Anke Gruendel holds a PhD in Politics from the New School for Social Research. Her research interests include technopolitics, political and technical infrastructures, modern forms of political rationality, as well as theories of democracy and the political.
In her current research, she focuses on public sector design in modern technical democracies in which governing and planning has become a site for critical inquiry. Building on both archival research and contemporary fieldwork in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, she seeks to understand how government today is beginning to draw on a global network of public sector innovation that aims to radically transform how public policies are formulated and implemented. Through the diverse practices and discourses of public sector innovation, she is interested in developing a broader perspective on how democracy continues to become reconfigured in relation to ostensibly technical questions.
With a background in design, she is committed to finding new forms of social research and critique. She has held teaching appointments at the New School, Marymount Manhattan College, and the Technische Universität Dresden.