BIOGRAPHY
Lauren Reid is a researcher, educator, and curator working across anthropology, science & technology studies (STS), and exhibition-making. Through multimodal ethnography and curatorial practice, she is particularly interested in exploring how life off-Earth is imagined and put into practice.
Lauren is currently postdoctoral Research Associate at Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space, University of Leicester where she is focusing on how emerging scientific and technological practices of space exploration and habitation reconfigure familiar Earthly ideas of life, relation, and humanity.
She holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin. Her dissertation—Thinking Beyond the Final Frontier: Cosmic Futures in Thailand—examines how futures beyond Earth are imagined and enacted in Thailand, juxtaposing astronomers working at a national observatory with Buddhist practitioners who commune with extraterrestial beings to offer a decolonial reading of space exploration that foregrounds multiplicity in cosmic engagements.
From 2025-26, Lauren taught qualitative research methods including ethnographic, arts-based, and visual culture approaches as a guest researcher at the Center of Methods, Leuphana University.
As a curator, Lauren is Co-Director of insitu collective, Co-Founder of the Project Space Festival Berlin, and has taught curatorial practice at Node Centre for Curatorial Studies since 2012. She is most interested in creating immersive, multi-sensory environments that invite audiences into the world of a topic—be it a outer space, a future nuclear waste repository, or a fictional character.
Lauren is currently postdoctoral Research Associate at Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space, University of Leicester where she is focusing on how emerging scientific and technological practices of space exploration and habitation reconfigure familiar Earthly ideas of life, relation, and humanity.
She holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin. Her dissertation—Thinking Beyond the Final Frontier: Cosmic Futures in Thailand—examines how futures beyond Earth are imagined and enacted in Thailand, juxtaposing astronomers working at a national observatory with Buddhist practitioners who commune with extraterrestial beings to offer a decolonial reading of space exploration that foregrounds multiplicity in cosmic engagements.
From 2025-26, Lauren taught qualitative research methods including ethnographic, arts-based, and visual culture approaches as a guest researcher at the Center of Methods, Leuphana University.
As a curator, Lauren is Co-Director of insitu collective, Co-Founder of the Project Space Festival Berlin, and has taught curatorial practice at Node Centre for Curatorial Studies since 2012. She is most interested in creating immersive, multi-sensory environments that invite audiences into the world of a topic—be it a outer space, a future nuclear waste repository, or a fictional character.
Research interests
social studies of outer space (SSOS), pluriversal politics, technoscientific imaginaries, postcolonial theory, curating, arts-based research methods, multimodal ethnography
CONTACT
ABRIDGED CV
Education
2025
PhD, Social & Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität, Berlin
2007
Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours), Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney
2006
Bachelor of Arts (Visual) / Arts, Australian National University, Canberra
Publications: edited volumes
in press
‘Astronomy, Religion and Finding the ‘Right Way’ to Engage the Cosmos’ In The Off Earth Atlas: A Guide to Life in Outer Space. Edited by David Jeevendrampillai, Victor Buchli, Delphine Mercer, Perig Pitrou and Elsa De Set. Intellect.
in press
‘Frontier’. In Keywords for Social Studies of Outer Space. Edited by A.R.E. Taylor. Palgrave Macmillan.
2025
'Composing the cosmos: Tuning into multiplicities with Thai Buddhist concepts'. In Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives. Edited by Jenia Gorbanenko, David Jeevendrampillai, and Adryon Kozel. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003437956
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003437956
2023
‘Divergent Searches for Extraterrestrial Worlds on Two Mountaintops in Thailand‘. In The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space. Edited by Juan Francisco Salazar and Alice Gorman. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003280507
Publications: online
2018
The Secret Life of Objects: Strategies for Telling New Stories in Exhibitions’. Allegra Lab: Anthropology for Radical Optimism. http://allegralaboratory.net
Publications: other
2014
Reid, Lauren, Karin Klenke and Andrea Lauser (Eds.) Haunted Thresholds: Spirituality in Contemporary Southeast Asia, Göttingen: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.
2013
'Peel Slowly and See: Popular music in the artistic practice of Song-Ming Ang'. ISSUE 2: Echo, The Poetics of Translation, ISSUE Art Journal. August 2013. Singapore: LASALLE College of the Arts.
Invited talks
2026
‘Art/Anthro:
Methods, Forms, and Frictions’ (panelist), chaired by David (Jeeva)
Jeevendrampillai, Imagining Outer Space Otherwise series, UCLA, 29 Jan (online)
2025
‘Imagining cosmic futures ‘otherwise’ through co-creative and montage-inspired research methods’, SEADS (Space Ecologies Art and Design) Network, 4 February (online)
2024
‘The Making of Outer Space: National Futures, Technologies and Celestial Bodies in Motion‘,
FutureSpace project, Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS), University of Vienna, 23 May (online)
2023
COSS Catalyst: Space Temples (panelist), chaired by Jenia Gorbanenko, Centre for Outer Space Studies (COSS), University College of London, 9 March (online)
2022
‘Finding the extraterrestrial on two mountaintops in Thailand’, Aliens are temporary: a mutating tale, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, 24 April, Berlin, DE
2020
Caterina Barbieri & Ruben Spini in conversation with Lauren Reid, The New Infinity, Berliner Festspiele, Zeiss-Großplanetarium, 11 September, Berlin, DE
Conferences
2025
‘Curating Cosmic Relations: An Imaginary Exhibition of Space Exploration in Thailand‘, Ethnographies of Outer Space Symposium. University of Vienna.
2024
‘Extraterrestrials, Buddhism, Astronomy, & Astrology: Thinking with Multiple Cosmologies in Thailand’, Decolonizing Outer Space Ethnography. World Anthropological Union Congress 2024. Johannesburg, 11-15 November, (online)
2024
‘Imagining Cosmic Futures ‘Otherwise’ through Co-Creative and Montage-Inspired Research Methods’, Making and Transforming Outer Space with/through artistic interventions: alternative languages and narratives for (inter)planetary relations. EASST/4S STS Conference, 16-19 July, Amsterdam, NL
2021
‘Reframing ‘Space the Final Frontier’, Rethinking Outer Space And Science: Critical Engagements With The Cosmos And The Extra-terrestrial. 4S Toronto 2021, 6-9 October (online)
2020
‘Grounding Space Science and Engaging Cosmic Fantasies: Public Outreach in Thailand’, Who are the Publics of Outer Space?, presenter and roundtable co-organiser with Richard Tutton, EASST/4S 2020, 18 August (online)
2019
No Planet B: Multiplanetary Ethics in the Anthropocene roundtable panelist
at AAA/CASCA 2019 Annual Meeting, 20-24 May, Vancouver, CA
2019
‘Futures Beyond Earth: Apocalyptic Thinking of Thai Astronomers and Extraterrestrial Believers’,The Moon as a ‘contact zone’ to other worlds: an interdisciplinary workshop, University of Manchester, 23-24 May, UK
2018
‘Beyond the Final Frontier’, International SETI conference, Indonesian Space Science Society, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 10 November, Yogyakarta, ID
Teaching: courses
2025
Visual and Material Cultures of Space Exploration, Method-oriented Approaches to Humanities Module, undergraduate, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, DE
2025
Montage as Method: Juxtaposing and Reconfiguring in Cultural Studies, Methods of Cultural Studies Module, undergraduate, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, DE
2025
Communicating Research Findings Beyond Articles: Presenting Knowledge in Creative Formats, Practicing Research for Science and Society Module, postgraduate, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, DE
2024
Multimodal Ethnography, Producing Knowledge: Methodologies Module, undergraduate, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, DE
2024
Introduction to Ethnographic Fieldwork: Liminal Spaces in Lüneburg, Producing knowledge: Research Methods for Cultural Studies Module, undergraduate, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, DE
2024
Developing Curatorial Concepts: Research & Creative Ideation, Node Centre for Curatorial Studies, online (taught 2018 - 2024)
2020
Key Moments in the History of Curating, Node Centre for Curatorial Studies, online (taught 2015 - 2020)
2020
Expanding Exhibitions: Innovative Approaches to Curating, Node Centre for Curatorial Studies, online (taught 2013-2020)
Teaching: workshops
2022
Developing a Curatorial Concept, Ithra Museum, Dhahran, SA
2019
Conceptualising Exhibitions, Vilnius Academy of Arts, LT
2018
Imagining Our Futures in Outer Space, HONF Lab, Yogyakarta, ID
2018
Imagining Our Futures in Outer Space, S.A.C. Art Lab, Chiang Mai, TH
2017
The Next Big Thing: Futures of Exhibitions, European Cultural Academy, Venice, IT
2017
Introduction to Curating: Developing Concepts, Paratissima Skopje, MK
2015
Creative Writing in Three-Dimensions - Can an exhibition be a story? Silapakorn University, Bangkok, TH
Selected curatorial projects
2020
Infinities Goulburn Regional Gallery, AU
2020
Honeymoon Viborg Kunsthal, DK*
2019
I dreamed I was a house Casino, Luxembourg, LU*
2019
Beyond the Final Frontier Subhashok the Arts Centre, Bangkok, TH
2017
Corridor II: Pachamama insitu, Berlin, DE*
2016
Thinking like a forest screening evening for Elsa Salonen’s solo exhibition Guided by the Stars of the Southern Hemisphere, Acud Macht Neu, Berlin, DE
2016
The Overflow Untitled for Film, Chiang Mai University, TH
2016
Corridor I: Onkalo insitu, Berlin, DE*
2016
Charles insitu, Berlin, DE*
2016
Madeleine insitu, Berlin, DE*
2015
Jonny insitu, Berlin, DE*
2015
Vic insitu, Berlin, DE*
2015
Framework 6: parallelisms insitu, Berlin, DE*
2015
O.K. The Musical (Dress Rehearsals) KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE**
2015
Framework 5: O.K. The Musical (Pre-Production) insitu, Berlin, DE**
2014
Haunted Thresholds: Spirituality in Contemporary Southeast Asia, Kunstverein Göttingen, Göttingen, DE
2014
A Brief History of Memory IV Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, RU
2014
Spectral Reverberations, Light & Wire Gallery, online formerly at lightandwiregallery.com/
2014
Framework 3: meet your idol insitu, Berlin, DE**
2014
Project Space Festival: Magic Tricks insitu, Berlin, DE**
2014
Framework 2: feel at home insitu, Berlin, DE**
2014
Framework 1: extrasensory bonds insitu, Berlin, DE**
2014
Prologue: relationships, networks and connections insitu, Berlin, DE**
2012
Out of the black, REH Kunst, Berlin
2011
Material Conversion, co-curated with Maria Lanko and Wyatt Niehaus, Grimmuseum, Berlin, DE
* co-curated with Marie Graftieaux, Nora Mayr and Gilles Neiens as insitu collective
** co-curated with Marie Graftieaux and Nora Mayr as insitu collective
** co-curated with Marie Graftieaux and Nora Mayr as insitu collective