Hello, my name is Anna Weichselbraun (/ˈvaɪ̯ç.səl.bʁaʊ̯n/), and I’m a linguistic and sociocultural anthropologist who studies relationships between knowledge, technology, and language.
My current research applies linguistic anthropology frameworks to large language models. In this introduction to a special issue in Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Siri Lamoureaux, Michael Castelle, and I argue for the necessity of a linguistic anthropology of LLMs.
I co-coordinate the Language Machines Network, a monthly research forum bringing together scholars working at the intersection of language, technology, and society. Email languagemachinesnetwork@gmail.com to join the list!
My research spans large language models, experimental cryptocurrency communities, and nuclear governance. I use semiotic analysis and ethnographic methods to examine how organizations and technical systems enact and stabilize common sense — often in unexpected ways.
I am currently a Senior Research Fellow 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.
Contact
You can reach me at anna.weichselbraun[AT]univie.ac.at, follow me on Bluesky, or check out my ORCID.