Hello, my name is Anna Weichselbraun (/ˈvaɪ̯ç.səl.bʁaʊ̯n/), and I’m a linguistic and sociocultural anthropologist who studies how knowledge, technology, and language shape contemporary forms of governance and cultural common sense.
My research spans nuclear safeguards, experimental blockchain and cryptocurrency communities, and large language models. I use semiotic analysis and ethnographic methods to examine how bureaucracies and technical systems enact and stabilize common sense — often in unexpected ways.
This fall I am serving as Gastprofessorin at the University of Vienna’s Department of European Ethnology.
From 2018 to 2025, I was a postdoctoral research and teaching associate (Universitätsassistentin) at the University of Vienna’s Department of European Ethnology, where I taught courses on science and technology studies, linguistic anthropology, historical methods, and ethnographic writing.
I also write about the everyday communicative practices that underpin systems of trust, verification, and expertise — and how they change as technologies change.
If you’re curious, here’s an interview about my article in PoLAR.
Contact
You can reach me at anna.weichselbraun[AT]univie.ac.at, follow me on Bluesky, or check out my ORCID.