International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW)

Dr. Katharina Krause

Working groups: media ethics, philosophy of technology & AI; security ethics

Katharina Krause is a research associate and post-doc at IZEW. She has been working at IZEW since January 2022 and currently co-leads the VITraDes project with Jessica Heesen. Her research examines, from a normative perspective, the impact of visuality—and specifically journalistic photography—in the context of health crises. Her dissertation on the role of images in the Ebola epidemic in West Africa was awarded the University of Tübingen’s Doctoral Prize for the Department of Social Sciences in July 2025. Katharina is a spokesperson for the DVPW working group “International Political Sociology.”

 

Areas of Expertise

  • Critical Security Studies
  • Visual IR
  • Global Health Governance
  • Care Ethics

About

March 2026 - todayProject leader for the BMFTR-project VITraDes (with Jessica Heesen)
March 2024 - March 2026Project-leader for the BMFTR-project Co-Care (with Katharina Wezel)
Since January 2022Research associate at the Ethics Center (IZEW)
June 2025Visiting fellow, University St Andrews
April 2017 - June 2022Doctoral candidate at the University of Tübingen: "Imag(in)ing the health-security nexus – the connection of images, health, and security in the Ebola epidemic 2013-2016"; (supervisors: Prof. Thomas Diez, Prof. Roland Bleiker; summa cum laude)
November 2017 - August 2022Programme assistant of the European Studies Association (EISA)
August 2014 - December 2014Semester abroad, American University, Washington DC, USA
October 2013 - August 2016M.A. Peace Studies and International Politics, University of Tübingen
August 2012 - January 2013Erasmus semester, Dalarna University, Sweden
October 2010 - September 2013B.A. Social Sciences, University Augsburg

Publications

Chapters

  • Krause, Katharina ; Seits, Mirjam ; Simon, Ali ; Wezel, Katharina und Bomert, Christiane (2026): Caringscapes der Corona-Pandemie. Transversale Krisen als Frage von Raum und Care. in: Katharina Crepaz / Christoph Kircher / Harald Pechlaner (eds.): Pandemie als transversale Krise. Rückblick und Konsequenzen für die Post-Covid-Gesellschaft. Bielefeld: transcript, S. 69-88.
  • Katharina Krause & Katharina Wezel (2022): “Security for whom and from what? Ethics in pandemic times”, in: Lange, H.-J. (ed.). Corona – Politik zwischen Macht und Ohnmacht. AKIS Band Studien zur Inneren Sicherheit, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden.

Journal articles

Other

  • Katharina Krause, Maira Schobert, Marco Krüger (2024): Katastrophenbewältigung zwischen Staat und Wirtschaft. Zur Rolle von Unternehmen während des Ahrhochwassers 2021. Deutsches Rotes Kreuz: Berlin. accessible via (German).
  • Friedrich Gabel, Mara Mühleck, Katharina Krause, Johannes Schad, Matthias Rekowski (2023): Ethische Reflexion im Bevölkerungsschutz. Leitfaden für eine ethisch reflektierte Entscheidungsfindung im Sanitäts- und Betreuungsdienst, Sonderband 2023, Projektleitung Regina Ammicht Quinn, Urban Wiesing und Hans-Jörg Ehni, Hg. v. BBK (Forschung im Bevölkerungsschutz), accessible via (German).

Blog entries

Invited Talks

  • Follow the Image: Seeing the Entanglement of Health and Security, workshop on the politics of global health, Boston University, 27 February 2025.
  • Eine Ethics of Care-Perspektive auf Gesundheitssicherheit, 21. Efas-Fachtagung, HTW Berlin, 01 December 2023.
  • Pop meets protective clothing, Popular Science, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz, 26 – 27 October 2023.
  • Disentangling the protection suit - Images, artefacts, and the making of the health-security nexus, Global Health Section Research Meeting, University of Copenhagen, 25 March2021.
  • Seeing ‘bodies in pain’: Images, Emotions and the Health-Security Nexus, Workshop: Visuality and Emotions in International Politics, Doing International Political Sociology Transnational Hub in collaboration with the Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, 05 February 2021.

Teaching

  • Global Politics and Health Security (summer term 2024)
  • Pandemics, Public Health, and Panic? – Understanding the meanings and makings of health security (summer term 2022)
  • Global Governance and the Health Sector (summer term 2017)

Conference Contributions

  • BISA, Annual Convention, 18 June 2025, Paper: “From objects of expertise to objects of experience: the iterative picturing of contagion”. In cooperation with Luis Aue.
  • ISA, Annual Convention, 02 March 2025, Paper: “Protection for whom and from what? A care ethics approach to the role of protective clothing in pandemic times”. In cooperation with Katharina Wezel.
  • BISA virtual conference, 13 January 2025, Paper: “Protection for whom and from what? A care ethics approach to the role of protective clothing in pandemic times”. In cooperation with Katharina Wezel.
  • Uppsala University, Workshop ‘Narrating Protection in IR: Questioning the (in)visibility of the inbetween’ 24-25 January 2024, Uppsala, Paper: “Protection for whom and from what? A care ethics approach to the role of protective clothing in pandemic times”. In cooperation with Katharina Wezel.
  • DVPW, Workshop ‘Politiken und Praktiken der (Un-)Sicherheit: Perspektiven der Kritischen Sicherheitsstudien’, 13-14 November 2023, Tübingen, Paper: “Entanglements of Care and Contagion: Protective Clothing in Pandemic Times”. In cooperation with Katharina Wezel.
  • DVPW, Workshop ‘Repräsentationen von (Un)Sicherheit – Objekte, Bilder und Orte. DVPW-Themengruppe Kritische Sicherheitsstudien, 05 December 2022, Hamburg, Paper: “Seeing and Sensing Health Security: The Case of Protective Clothing”. In cooperation with Katharina Wezel.
  • ISA, Annual Convention (virtual), 07 April 2021, Paper: “Feeling the health-security nexus: images, emotions, and the body in pain”.
  • Global Health Section Research Meeting (virtual), Copenhagen University, 25 March 2021, Talk: “Disentangling the protection suit - Images, artefacts, and the making of the health-security nexus” (invited speaker).
  • Cooperation with medico international, franzK and Tübingen University, 10 March 2021, Tübingen, Talk: “Impfstoff für alle?! Politische und Ethische Fragen zur Impfgerechtigkeit” [“Vaccines for all?! Political and ethical questions on vaccine equity”]. In cooperation with Katharina Wezel (invited speaker).
  • Doing International Political Sociology Transnational Hub in collaboration with the Centre for Global Cooperation Research, Workshop “Visuality and Emotions in International Politics” (virtual), University Duisburg-Essen, 05 February 2021, Talk: “Seeing ‘bodies in pain’: Images, Emotions and the Health-Security Nexus” (invited speaker).
  • Millennium Conference (virtual), 25 October 2020, Paper: “Disentangling the Protection Suit”.
  • DVPW IB-Sektionstagung (virtual), 08 October 2020, Paper: “Den leidenden Körper sehen: Bilder, Emotionen und Gesundheitssicherheit” [“Seeing the suffering body – images, emotions, and the health-security nexus”].
  • BISA, Annual Conference, June 2019, London, Paper: “Looking at the “body in pain” – images, emotions and the health-security nexus”.
  • EISA, Pan European Conference, September 2019, Sofia, Paper: “Images and the health security nexus”.
  • EISA, Pan European Conference, September 2019, Sofia, Paper: “Showing and seeing epidemics – Visuality as a critical method in global health”.
  • DVPW, IB-Nachwuchstagung, April 2018, Tutzing, Paper: “Imag(in)ing Ebola. Theorizing Images for the Health-Security Nexus”.
  • EISA, European Workshops in International Studies, June 2018, Groningen, Paper: “Imag(in)ing Ebola. Doing Visual IR with Actor-Network Theory”.
  • BISA, Pre-Conference Workshop: A critical agenda for global health, June 2018, Bath, Paper: “Imag(in)ing Ebola - The Role of Images in the Health-Security Nexus”.
  • EISA, Pan European Conference, September 2018, Prague, Paper: “Images matter: The visual securitization of Ebola through the lens of Actor-Network Theory”.

Awards and Scholarships

June 2025Erasmus+ scholarship
June 2025Childcare cost support for fellowship in UK from the University's Team Equity
March 2021Best Paper Award 2021, German Association for Political Science, IR-Section
April 2017 - December 2021PhD Scholarship awarded by the Heinrich Böll-Foundation
October 2016Prize for an outstanding thesis (M.A.) from POLIS e.V.
January 2015 - March 2015DAAD short-term scholarship for internships abroad
August 2014 - December 2014American University Dean’s Scholarship
April 2013 - April 2016Scholarship holder of the Max Weber-Programm
August 2012 -  January 2013Erasmus scholarship for a semester abroad