Jonas van der Straeten works as postdoctoral researcher at the University of Technology Darmstadt in the project “A Global History of Technology, 1850 – 2000” which is funded by the European Research Council. His current research focuses on the temporality of technology in Central Asia. In 2018, he conducted archival and field research in Samarkand and Tashkent, Uzbekistan that form the base for publications on the history of building and housing in the Uzbek SSR. In parallel, he is currently revising his dissertation “Transmitting Development – Global Networks and Local Grids in the Electrification of East Africa” for a book publication with Palgrave Macmillan. His dissertation project, which was completed in 2017, was embedded in the interdisciplinary postgraduate program Microenergy Systems at the University of Technology in Berlin and the department of History of Technology at the University of Technology in Darmstadt. He is co-editor of a special issue of NTM Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine on (Post)Colonialism, Infrastructures and the Environment and co-authored a review essay on the same topic. In 2017, he worked as a post-doc with the research project “Translating the Networked City: Adaptation and Creativity in Urban Infrastructures in Africa” at Utrecht University funded by the German Research Council. For this project, he conducted a study on electricity distribution, urban growth and informality Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Besides his academic activities, he has a seven-years track record as a consultant for projects on energy access in countries of the Global South.
Since January 2018: Postdoctoral Researcher in the project “A Global History of Technology, 1850–2000”, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany (funded by the European Research Council)
2017 (May–December): Postdoctoral Fellow in the project “Translating the Networked City: Adaptation and Creativity in Urban Infrastructures in Africa”, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Netherlands (German Research Foundation)
2013-2017: PhD candidate in the postgraduate program Microenergy Systems, University of Technology in Berlin, Germany (funded by the Hans-Böckler Foundation)
2010-2013: MA, History and Culture of Science and Technology, University of Technology in Berlin, Germany
2010–2012: Program Coordinator, Postgraduate Program Microenergy Systems Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
2006-2009: BA, History and Economics, Mannheim University, Germany
2009 – 2017: Consultant, Microenergy International, Berlin, Germany