Dr. Niki Rhyner
Dr. Niki Rhyner
A historian of science with a focus on cultural anthropology, I completed my doctoral thesis at ETH Zurich on the interactions between ethnographic field research and economic development in Europe (1950–1995). I work on the histories of science and activism and academic publishing, and co-direct the independent publisher intercom.
Photo: private
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Publishing and the Humanities Beyond the Market University:
A Hybrid HistoryThis project investigates the fortunes of small publishing initiatives since the 1960s. In this period, the humanities experienced a “golden age” of academic and popular publishing followed by a decline in bibliographic diversity that is closely tied to the rise of digitization and Open Access. To understand how the practices of humanities scholars shaped the emerging infrastructures of today’s hybrid publishing landscape, I combine traditional archive-based scholarship with experimental research, taking the scholar-led initiative intercomverlag as a site for the applied investigation of DIY practices. Overall, the project aims to situate the digital humanities in the publishing worlds of the recent past.
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ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2480-4315
2026 (forthcoming). Stunde der Peripherie: Ethnografische Feldforschung und Wirtschaftsentwicklung in Europa, 1950–1995. Göttingen: Wallstein.
2025. “The Enriched Knowledge Economy: Ecomusées, Regional Development and French Anthropology, 1960–1980.” In “Historicizing Interventionist Social Knowledge, 1950s–2000s,” edited by Eric Hounshell and Verena Halsmayr, special issue, Science in Context (2025).
2025. “Die Fußnote: Zeichen des Widerstands.” In Über Bücher: 101 Texte und Bilder für Michael Hagner, edited by Ines Barner, Stephan Graf, Nils Güttler, Niki Rhyner, Vera Wolff, and Monika Wulz, 70–74. Göttingen: Wallstein.
2024. “‘Post-Folklore’: Anthropology and Economic Development in European Peripheries, 1950–1995.” History of Anthropology Review 48.
2020. With Max Stadler, Nils Güttler, et al. Gegen|Wissen (cache 01). Zurich: intercom. Available at www.cache.ch/gegenwissen: “Alltag”; “Dorf”; “Krise der Vernunft”; “Umbruch”; “Epilog”; Editorial.
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2026. Panel participation at Exploring the Future of Community-Led Open Access Books (Copim Conference 2026), Loughborough University London, 27 February.
2025. “Selber machen: Historiker:innen als Verleger:innen?!” (podcast). Vergangenheitsformen, March 28.
2024. With Monika Wulz, Martin Herrnstadt, and Nils Güttler. “Zwischen Wissenschaft und Aktivismus.” Neue Zürcher Zeitung 54 (March 5).
2023. “gta edition / Mono” (podcast). Nicht nur schön, May 17.
2022. With Nils Güttler. “DIY Epistemologies: Histories and Futures of Publishing in the Humanities” (blog post). Journal of the History of Ideas Blog, February 16.
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niki.rhyner[at]hu-berlin.de
phone: +49 (0) 30 2093 65864