaginative possibility.

Curriculum Vitae

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

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

Publications

Latest Publications

Social Context in Human-AI Interaction (HAI): Towards a Theoretical Framework Based on Multi-Perspectival Imaginaries

A.L. Menne, C. Schulz, in: C. Stephanidis, M. Antona, S. Ntoa, G. Salvendy (Eds.), HCI International 2026 Posters: 28th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI 2026, Montreal, Canada, July 26-31, 2026, Proceedings, Springer International Publishing, n.d.


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Scientific Engagement

12.03.2026 - 13.03.2026  |  Unpacking Digital Imaginaries: The Imaginary in the Context of Digital Media


Since 15.03.2026  |  European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)