Jonathan Harth

Dr phil. Jonathan Harth studied sociology, philosophy and psychology at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Vienna and has been working as an academic staff member at the Chair of Sociology at Witten/Herdecke University since 2009.

His research specialisations include the sociology of digitalisation (in particular extended reality and sociality under conditions of machine intelligence), digital art production and the sociology of religion (Western Buddhism).

In addition to his work at the Chair of Sociology, Harth works on the project "Theatre of Extended Realities" (NRW funding programme Neue Wege), where he is dedicated to the conception and use of digital technologies in virtual and augmented theatre plays.

Latest information: jonathanharth.de

• Pantopia - Social evolution through artificial intelligence? (with Werner Vogd) (SS 2024)
• Digital Art in Focus: Extended Reality, Creative Freedoms and the Future of Art Production (with Larissa Perski) (WS 2023/2024)
• Artificial realities, artificial intelligences and artificial communication (with Alexandra de Carvalho) (WS 2022/2023)
• Teaching research project on physical perception and interaction with virtual agents in virtual reality (with Alexandra Hofmann) (WS 2021/2022)
• Digital interaction cultures (with Martin Feißt) (WS 2020/2021)
• Communication with virtual agents - part 2 (with Alexandra Hofmann) (WS 2020/2021)
• Communication with virtual agents (with Alexandra Hofmann) (SS 2020)
• The Machine to be Another. Virtual Reality and Empathy - Part 2 (SS2020)
• The Machine to be Another. Virtual Reality and Empathy (cooperation with the Academy for Theatre and Digitality) (WS 2019/2020)
• Introduction to qualitative research methods. Part 1 (SS 2019)
• Introduction to qualitative research methods. Part 2: Group discussion as a research method (SS 2019)
• Doesn't taste good doesn't exist. The form of culinary flavour (with Frederik Bury) (WS 2018)
• Buddhism in the West: between secularisation and tradition (SS2018)
• Reflection and Construction of Virtual Worlds: Sociological Action Research (WS 2017/2018)
• Introduction to qualitative research methods. Part 1 (with Dr Ulrike Ofner) (SS 2017)
• Introduction to qualitative research methods. Part 2: Group discussion as a research method (with Anne Ostermann, Clemens Wagner) (SS2017)
• Body schema and body image - theories, media and VR applications (with Prof. Dr Gabriele Gramelsberger, Dawid Kasprowicz) (SS 2017)
• Research workshop - Qualitative methods (with Martin Feißt, Dr Ulrike Ofner) (SS2017)
• Habitus transformation and educational processes (WS 2016/2017)
• Ethnographic explorations of virtual worlds (part 2) (WS 2016/2017)
• Ethnographic explorations of virtual worlds (SS 2016)
• Social artefacts of computer gaming. Experiencing presence and artificial personalities (WS 2015/2016)
• Digitalisation as a cultural process - knowledge/power/psyche (with Prof. Dr. Matthias Kettner) (WS 2014/2015)
• Enlightenment on the horizon. Theories about Buddhism (SS 2014)
• Enlightenment on the horizon. Theories about Buddhism (WS 2013/2014)
• Systems theory. Introduction and experimentation (SS 2013)
• Dissolution and Assembly: Precarious EthnoGRAFIE (with Prof. Dr Werner Vogd) (WS 2012/2013)
• Network and system. Bruno Latour's actor-network theory in contrast to Luhmann's systems theory (SS 2012)
• The Playing Society. Computer games as a social phenomenon (WS 2011/2012)
• PROTEST! Sociological approaches to the phenomenon of protest movements (SS 2011)
• Sociological questions about the status of the actor (part 2) (SS 2011)
• Sociological questions about the status of actors in the sociology of technology (WS 2010/2011)
• "Oversexed but underfucked"? Sociology of sexuality (SS 2010)
• The next associate? Sociological insights into the connections between computers, cultural forms and society (WS 2009/2010)
• "We on the Internet" - Sociological Action Research (with Prof Dr Werner Vogd) (SS 2009)

Media presence (selection):

• Love in the Metaverse, Hitchhiking through the Metaverse: Level 3. NRW-Forum Düsseldorf (23/06/2022).
• The dream of virtual space - life in the metaverse. SWR2 Forum (22/06/2022).
• The sweat of others. Sociologist Jonathan Harth on virtual body swapping, the pitfalls of Zoom calls and the possibilities and limits of VR theatre in conversation with Sabine Leucht. Theatre of Time, p. 17-22, April 2021.
• Why the crisis came too early for virtual reality. Spiegel Online, 24 May 2020.
• With glasses to paradise. Virtual reality between escaping reality and gaining reality. SWR2, 10.06.2018.
• Art of Gaming - Ghost in the Machine, arte, 20.6.2017. Available online.
• Virtual reality is becoming more and more real. Journeys into digital worlds are also changing analogue reality. Frankfurter Rundschau, 26/08/2017.

Honours and prizes:

• Honourable Mention for Best Paper Award (2021) for Harth, Jonathan; Hofmann, Alexandra (2021): Mixed Reality Methods. Preliminary Considerations for Multimodal Analysis of Human-Agent Interactions. CUI@IUI 2021
• "Peter Bartholmes Teaching Award" (2018) for lecturers at Witten/Herdecke University with above-average commitment in the amount of € 2,000 for the seminars "Ethnographic Explorations of Virtual Worlds" and "Habitus Transformation and Educational Processes".

Memberships:

• AG Games - Working Group Games of the Society for Media Studies
• Cyborgs e.V. - Society for the promotion and critical monitoring of the fusion of humans and technology
• DGS - German Society for Sociology
• German-Thai Society e.V.
• Wikimedia e.V.
• Giordano Bruno Foundation