Pronouns: he/they

My research interests lie at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Queer Studies, and Medical Anthropology. In my work, I investigate the effects and affects of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), a drug used to prevent HIV. My engagement with HIV prevention spans Germany, Colombia, and Australia, tracing the connections between affect, public health, the arts, and activism.

Since 2019, I have been one of the spokespersons of the working group “Gender & Sexualities | Queer Anthropology” within the German Anthropological Association (DGSKA).

Queer Ethnography, Fall term 2024/25, B.A. Cultural Studies, University of Bremen

Urban Imaginaries: Between Space and Place in Berlin, Summer 2024, FUBiS International Summer and Winter Univeristy, Freie Universität Berlin  

Themes and Theories in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Fall term 2021/2021, B.A. Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin  

Anthropology of Pharmaceuticals, Spring term 2021, B.A. Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin

Anthropology and Intimacy, Fall term 2020/2021, B.A. Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin

Methods of Social and Cultural Anthropology (Übung/tutorial), Spring term 2020, B.A. Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin

Social Sciences, Fall term 2019/2020, HMKW University of Applied Sciences for Media, Communication and Management, Campus Berlin

Body, Technology, Knowledge: Approaches in Feminist Science and Technology Studies, Fall term 2017/2018, co-taught reading group with Maja Sisnowski, B.A. Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin

Project „PrEPped Intimacies in Berlin”

Since the outbreak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, the condom, and later on HIV therapy, have been the only ways to prevent the sexual transmission of the virus. A drug now promises a new era in HIV prevention: Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) has been proven to be highly effective in protecting against an HIV infection. Since September 2019, the costs for at-risk groups have been covered by public health insurance in Germany – especially for men who have sex with men. The implementation of the biomedical prophylaxis is characterized by ambivalences: Even before its launch, the drug raised hopes for ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic and destigmatizing HIV. Yet, it has also incited moralizing debates about condom-free sex and the danger of spreading other sexually transmitted infections. [...]

Public Engagement / Public Anthropology

• Curation of the exhibition "Viral Intimacies" (New Society for Visual Art / nGbK, 10.09–16.11.2025, https://ngbk.de/en/programm/programm/viral-intimacies)

• Presentation "PrEP intimacies: HIV-prevention and sexual freedom" (Gay Checkpoint Hein & Fiete, 14.05.2025, https://www.heinfiete.de/fr/node/1294) 

• Interview "Schutz vor Geschlechtskrankheiten: Freie Liebe auf Rezept” (by Yossi Bartal, taz, 14.07.2024, https://taz.de/Schutz-vor-Geschlechtskrankheiten/!6020640/)

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals and Edited Volumes

Schnepf, Max. 2026. Beautifully European: Race in the Transnational Movement of Faces and Hair. In The Life of Beauty: Location, Experience, Methodology, edited by Katyayani Dalmia, Dominique Grisard and Anne Kukuczka. Zürich: Seismo. [open access]

Schnepf, Max. 2025. Care, and the Less of it: Haunted Gestures and the Affective Economy of Pharmaceutical HIV Prevention. Feminist Anthropology 6 (1): e70001. https://doi.org/10.1002/fea2.70001 [open access]

Schnepf, Max. 2022. Chemical becoming: Embodied moments of urban belonging in Berlin [Chemisch-Werden: Verkörperte Momente urbaner Zugehörigkeit in Berlin]. sub\urban 10 (2/3): 17-42. https://doi.org/10.36900/suburban.v10i2/3.762 [open access]

Probst, Ursula, and Max Schnepf. 2022. Moral Exposures, Public Appearances: Contested Presences of Non-Normative Sex in Pandemic Berlin. European Journal of Women's Studies 29 (1): 75-89. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505068221076386 [open access]

Schnepf, Max. 2020. Camp at the Salon: Anthropological Sense-Making with a Wink. Etnofoor 32 (2): 83-98. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26964289 [open access]

Editorial Work

Schnepf, Max, Madi Awadalla, Pascale Espinosa, Elisabeth Krämer, Samuel Perea-Díaz, and Hanna Schaich, eds. 2025. Viral Intimacies: Exhibition Catalogue. Berlin: neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst. [open access]

Essays & Conversations

Schnepf, Max. 2025. Forever and You: PrEP and HIV’s Archive of Feelings. In Viral Intimacies: Exhibition Catalogue, edited by Max Schnepf, Madi Awadalla, Pascale Espinosa, Elisabeth Krämer, Samuel Perea-Díaz, and Hanna Schaich. Berlin: neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kuns, 65-73. [open access]

Schnepf, Max. 2022. In Suhbet with Queer Companions: An Affectionate Book Review. AnthroDesires: gender & sexualities in context. [open access]

Schnepf, Max. 2020. Back home to normal? Emerging spaces of queer intimacy and ethnographic pathways. Boasblog: Fieldwork meets crisis.[open access]

Schnepf, Max and Ursula Probst. 2020. Thinking sex in times of corona: A conversation. Somatosphere: Science, Medicine, and Anthropology. [open access]

Schnepf, Max. 2017. Enacting the homosexual body: The Turkish military’s practice of ‘proving’ homosexuality through rectal examinations. Blog Medizinethnologie. [open access]

Reports

Dilger, Hansjörg, and Max Schnepf. 2020. Alternative Gesundheitsvorstellungen und -praktiken in der deutschen Therapielandschaft: Bericht zur Literaturrecherche ‘Vielfalt im Gesundheitswesen’ im Auftrag der Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH. Berlin. [open access]

Schnepf, Max, and Karoline Buchner. 2019. Where is my mind? Ecologies of healing and care in more-than-human worlds. Curare: Journal of Medical Anthropology 42 (1+2): 125-31. [online on Blog Medizinethnologie, open access]

Probst, Ursula, Karolina Buchner, and Max Schnepf. 2019. Creative methods and participatory arts research in medical anthropology: Conference report of the 9th MAYS meeting. Blog Medizinethnologie. [open access]

Schnepf, Max. 2017. Transfigurations in/of medical anthropology in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Medicine Anthropology Theory 4 (4). [open access]