Laura Bomm is a PhD candidate at the Department of Science and Technology Studies and the PLENTY plastics research platform (Vienna University). With her interdisciplinary background in Forest- and Nature Conservation (BSc) and Health, Communication, and Life Sciences (MSc), her research interests gravitate around issues and phenomena situated at the crossroads of society and the environment.
She is currently finalizing her PhD dissertation titled “(Re-)Thinking plastics with time: The role of temporal narratives for citizens’ sensemaking of plastics”. In doing so, Laura unravels in which ways different temporalities and temporal features matter for how problems with plastics are constructed and understood, how certain plastic artefacts are legitimized over others, how responsibility towards practices with plastics is distributed, and how (non-)actions and solutions are imagined for challenging society’s relationship with plastics now and in the future.
With her interest in plastics and participatory methods, Laura recently developed the discussion game called “Unser Leben mit Plastik” (“Our live with plastics”) for the Viennese ScienceCenter-Netzwerk. Inspired by a citizen engagement method that she developed together with colleagues earlier in her PhD, Laura’s game will accompany the Ocean Eye Escape Box about marine microplastics on its journey through Austria.
