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/)

Journal Articles

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 

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

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  

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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)

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.

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