My research examines the ways social and material conditions impinge on the future, how it is imagined, and how it is worked toward. In particular, I explore the gap between idealized projections of novel sociotechnical systems and their actual implementation in practice. I address these topics through innovative methodological approaches that pair an ethnographic sensibility with theories and concepts drawn from STS, human geography, economics, infrastructure studies, and other related disciplines.
My doctoral research focused on the shifting social, political, and economic dynamics of the new space economy in various settings around the world. Other previous projects have examined the financialization of urban housing, the labour dynamics of platform delivery services, and the relationship between public transport and public health during pandemic conditions. At Tokyo College, I plan to build on these themes by expanding and refining my doctoral research into a monograph. I will also conduct further research into the cultural currents emerging at the intersection of the high finance and tech sectors.
2025 – Postdoctoral Fellow, Tokyo College, University of Tokyo [Japan]
2021 – 2024 – Ph.D., Anthropology, Jagiellonian University [Poland]
2019 – 2020 – Research Fellow, PUTSPACE project, Université libre de Bruxelles [Belgium]
2017 – 2019 – MSc, Urban and Cultural Geography, Radboud University [the Netherlands]
2010 – 2016 – Public librarian, writer, and audio producer, Washington, DC and Baltimore [USA]
2005 – 2009 – BA, Anthropology, University of Virginia [USA]
Timko, P., Korpershoek, K. (2024). Space Intentionally Left Blank. In Exploring ethnography of outer space: methods and perspectives. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
Szolucha, A., Timko, P., Ojani, C., & Korpershoek, K. (2023). Ethnographic research of outer space: Challenges and opportunities. Ethnography, 14661381231220273.
Sträuli, L., Tuvikene, T., Weicker, T., Kębłowski, W., Sgibnev, W., Timko, P., & Finbom, M. (2022). Beyond fear and abandonment: public transport resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 100711.
Timko, P., Korpershoek, K., Ojani, C., & Szolucha, A. (2022). Exploring the extraplanetary: Social studies of outer space. Anthropology Today, 38(3), 9-12.
Timko, P., & van Melik, R. (2021). Being a Deliveroo Rider: Practices of Platform Labor in Nijmegen and Berlin. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 0891241621994670.
Finbom, M., Kębłowski, W., Sgibnev, W., Sträuli, L., Timko, P., Tuvikene, T., & Weicker, T. (2021). COVID-19 and public transport: insights from Belgium (Brussels), Estonia (Tallinn), Germany
(Berlin, Dresden, Munich), and Sweden (Stockholm) (Vol. 40, p. 56). DEU. Finbom, M., Kębłowski, W., Sgibnev, W., Sträuli, L., Timko, P., Tuvikene, T., & Weicker, T.
(2021). Public transport qualities and inequalities in pandemic times. Volume 4: Policy and Planning, 4, 169.
Timko, P. (2019, August 27). Antipode Intervention – “Material Diagnostics: Rupture and Repair at the DSA Brake Light Clinic”.
