Prof. Dr. Michelle Christensen

Michelle Christensen is a sociologist and designer, exploring the spaces in between these realms. Her research interests include trans- and postdisciplinarity, the politics of design and the democratic potentials of free and open technologies. She co-heads the research group Design, Diversity and New Commons at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Weizenbaum Institute, and teaches as a visiting professor at the international Master program in Integrated Design at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Dessau. Her research, teaching and experimental design practice focus on feminist/queer, decolonial and postanthropocentric approaches to design.

Michelle wrote her Ph.D. in the field of Design Research at the Berlin University of the Arts. Prior to this, she studied political sociology at Roskilde University in Denmark (B.A.), conflict studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands (M.A.), gender studies at the University of Amsterdam (M.Sc.), and integrated design at the Köln International School of Design in Cologne (M.A.). She has worked at the Crisis Department of Amnesty International USA, was a Humanity in Action Fellow (HiA), and a Congressional Fellow in the United States Congress in Washington DC. As a researcher, she has worked at the Design Research Lab (UdK Berlin), the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), and from 2018-2022 she lead the research group Critical Maker Culture at the UdK Berlin / Weizenbaum Institute together with Florian Conradi. 

From 2019-2026, she was a visiting professor at the Technische Universität Berlin and the Einstein Center Digital Future, where she built up the subject area Open Science, establishing the postdisciplinary studio class Politics of Design. From 2014-2024 she was a board member of the German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF). Since 2015 she is a member of the Board of International Research in Design (BIRD) at Birkhäuser, since 2024 she is a Principal Investigator in the research cluster Matters of Activity at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and in 2023 she joined the Board of Directors of the Einstein Center Digital Future.

Short CV

Since 2023
Member of the Board of Directors of the Einstein Center Digital Future

Since 2026
Visiting Professor, MA Integrated Design, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Dessau 

2019-2026
ECDF Visiting Professor for Open Science / Critical Culture, Technische Universität Berlin

Since 2022
Research Group Lead ‘Design, Diversity and New Commons’, Berlin University of the Arts / Weizenbaum Institute

2018 - 2022
Research Group Lead ‘Critical Maker Culture’, Berlin University of the Arts / Weizenbaum Institute

2018 - 2019
Visiting Professor, International Master in Integrated Design (MAID), Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Dessau

2018
Doctorate (Dr. phil.), Berlin University of the Arts

2018
Researcher, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)

2016 – 2017
Research Associate, Design Research Lab, Berlin University of the Arts

2011
M.A. Integrated Design, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, University of Applied Sciences Cologne

2008
M.Sc. Sociology (Gender), International School of Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam

2007
M.A. Conflict Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Utrecht

2006
B.A. International Development, Department of Society and Globalization; Roskilde University