Our research fields lie in the histories of technology and science.

One of the department's current research focuses is on the history of digitization and AI. Martina Heßler investigates errors in digital reality. Denis Ljuljanović studies the history of the digital factory through the lens of malfunction, and Jakob Tschandl researches the history of expert systems in the 1980s. Sven Schibgilla explores the digitization of schools in the Federal Republic of Germany from the 1960s to the 1990s, and Heidi Schweickert examines the users' emotional reactions to the introduction of SAP in German companies.

The history of repair, malfunction, and technological failure is a key research area for the department. Along with projects on digital errors and malfunctions in the digital factory, Felipe Beuttenmüller studied circulation issues in the Lisbon transport system after World War II, thereby expanding the concept of repair.

A third area of focus is research in the field of historical anthropology of technology. Here, the emphasis is on the history of human–machine relationships in the digital age, as well as on human–machine relationships since the early modern period (Martina Heßler), and on philosophical–historical approaches to the human element in the digital work environment (Kevin Liggieri).

Kevin Liggieri's Emmy Noether Group researches the co-evolution of technology and learning. The group's focus is on how conceptions of learning subjects have changed over time, and how these continue to shape ideas about the 'learning subject' in 21st-century digital society. The group explores complex issues across three levels: 'subject', 'environment', and 'gender'.