Martin Böhnel (PhD student)

Martin Böhnel holds degrees in development studies (University of Vienna) and social work (ZHAW). He spent several years working on issues of social inequality and poverty before a research project on social work in Swiss prisons led him to the world of prisons.

As part of his cumulative dissertation project, he is investigating how atmospheres in everyday prison life can be experienced from the perspective of inmates and in their interaction with materiality and space. Theoretically and methodologically, he draws inspiration from a body of work that combines assemblage theory (Deleuze & Guattari), carceral geographies, and prison ethnography.