Max Tretter

Short CV

Max Tretter is a research assistant at the Chair of Systematic Theology (Ethics), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. After a one-year study of free church theology in Essen and Nürnberg (2012-2013), he studied Protestant Lutheran theology in Erlangen and Berlin (2013-2019).

Max has gained valuable experience working on a range of research projects, including the OwnData project (2019-2020), where he explored ethical questions surrounding medical data, digital sovereignty, and data solidarity. He then went on to work as a research assistant in the project CwiC (2020-2022), where he investigated the uncertainty-certainty-shifts that occur as a result of the use of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, particularly in clinical contexts. More recently, as part of the PRIMA-AI project (2022-2023), Max has been researching the impact of AI-driven decision support systems on the physician-patient relationship and Shared-Decision-Making. Since 2022, Max has been an associated researcher at Collaborative Research Center EmpkinS, conducting research on the ethical as well as social challenges of empathokinaesthetic sensor technologies. From September to November 2023 Max was a Visiting Scholar as the University of California, Berkeley.

In his doctoral project, that he completed in July 2024, Max focused on Hip Hop and Black Lives Matter protests. He combined approaches from political theory as well as Hip Hop Studies and Public Theology to understand what happens when Hip Hop songs are played and/or performed at these protests, and how such aesthetic articulations in public are to be considered ethically.

Main field of research

• Ethics and Theology of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Digital Culture
• Political Ethics, Public Sphere Theories, and Public Theology
• Hip Hop Studies, Everyday and Pop Culture
• Uncertainty and Certainty
• Medicine Ethics, Bioethics, and Animal Ethics