Tim Hector is a postdoctoral researcher in project B06. In April 2024, he defended his dissertation in Applied Linguistics (supervisor: Prof. Dr. Stephan Habscheid). He is a deputy member of the board of the CRC 1187.

Hector studied German language and literature with a focus on linguistics, politics and educational science in Münster and Bonn from 2012–2019. From 2015–2019 he was a student assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Susanne Günthner at the Institute of German Studies at the University of Münster. He joined the CRC as a PhD-researcher at the beginning of 2020.

Outside of academia, Hector was (among other things) engaged as Chair of the Board of Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. from 2014-2018. He is a member of the supervisory board of UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe e.V.

• Media Linguistics
• Conversation Analysis
• Human-Computer-Interaction
• Linguistic praxeology, cultural linguistics

PhD-Project: Smart Speakers as participants in conversation? Linguistic practices in the process of domestication of media with voice-user interfaces

• Hector, Tim. 2025. “Joint journeys: the linguistic domestication of smart speakers and their users in interaction”. AI & Society (Online First): 1-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-025-02384-w
• Hector, Tim, Niklas Strüver, Stephan Habscheid, und Dagmar Hoffmann. 2025. “Sensorische Praktiken im Smart Home. Erkenntnisse und methodische Reflexion einer interdisziplinären Pilotstudie”. Working Paper Series Media of Cooperation 36: 1-28. https://doi.org/10.25819/ubsi/10668.
• Hector, Tim, and Niklas Strüver. 2025. “Smart Homes in Everyday Life: The Domestication of Connected Media Technologies”. In Handbuch Soziale Praktiken und Digitale Alltagswelten, edited by Heidrun Freise, Marcus Nolden, and Miriam Schreiter, 2nd ed., 1-9 (First Online). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-08460-8_106-1.
• Hector, Tim. 2025. “Sprachassistenzsysteme und ihre Interfaces.” In un/reale Interaktionsräume: Formen sozialer Ordnung im Spektrum medienspezifischer Interaktion, edited by Clara Kindler-Mathôt, Didem Leblebici, Giacomo Marinsalta, Till Rückwart, and Anna Zaglyadnova, 55-80. Bielefeld: transcript. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839471463-005.
• Habscheid, Stephan, Dagmar Hoffmann, Tim Hector, and David Waldecker. 2025. „Voice Assistants in Private Homes. Introduction to the Volume“. In Voice Assistants in Private Homes. Media, Data and Language in Interaction and Discourse, herausgegeben von Stephan Habscheid, Tim Hector, Dagmar Hoffmann, and David Waldecker, 9-29. Bielefeld: transcript. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839472002-001.
• Habscheid, Stephan, Tim Hector, and Christine Hrncal. 2025. „Linguistic Practices as a Means of Domesticating Voice-Controlled Assistance Technologies“. In Voice Assistants in Private Homes. Media, Data and Language in Interaction and Discourse, herausgegeben von Stephan Habscheid, Tim Hector, Dagmar Hoffmann, and David Waldecker, 207-39. Bielefeld: transcript. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839472002-008.
• Hector, Tim Moritz, and Christine Hrncal. 2024. “Sprachassistenzsysteme in der Interaktion“. In Sprache und digitale Kommunikation, edited by Jannis Androutsopoulos und Friedemann Vogel, 309-328. Handbücher Sprachwissen 23. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110744163-015. 
• Hector, Tim, David Waldecker, Niklas Strüver, and Tanja Aal, eds. 2023. Taming Digital Practices: On the Domestication of Data-Driven Technologies. Digital Culture & Society 9 (1). 
• Waldecker, David, and Tim Hector. 2023. “Taming digital practices: A praxeological approach towards domestication of connected devices and services. Introduction to the thematic issue”. Digital Culture & Society. 9 (1): 5–22. Thematic issue: Taming Digital Practices: On the Domestication of Data-Driven Technologies, edited by Tim Hector, David Waldecker, Niklas Strüver, and Tanja Aal. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/dcs-2023-090102. 
• Waldecker, David, Tim Hector, and Dagmar Hoffmann. 2023. “Intelligent Personal Assistants in practice. Situational agencies and the multiple forms of cooperation without consensus”. Convergence 30 (3): 975–91. Special issue: Agency in a Datafied Society, edited by Stephan O. Görland, Cindy Roitsch, and Andreas Hepp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231189584. 
• Habscheid, Stephan, Tim Hector, and Christine Hrncal. 2023. “Human and non-human agency as practical accomplishment: Interactional occasions for ascription and withdrawal of (graduated) agency in the use of smart-speaker-technology”. Social Interaction. Video-Based Studies of Human Sociality 6 (1): 1–31. Special issue: Situated agency in digitally artifacted social interactions, edited by Samira Ibnelkaïd und Iuliia Avgustis. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7146/si.v6i1.137378.
• Hector, Tim. 2022. “Smart Speaker in der Praxis: Methodologische Überlegungen zur medienlinguistischen Erforschung stationärer Sprachassistenzsysteme”. Sprache und Literatur 51 (2): 197–229. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30965/25890859-05002021. 
• Hector, Tim, Franziska Niersberger-Gueye, Franziska Petri, and Christine Hrncal. 2022. “The ‘Conditional Voice Recorder’: Data practices in the co-operative advancement and implementation of data-collection technology”. Working Paper Series Media of Cooperation 23: 1–15. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25819/ubsi/10168.
• Habscheid, Stephan, Tim Moritz Hector, Christine Hrncal, and David Waldecker. 2021. “Intelligente Persönliche Assistenten (IPA) mit Voice User Interfaces (VUI) als ‚Beteiligte‘ in häuslicher Alltags­interaktion. Welchen Aufschluss geben die Protokolldaten der Assistenzsysteme?”. Journal für Medienlinguistik 4 (1): 16–53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21248/jfml.2021.44. 
• Hector, Tim Moritz, and Christine Hrncal. 2020. “Intelligente Persönliche Assistenten im häuslichen Umfeld. Erkenntnisse aus einer linguistischen Pilotstudie zur Erhebung audiovisueller Interaktionsdaten”. Working Paper Series Media of Cooperation 14: 1-14. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25819/ubsi/1013.
• König, Katharina, and Tim Moritz Hector. 2019. “Neue Medien – neue Mündlichkeit? Zur Dialogizität von Sprachnachrichten”. In Interaktion und Medien. Interaktionsanalytische Zugänge zu medienvermittelter Kommunikation, herausgegeben von Konstanze Marx und Axel Schmidt. Heidelberg, 59–84.
• König, Katharina, and Tim Hector. 2017. “Zur Theatralität von WhatsApp-Sprachnachrichten. Nutzungskontexte von Audio-Postings in der mobilen Messenger-Kommunikation”. Networx 79: 1–41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15488/2970

Other Publications

• Hector, Tim, und Christine Gebhard. 2025. “Praktik.” In Diskursmonitor. Glossar zur strategischen Kommunikation in öffentlichen Diskursen, edited by Research Group Diskursmonitor and Diskursintervention. Online: https://diskursmonitor.de/glossar/praktik
• Hector, Tim. 2025. “Book Review: Sensing in Social Interaction. The Taste for Cheese in Gourmet Shops.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-10870613-1. communication +1 11(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7275/cpo.2338
• Hector, Tim. 2024. “Rezension zu: Sascha Michel: Mediatisierungslinguistik. Theorie und Fallanalysen zur Kommunikation von Politiker*innen am Beispiel von Twitter. Berlin: Peter Lang, 2022.” Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft 72(1): 99-100. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5771/1615-634X-2024-1-94.
• Hrncal, Christine, and Tim Moritz Hector. 2022. “Tagungsbericht: Sequence Analysis in Linguistics and Social Theory, 29.10.2021 – 30.10.2021, digital”. H-Soz-Kult, 21.01.2022  (Link).
• Hector, Tim, und Niklas Strüver. 2021. “Opening Keynote by Jean Lave ‘Re-Situating Learning: Historical/Political Dis/Unities of Practice’”. Report on the Keynote by Jean Lave at the annual conference of the CRC Media of Cooperation, University of Siegen (Link).
• Von Peinen, Carola, Tim Hector, and Annika Behrendt. 2019. “Alle für Einen – Partizipative Rekrutierung bei der Organisation Wikimedia”. In CSR und Social Enterprise. Beeinflussungsprozesse und effektives Schnittstellenmanagement, edited by Alexander Kraemer and Laura-Marie Edinger-Schons. Berlin, 189–195.
• Hector, Tim Moritz. 2017. „Nutzungskontexte und Dialogizität von WhatsApp-Sprachnachrichten“. StudSpIn – Studentische Arbeitspapierreihe Sprache und Interaktion 27.

Presentations / Lectures 

• 05.07.2025: Hector, Tim: “‘OK Google, du bist Mist’: Invectives and Other Linguistic Practices in the Domestication of Voice-Controlled Technology.” Department Colloquium “Language Practices in Media Cultures”, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder).
• 17.05.2025: Hector, Tim: „Maschinen im Gespräch. Zur Medialität stimmbasierter Interface-Praktiken“. 74. Treffen des Arbeitskreises Angewandte Gesprächsforschung, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (Campus Landau).
• 09.05.2025: Hector, Tim: „Vom Smart Speaker zum Smart Home. Sensorische Medien und Interaktion in privaten Wohnumgebungen“. Lecture in the „Artificial Friday“ online colloquium (Link).
• 19.03.2025: Hector, Tim: „Responsivität im Smart Home. Verbale und non-verbale (pre-)openings in Mensch-Maschine-Dialogen“. 24. Arbeitstagung zur Gesprächsforschung, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim.
• 21.11.2024: Hector, Tim / Habscheid, Stephan: “Smart Homes in Interaction: Language, Body, and Senses in Private Households”. Workshop: “Interacting with everyday technologies across the lifespan”, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim.
• 15.11.2024: Hector, Tim / Strüver, Niklas „,We are a family now‘ On the Perception of Infrastructure and Agency in Smart Homes“. Annual Conference of the CRC Media of Cooperation – “Scaling Sensing – Sensing Publics: Landscapes and Borders, Homes and Bodies”, Panel: Sensing Homes, University of Siegen. 
• 08.11.2024: Habscheid, Stephan / Hector, Tim / Hoffmann, Dagmar / Strüver, Niklas: “Sensing and Sensoring in Private Homes: The Smart Airfryer as a Case Study for Human and Non-Human Sensing in Interaction”, Conference “Machine – Body – Space. The Accomplishment and Entanglement of Human and Non-Human Sensing”, CRC Media of Cooperation, University of Siegen.
• 25.10.2024: Hector, Tim: “Praxeologie für die Medienlinguistik. Eine Bestandsaufnahme”. Workshop “Sprache und Praxistheorie”, TU Chemnitz.
• 27.09.2024: Hector, Tim: “Intentionalitätszuschreibungen bei der Deutung reparaturbedürftiger
  Stellen im Dialog mit Voice User Interfaces“. 17th International International Congress of the German Society for Semiotics – “Signs. Cultures. Digitality”, Section Linguistics, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (Campus Landau).
• 19.04.2024: Hector, Tim: Project Presentation: “Un-/desired Observation in Interaction: Smart Environments, Language, Body, and Senses in Private Households”. Workshop of COST-Action-Netwerk “Language in the Human-Machine Era”, Working Groups “Ideologies, Beliefs, Attitudes” & “Language variation, pragmatics, and interaction”, University of Tartu, Estonia.
• 21.03.2024: Hector, Tim: “Joint Journeys. On the Linguistic Construction of Domestic AI-culture Around Smart Speakers”. Inaugural STSing Conference, Technische Universität Dresden [online].
• 13.10.2023: Strüver, Niklas / Hector, Tim: “Meant for the whole household: Self-characterizations of residential communities in the setup of a smart speaker”. Symposium “Revisiting Domestication of Media and Technology”, University of the Arts (UdK), Berlin.
• 14.07.2023: Habscheid, Stephan / Hector, Tim / Hrncal, Christine: “(A)typical use of smart speakers: Usage patterns of stationary voice assistants during the process of domestication”. 18th International Pragmatics Conference (IPrA) 2023, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brüssel.
• 24.05.2023: Waldecker, David / Volmar, Axel / Hector, Tim / Hrncal, Christine: “What Was the Smart Speaker? On the Limited Success of Voice as the Next Domestic User Interface”. Conference: “Technolinguistics in Practice: Socially Situating Language in AI Systems”, CRC Media of Cooperation, University of Siegen.
• 09.05.2023: Habscheid, Stephan / Hector, Tim: “Smart Speakers in Private Households: Linguistic Practices as a Means of Domesticating Voice-controlled Technologies”. Conference “Voice Assistants in Private Homes: Media, Data and Language in Interaction und Discourse”, CRC Media of Cooperation, University of Siegen.
• 30.03.2023: Hector, Tim: “Joint Journeys. On the Linguistic Construction of Domestic AI-Culture Around Smart Speakers.” Conference “AI Technology as Interactional Human Culture: Language, Data Practice and Social Struggle”, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder.
• 04.11.2022: Merkle, Benedikt / Hector, Tim: “Archive der Spracherkennung: Verhaltensüberschuss oder Funktionsoptimierung?” Conference: “un:reale Interaktionsräume. Formen sozialer Ordnung im Spektrum medienspezifischer Interaktion”. Brandenburgisches Zentrum für Medienwissenschaften (ZeM) / University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (FH Potsdam).
• 06.07.2022: Hector, Tim: “Smart Speaker in der Interaktion: Sprachliche Praktiken bei der Installation und Nutzung von Sprachassistenzsystemen im Privathaushalt.” Colloquium Communication Studies, Institute for Communication Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen. 
• 05.05.2022: Merkle, Benedikt / Hector, Tim: “‘Alexa, Stop!’ Die Beredsamkeit symbolischer Ausdrücke in der Interaktion mit IPAs.” Conference “Akustische Interfaces”, hosted by working groups „Interfaces“, „Auditive Kultur und Sound Studies“ and „Medienwissenschaft und Dis/Ability Studies“, Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft (GfM), Humboldt-University Berlin.
• 15.12.2021: Habscheid, Stephan / Hector, Tim / Hrncal, Christine: “Dialogue management in socio-technical interaction – IPA in everyday life.” Online series of talks “Voice- and Touch-controlled Technology in Social Interaction. Using, Adapting and Evaluationg.” Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim [online].
• 28.07.2021: Waldecker, David / Hector, Tim / Hoffmann, Dagmar: ”Intelligent Personal Assistants, Human Agency and the Multiple Forms of Cooperation without Consensus.” Conference “Agency in a Datafied Society: Communication between and across humans, platforms and machines.” Zentrum für Medien-, Kommunikations- und Informationsforschung (ZeMKI), Bremen [online].
• 28.06.2021: Habscheid, Stephan / Hector, Tim / Hrncal, Christine: “Un-/desired Observation in Interaction: Smart speakers as objects of domestic negotiation.” 17th International Pragmatics Conference 2021. Winterthur, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW) [online].
• 06.05.2021: Hector, Tim: “Ethnomethodologie – Konversationsanalyse – Praxeologie? Methodologische Überlegungen am Beispiel von Dialogen mit Sprachassistenten.” Geomedia-Conference 2021 “Off the Grid”, CRC Media of Cooperation/Graduate School Locating Media, University of Siegen [online].
• 24.03.2021: Habscheid, Stephan / Hector, Tim / Hrncal, Christine: Project Presentation – Un/erbetene Beobachtung in Interaktion: „Intelligente Persönliche Assistenten“ (IPA). 21. Arbeitstagung Gesprächsforschung 2021. Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim [online].
• 20.01.2021: Hector, Tim / Hrncal, Christine / Waldecker, David: “Un/erbetene Beobachtung in Interaktion – Datenpraktiken in der Smart-Speaker-Nutzung.” Online-Lecture Series “Interrogating Data Practices”, CRC Media of Cooperation, University of Siegen [online].
• 17.05.2018: Hector, Tim / König, Katharina: “Die linguistische Analyse mobiler Messenger-Kommunikation – Methodische Herausforderungen am Beispiel von WhatsApp-Sprachnachrichten”. Opening Conference for the Journal for Media Linguistics. Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim.
• 08.09.2017: König, Katharina / Hector, Tim: “Zur Inszenierung von Lokalität in WhatsApp-Sprachnachrichten.” Sektionentagung der Gesellschaft für Angewandte Linguistik 2017, Basel, Schweiz.
• 30.03.2017: König, Katharina / Hector, Tim: “Zur Dialogizität von WhatsApp-Sprachnachrichten“, Vortrag bei der 20. Arbeitstagung zur Gesprächsforschung zum Thema „Interaktion und Medien”, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim

(Co-)Organisation of Conferences & Workshops

• 07./.08.11.2024: Ko-Organisation der Konferenz „Machine – Body – Space. The Accomplishment and Entanglement of Human and Non-Human Sensing.“, together with Stephan Habscheid, Lorenza Mondada, Clemens Eisenmann, Philippe Sormani und Niklas Strüver. CRC Media of Cooperation, University of Siegen.
• 08./09.05.2023: Ko-Organisation der Konferenz „Voice Assistants in Privates Homes: Media, Data and Language in Interaction und Discourse“, together with Stephan Habscheid, Dagmar Hoffmann and David Waldecker, CRC Media of Cooperation, University of Siegen.
• 07./08.02.2022: Co-Organisation of the workshop  „Taming Digital Practices – on the domestication of data-driven technologies“, together with Tanja Aal, Niklas Strüver and David Waldecker, CRC Media of Cooperation, University of Siegen [online].
• 07./08.05.2021: Co-Organisation of the 3rd „Doktorand*innen-Netzwerk Gesprächsforschung“-meetup, together with Svenja Heuser; URL: https://dokgf.wordpress.com/3-dokgf-treffen-online/ [online]