Dr Alexandra Supper (A.)
Alexandra Supper is an assistant professor in the Department of Society Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University. Her research interests include the role of sound, listening and other bodily skills in scientific practice; the construction of scientific authority; the formation and consolidation of (inter)disciplinary communities and heterogeneous knowledge-based social movements; and the role of sound technologies in popular music (especially in relation to discourses about authenticity).
She is an editor of the journal Science and Technology Studies and an associate editor of the Journal of Sonic Studies.
She is the Chair of the Board of Examiners at FASoS and teaches in a variety of programmes on BA as well as MA level. Previously, she also held roles as programme director of the BA Arts & Culture, as Teaching Fellow Coordinator, and as academic coordinator of WTMC.
Expertises
Expertise in science and technology studies, at the intersection with sound studies, sensory studies, higher education studies.
Research interests include: sound, listening and bodily skills in scientific practice; scientific authority and credibility; sonification and visualisation practices; disciplines and interdisciplinarity; dynamics of academic communities; conference practices; AI voices; city farming.
Career history
Education:
2008-2012: PhD (with distinction) at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University.
2008-2009: Training programme of the Netherlands Graduate Research School of Science, Technology & Modern Culture (WTMC).
2003-2004: Erasmus exchange student at the Faculty of Arts, Maastricht University
2001-2007: Magistra of sociology (with distinction) at the University of Vienna.
Academic Job Experience:
2014-present: Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University.
May 2013: Visiting Professor of Science-Technology-Society, University of Vienna.
2012-2014: Post-doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University.
2008-2011: PhD researcher at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University.
2006-2007:(Partially funded) research on a master’s thesis at the Department of Social Studies of Science in Vienna.
2005-2006: Research Assistant to Ulrike Felt in a mapping project of research activities and structures in the field of Science-Technology-Society in the EU for the European Commission.
2005- 2006: Teaching Assistant at the Department of Social Studies of Science, University of Vienna.
Other Academic Activities:
2026-: Chair of the Board of Examiners, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
2022-26: Academic Coordinator, Netherlands Research School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture (WTMC)
2022-24: Teaching Fellow Coordinator, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
2019-2022: Programme Director, BA Arts and Culture
2018: Assistant Programme Director, BA Arts and Culture
2017-19: Member of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University
2013-2018: Academic coordinator of the Graduate School of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
April 2017: Visiting lecturer, Department of Literature with Art and Media Studies, University of Konstanz
2013: Member of the Programme Committee of the First International Conference of the European Sound Studies Association (ESSA) on “Functional Sounds”, Berlin, October 2013.
2012-2013: Project coordinator for a sound installation at the Amsterdam Museum based on the NWO project Soundscapes of the Urban Past.
2009-2010: PhD Member of the Educational Committee of the Netherlands Graduate Research School of Science, Technology & Modern Culture (WTMC).
2006-2007: Student member in the planning committee for an MA program in “Science-Technology-Society” at the University of Vienna.