Kevin Bernhard Hall
About
I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Department for Sociology and Political Science at the Norwegian University for Science and Technology (NTNU). My research focuses on practices of biosecurity, datafication and surveillance of health and disease at the interface of pathogen, vector, population and public health administration. Drawing on Science & Technology Studies, Surveillance Studies and post-structuralist theory my research focusses on the socio-technical assemblages and processes that breathe life into epistemic objects such as health, population or virus. I hold a diploma in biochemistry, a MA in philosophy and sociology and a PhD in cultural anthropology from the Goethe University of Frankfurt.
In my previous position, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Sociology at the University of Marburg, Germany, where I followed the data practices in contact tracing and their entanglement with questions of care, digital technologies and infection protection legislation. This research continued my longstanding interest in prevention, preparedness and pandemic planning from my time at Goethe University. There I was research associate in two projects funded by the German Research Foundation investigating pandemic planning and the prevention of dengue in Europe. Drawing on the example of influenza surveillance in Germany my PhD thesis traces the socio-technically demanding process of visualizing epidemics in the population.
Research
As part of the European Data Strategy the European Commission recently announced the creation of the European Health Data Space (EHDS). The EHDS proposes to reconcile the data needs of policy makers, health care providers, scientists and businesses with the privacy needs of citizens and the accompanying legislature of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Health Data of the population are to be captured and made available for secondary use in order to ‘unleash the data economy by fostering a genuine single market for digital health services and products’ (European Commission 2022a). Drawing on STS scholarship on infrastructures my project aims to analyze the political rationalities of emergent digital infrastructures and practices of datafication in health-related work. In particular, I am interested in the co-production of digital polities, practices of economization and valuation as well as practices of standardization and sense-making alongside the digitalization of public health administration.
Publications
Book
Hall, Kevin (2021): Viren im Blick. Überwachung und Sichtbarkeit der Influenza in Deutschland. [Gazing Viruses. Surveillance and Visibility of Influenza in Germany; dissertation thesis] Campus Verlag.
Journal Publications
Hall, Kevin, Sven Opitz, Klaus Scheuermann (2022): Die Grenzen der Verwaltung in der Krise: Gesundheitsämter in “schwierigen Umwelten”. [The limits of administration in the crisis: Public health offices in “difficult environments”.] In: Soziale Systeme. Zeitschrift für soziologische Theorie 25 (1), pp. 217–225.
Hall, Kevin, Meike Wolf (2021): Whose crisis? Pandemic flu, “communication disasters” and the struggle for hegemony. In: Health: An interdisciplinary journal for the social study of health, illness and medicine 25(3), pp. 322–338 (online first 2019: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459319886112).
Wolf, Meike, Kevin Hall (2020): Asian Tiger Mosquitos as Undesirable Cross-border Commuters. Invasive Species and the Regulation of (Bio-)Insecurities in Europe. Translation from the German by Jessica Wallace & Julia Heinecke. In: Journal for European Ethnology and Cultural Analysis 5(1), pp. 64–76.
Wolf, Meike, Kevin Hall (2020): Asiatische Tigermücken als unerwünschte Grenzgänger. Invasive Spezies und die Regulierung von (Bio-)Unsicherheiten in Europa. In: Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 116(1), pp. 67–81.
Wolf, Meike, Kevin Hall (2018): Cyborg Preparedness: Incorporating Knowing and Caring Bodies into Emergency Infrastructures. In: Medical Anthropology. Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness 37(6), pp. 486–498.
Bookchapters
Hall, Kevin, Klaus Scheuermann (2023): Die Krise des Szenarios. Das Grippepandemieszenario und seine blinden Flecken. [The crisis of the scenario. The scenario of pandemic flu and its blind spots.] In: Julia Engelschalt, Jason Lemberg, Arne Maibaum, Andie Rothenhäusler, Meike Wiegand (eds.) Wissenskrisen – Krisenwissen. Zum Umgang mit Krisenzuständen in und durch Wissenschaft und Technik. Transcript.
Hall, Kevin (2021): Biocommunicability. The biopolitics of pandemic communication. In: David M. Berube (ed.) Pandemic Communication and Resilience. Springer Nature, pp. 3–18.
Hall, Kevin, Ursula Naue (2016): “Wenn das nicht genug ist, dann mache ich einen DNS-Test.” Zur Rolle von DNS-Tests im Kontext von Familienzusammenführungen in Österreich. [“If that is not enough, I’ll make a DNA-test.” On the role of DNA-tests in family reunifications in Austria.] In: Torsten Heinemann, Martin G. Weiß (eds.) An der Grenze. Die biotechnologische Überwachung von Migration. Campus, pp. 81–99.
Hall, Kevin, Ursula Naue (2015): Austria: DNA Profiling as a Lie Detector. In: Torsten Heinemann, Ilpo Helén, Thomas Lemke, Ursula Naue, Martin G. Weiss (eds.) Suspect Families. DNA Analysis, Family Reunification and Immigration Policies. Ashgate (2015), pp. 55–78.
Hall, Kevin (2014): Hans Jörg Rheinberger: Experimentalsysteme und epistemische Dinge. In: Diana Lengersdorf, Matthias Wieser (eds.): Schlüsselwerke der Science & Technology Studies. Springer VS, pp. 221–233.
Online
Hall, Kevin (2021): Über den Umgang mit Viren und Pandemien. Literaturessay zu “New Pandemics, Old Politics” von Alex de Waal, “Modern Epidemics” von Salvador Macip und “Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID-19” von Kari Nixon. [On dealing with viruses and pandemics. Literature essay on “New Pandemics, Old Politics” by Alex de Waal, “Modern Epidemics” by Salvador Macip and “Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID-19” by Kari Nixon.] In: Soziopolis, 22.09.2021, Online: www.soziopolis.de/ueber-den-umgang-mit-viren-und-pandemien.html.
Opitz, Sven, Kevin Hall, Klaus Scheuermann (2021): Ein Unterschied, der keinen Unterschied macht? Das Signal der Corona Warn-App und die Verwaltung der Pandemie. [A Difference that Doesn’t Make a Difference? The signal of the Corona Warn-App and the administration of the pandemic.] In: KWI-Blog 8 February 2021, Sozialfiguren der Pandemie, Online: https://blog.kulturwissenschaften.de/ein-unterschied-der-keinen-unterschied-macht/.
Hall, Kevin (2020): Über die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Frühwarnsystemen. Ein Beitrag zur Reihe “Sicherheit in der Krise”. [On the Possibilities and Limitations of Early Warning Systems. A contribution to the ‘Security in Crisis’ series.] In: Soziopolis, 03.09.2020, Online: https://www.soziopolis.de/ueber-die-moeglichkeiten-und-grenzen-von-fruehwarnsystemen.html.
Reports
Hall, Kevin, Sven Opitz, Klaus Scheuermann (2022): Die Verwaltung der Kontaktverfolgung unter COVID-19. Eine Analyse der Containment Scouts und der Mobile Tracing App. Abschlussbericht. [The Administration of contact tracing under COVID-19. An Analysis of Containment Scouts and the Mobile Tracing App. Final Report to the Robert Koch-Institute.] Philipps University Marburg, 134 pages.
Hall, Kevin, Sven Opitz, Klaus Scheuermann (2022): Die Verwaltung der Kontaktverfolgung unter COVID-19. Eine Analyse der Containment Scouts und der Mobile Tracing App aus Sicht der Gesundheitsämter. Zwischenbericht. Stand Januar 2021. [The Administration of contact tracing under COVID-19. An Analysis of Containment Scouts and the Mobile Tracing App from the point of view of public health offices. Interim Report to the Robert Koch-Institute. January, 2021] Philipps University Marburg, 15 pages.