tob.wagner@em.uni-frankfurt.de

Short Vita
Tobias Wagner (he/him) completed his BA in Philosophy and his MA in Sociology at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. Starting in 2023 he is a PhD candidate at the Fixing Futures graduate college. His research interests lie in feminist and de-/ anti-colonial epistemologies, invasion ecology, environmental humanities and STS.

Project Description
Invasive alien species (IAS) pose one of the biggest threats to biodiversity today, with IAS contributing to nearly 40% of species extinctions with known causes. As ecosystems are complex, dynamic communities of organic and inorganic participants, static categories of native, exotic and invaders do not map neatly onto processes within them. Accordingly, questions of when a species is considered alien and when native, or what constitutes an invasion, are not easily answered. My PhD research project is an inquiry into the technoscientific construction of IAS through discursive means and measures of (biological) control. I examine how species come to be, as native, alien, or otherwise, how these practices construct borders, and how habitats are managed outside of immediate incursions in relation to IAS.