Jana Petersen

Jana Petersen studied social and cultural anthropology and religious studies at Freie Universität Berlin and graduated from the Evangelische Journalistenschule Berlin. Her work has appeared in S. Fischer, Deutschlandfunk, Akzente, taz, Zeit Online, and Monopol magazine. Petersen was deputy section head for the weekend edition of the taz and an editor at the German edition of Vanity Fair. She lives in Berlin and has two children. She has been living with ME/CFS and a disability since 2022.

During her fellowship, Jana Petersen will explore the extent to which experiences of chronic illness – such as ME/CFS and post-COVID – as well as disability shape our understanding of temporality, care, and a collective future, thereby opening up new perspectives on the climate crisis.

Selected Awards
2026 | Recognition Award of the Herbert Pichler Inclusion Media Award
2025 | Named one of the “Journalists of the Year” in the science category for her reporting on post-COVID and ME/CFS by medium magazine
2025 | “Die wunde Stelle mitten unter euch” named one of the “Indignant Speeches by Indignant Women,” Brückner-Kühner Foundation and S. Fischer Theater- und Medien Verlag
2020-2024 | Deutschlandstipendium
2009-2010 | Scholarship from the FAZIT-Stiftung of the FAZ

Selected Publications
2026 (November) | with Lisa Wiedemann. “Welten der Anwesenheit. Digitale Assistenz im Kontext von ME/CFS und Long Covid“ In: Digitale Assistenz. Zur Funktion und Reichweite von Teilhabe mittels digitaler Kommunikation. Weinheim: Beltz Verlag.
2026 | “Die wunde Stelle mitten unter euch.” In: ICH! Neue ungehaltene Reden ungehaltener Frauen. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag.
2025 | ”Die Grenzen der Autonomie: Wie Post-Covid und ME/CFS das Leben verändern.” Essay und Diskurs. Deutschlandfunk.
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/wie-postcovid-und-me-cfs-das-leben-veraendern-100.html