verschuer@soz.uni-frankfurt.de
Short Vita
Franziska von Verschuer is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt. She studied Sociology and Psychology in Freiburg and Frankfurt. In 2024, she earned her PhD in Sociology from Goethe University Frankfurt. Her PhD project was a qualitative study of the technoscientific world of agrobiodiversity conservation in seedbanks with a particular focus on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, through which she explored seed banking as a mode of technoscientific world- and future-making in the face of social-ecological crises. Franziska’s research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of environmental and post-anthropocentric sociology, critical social studies of science and technology, as well as feminist and decolonial theory and epistemology.
Project Description
My recently completed PhD project was an inquiry into the conservation of agricultural biodiversity in seed banks as an approach to solving the socio-ecological problems connected to the increasing loss of plant genetic diversity. My study focused on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault as a nodal point of global ex-situ conservation efforts. Based on ethnographic research and expert interviews, I explored the rationalities and more-than-human relationalities that make the world of agrobiodiversity conservation. Thus, seed banking comes into view as not merely a technoscientific promise of future abundance in the face of loss, but as a technoscientific mode of world-making and negotiating futurity.
For further information on my PhD project and current research see here.
Franziska von Verschuer wins Frankfurt Prize for Environment and Sustainability
Associated Researcher of the RTG Franziska von Verschuer wins the Frankfurt Prize for Environment and Sustainability for her doctoral thesis.
Her thesis „Conserving Seeds, Assembling Worlds: A Sociological Inquiry into Agrobiodiversity Conservation through the Svalbard Global Seed Vault“ stands out for its challenging research which addresses relevant and urgent topics and thus contributes to new, interdisciplinary and innovative solutions in the field of environment and sustainability.
The prize, which is endowed by the GRADE Centre Sustain at Goethe University, aims to celebrate highly scientifically qualitative and socially relevant research in the field of sustainability. The award ceremony took place on May 9 2025.