Dr. Amelia Fiske

Senior Research Associate

Amelia Fiske is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Amelia Fiske is a cultural anthropologist working in an interdisciplinary bioethics setting since 2017. Her work is at the intersection of cultural anthropology, feminist science and technology studies, social medicine and bioethics, and environmental studies and humanities. She received her PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA), held a postdoctoral position at Kiel University, and conducted extensive field research in Ecaudor before coming to TUM.

Amelia Fiske has over a decade of experience conducting interdisciplinary qualitative and ethnographic research in two key areas: 1) anthropological and critical social science approaches to bioethics, artificial intelligence, and digital and sociotechnical changes in knowledge production; 2) ethnographic attention to issues of socio-ecological justice, experiences of toxicity in the context of extraction, participatory research methods, and graphic arts.

Methodologically, she is an expert in qualitative research methods based on anthropological theories and in the use of graphics to bring lay people closer to social science research. She has extensive experience in inter- and multinational contexts, including a research study on solidarity in the pandemic in nine European and twelve Latin American countries. She has received over €333,000.00 in research funding and her work is published in leading social and health science journals as well as graphic magazines.

  • Participatory practices in health care
  • Ethics of medical AI
  • Toxicity, extraction and socio-ecological justice.
  • Ethnography and graphic art
2022
Hauskeller, C; Artinian, T; Fiske, Amelia; Schwartz-Marin, E; OS, González Romero; Luna, LE; Crickmore, J; Sjöstedt-Hughes, P; (2022) Decolonization is a metaphor towards a different ethic The case from psychedelic studies, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews
Paul, KT*; Zimmermann, Bettina*; Corsico, P; Fiske, Amelia; S, Geiger; Johnson, S; et al., ; (2022) Anticipating hopes, fears and expectations towards COVID-19 vaccines: A qualitative interview study in seven European countries, SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 100035, 10.1016/j.ssmqr.2021.100035
Fiske, Amelia; Degelsegger-Márquez, A; Marsteurer, Brigitte; Prainsack, Barbara; (2022) Value-creation in the health data domain: A typology of what health data help us do, Biosocieties, 1-25, doi: 10.1057/s41292-022-00276-6
Samuel, G; Roberts, S; Fiske, Amelia; Lucivero, F; Stuart, McLennan; Philips, A; Hayes, S; Johnson, S; (2022) COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps: UK Public Perceptions, Critical Public Health, 32, 1, 31-43, https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2021.1909707
Schwartz-Marin, Ernesto; Fiske, Amelia; (2022) The Frog and the Vine: Indigenous Knowledge, Biomedical Innovation and the Ethics of Symmetric Science in Latin AmericaBarahona, Ana; , Handbook of the Historiography of Latin American Studies on the Life Sciences and Medicine, Springer, 487-503, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74723-7
Fiske, Amelia; McLennan, Stuart; Buyx, Alena; (2022) Qualitative Evidence for Concern: Digital health technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic, AJOB Neuroscience, 13, 3, 204-206, https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2022.2082587
Fiske, Amelia; McLennan, Stuart; (2022) Diversity in German-speaking medical ethics and humanities , Accepted with Journal of Bioethical Inquiry
Fiske, Amelia; Fischer, Jonas; (2022) Tóxico A graphic novel with the EthnoGRAPHIC series for the University of Toronto Press, Toronto, University of Toronto Press
McLennan, Stuart; Fiske, Amelia; Tigard, Daniel; Müller, R; Sami, Haddadin; Buyx, Alena; (2022) Embedded ethics: a proposal for integrating ethics into the development of medical AI , BMC Med Ethics, 23, 6, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00746-3
Fiske, Amelia; (2022) Encountering Harm: The Toxic Relations of Oil Production in the Ecuadorian Amazon, University of Texas Press
Fiske, Amelia; Galasso, Ilaria; Zimmermann, Bettina; McLennan, Stuart; Isabella, Radhuber; Prainsack, Barbara; (2022) The Second Pandemic: Examining structural inequality through reverberations of COVID-19 in Europe, Social Science and Medicine, 292, 114634
Fiske, Amelia; Schönweitz, Franziska; Eichinger, Johanna; Zimmermann, Bettina; Nora, Hangel; Sierawska, Anna; McLennan, Stuart; Buyx, Alena; (2022) The COVID-19 Vaccine: Trust, doubt, and hope for a future beyond the pandemic in Germany, Plos One, 17, 4, e0266659, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266659
Hangel, Nora; Schönweitz, Franziska; McLennan, Stuart; Fiske, Amelia; Bettina, Zimmermann; Buyx, Alena; (2022) Solidaristic behavior and its limits: A qualitative study about German and Swiss residents’ behaviors towards public health measures during COVID-19 lockdown in April 2020, SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 2, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100051
McLennan, Stuart; Rachut, S; Lange, J; Fiske, Amelia; D, Heckmann; Buyx, Alena; (2022) Practices and attitudes of Bavarian stakeholders regarding the secondary-use of health data for research purposes during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative interview study, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24, 6, e38754, 10.2196/38754
2021
Zimmermann, Bettina; Fiske, Amelia; Prainsack, B; Hangel, Nora; Stuart, McLennan; Buyx, Alena; (2021) The Conceptualisation of COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps in German-speaking Countries in April 2020: A Comparative Mixed Methods Study, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23, 2, e25525
Kuhn, Eva; Fiske, Amelia; Henningsen, Peter; Buyx, Alena; (2021) Psychotherapie mit einer autonomen künstlichen Intelligenz Ethische Chancen und Herausforderungen, Psychiatrische Praxis, 48, S 01, 26-30, 10.1055/a-1369-2938
Holohan, Michael; Fiske, A; (2021) Like I’m Talking to a Real Person: Exploring the Meaning of Transference for the Use and Design of AI-Based Applications in Psychotherapy, Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 720476, 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720476
Fiske, Amelia; Schneider, A; McLennan, Stuart; Karapetyan, S; Alena, Buyx; (2021) The Impact of COVID-19 on Patient Health and Self-Care Practices: A mixed methods survey with German patients, BMJ Open, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051167
Fiske, Amelia; McLennan, Stuart; Buyx, Alena; (2021) Ethical Insights from the Covid-19 Pandemic in Germany: considerations for building resilient healthcare systems in Europe, Lancet Regional Health Europe, 9, 23.05.2174, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100213
Zimmermann, Bettina; Fiske, Amelia; Prainsack, Barbara; Hangel, Nora; Stuart, McLennan; Buyx, Alena; (2021) Early Perceptions of COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps in German-Speaking Countries: Comparative Mixed Methods Study, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23, 2, e25525, https://doi.org/10.2196/25525
Zimmermann, Bettina; Fiske, Amelia; McLennan, Stuart; Sierawska, Anna; Nora, Hangel; Buyx, Alena; (2021) Motivations and Limits for COVID-19 Policy Compliance in Germany and Switzerland , International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 10.34172/ijhpm.2021.30
2020
Fiske, Amelia; Tigard, Daniel; Müller, Ruth; Haddadin, Sami; Alena, Buyx; McLennan, Stuart; (2020) Embedded ethics could help implement the pipeline model framework for machine learning healthcare applications Comment , American Journal of Bioethics, doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2020.1820101
McLennan, Stuart; Lee, MM; Fiske, Amelia; Celi, LA; (2020) AI ethics is not a panacea , The American Journal of Bioethics, 20, 11, 20-22, https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2020.1819470
McLennan, Stuart; Fiske, Amelia; Celi, LA; Müller, R; J, Harder; Ritt, K; Haddadin, S; Buyx, Alena; (2020) An embedded ethics approach for AI development , Nature Machine Intelligence, 2, 488-490, https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-020-0214-1
Fiske, Amelia; (2020) Naked in the face of contamination Thinking models and metaphors of toxicity together, Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 6, 1, 1-30, https://doi.org/10.28968/cftt.v6i1.32093
Fiske, Amelia; (2020) The Auger: Bearing Witness through Soil CoringDavies, Thom; Mah, Alice; , In Toxic Truths:, Environmental Justice and Citizen Science in a Post-Truth Age, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 124-139
Fiske, Amelia; Buhl, A; Buyx, Alena; Winkler, A; (2020) Auch eine soziale Pandemie , Deutsches Ärzteblatt, 117, 39
McLennan, Stuart; Fiske, Amelia; Haddadin, Sami; Harder, Jan; Alena, Buyx; (2020) Embedded ethics: A proposal for integrating ethics into the development of healthcare AI, Nature Machine Intelligence, https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-020-0214-1
Fiske, Amelia; Henningsen, Peter; Buyx, Alena; (2020) The ethical implications of embodied artificial intelligence in mental healthcare for digital wellbeing Floridi, L; Burr, C; , The Ethics of Digital Well-Being:, A Multi-Disciplinary Approach, Oxford University Press, 207-219
Fiske, Amelia; Buyx, Alena; Prainsack, Barbara; (2020) The double-edged sword of digital self care: Physician perspectives from Northern Germany, Social Science and Medicine, 260, 09.11.2209, doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113174
2019
Fiske, Amelia; Henningsen, Peter; Buyx, Alena; (2019) Your robot therapist will see you now: Ethical implications of embodied artificial intelligence in psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21, 5, e13216, 10.2196/13216
Fiske, Amelia; Prainsack, Barbara; Buyx, Alena; (2019) Data Work: Meaning-Making in the Era of Data-Rich Medicine, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21, 7, e11672, 10.2196/11672
Fiske, Amelia; (2019) Staying with the subtlety of life in the oil complex , HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 9, 3, 650-654, 10.1086/706778
Fiske, Amelia; Prainsack, Barbara; Buyx, Alena; (2019) Meeting the needs of underserved populations: setting the agenda for more inclusive citizen science of medicine, Journal of Medical Ethics, 45, 9, 617-622, 10.1136/medethics-2018-105253
2018
Fiske, Amelia; Del Salvio, L; Prainsack, B; Buyx, Alena; (2018) Why citizen science? Dickel, S; , Personal Health Science, Springer, 195-217
Fiske, Amelia; (2018) Dirty Hands: The Toxic Politics of Denunciation, Social Studies of Science, 48, 3, 389-413, https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312718781505
Fiske, Amelia; Buyx, Alena*; Prainsack, Barbara*; (2018) Health Information Counselors: A New Profession for the Age of Big Data?, Academic Medicine, 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002395
2017
Fiske, Amelia; (2017) Natural resources by numbers: The promise of ‘El uno por mil’ in Ecuador’s Yasuní ITT oil operations, Environment and Society. Advances in Research, 8, 125-143
Fiske, Amelia; (2017) Bounded Impacts, Boundless Promise: Environmental Impact Assessments of Oil Production in the Ecuadorian AmazonJalbert, Kirk; et al., ; , ExtrACTION:, Impacts, Engagements and Alternative Futures, Routledge, 63-76
  • Ethics and Palliative Care Seminar (Certificate of Achievement GTE) (SoSe and WiSe)

Amelia Fiske gives scientific and public lectures on the following topics:

  • Ethics of medical AI
  • participatory research methods in the health sector
  • digital technologies for mental health
  • Use of graphic art in ethnographic research
  • Toxicity and oil production in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
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