Peer-Reviewed Publications
Gál, Réka Patrícia. 2025. “Fixing Skylab: An Alternative History of Spaceflight through Breakdown and Repair”. In Cosmic Fragments: Dislocation and Discontent in the Global Space Age, edited by Asif A. Siddiqi, 156–70. Intersections: Histories of Environment, Science, and Technology in the Anthropocene. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. 2024. “Feminists in [Space].” In Space Feminism, edited by Marie-Pier Boucher, Claire Webb, Annick Bureaud, and Nahum Romero. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Gál, Réka Patrícia, and Eleanor S. Armstrong. 2023. “Feminist Approaches to Outer Space.” In Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space, edited by Juan Francisco Salazar and Alice Gorman, 158-172. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge.
Gál, Réka Patrícia, L. M. Wilkins, Yuxing Zhang, Marie-Pier Boucher, Tero Karppi, and Jeremy Packer. 2021. “Space Media.” Canadian Journal of Communication 46 (3): 645–62. https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2021v46n3a4085.
Gál, Réka Patrícia, and Petra Löffler. “Introduction.” In Earth and Beyond in Tumultuous Times: A Critical Atlas of the Anthropocene, edited by Réka Patrícia Gál an Petra Löffler. Future Ecologies. Lüneburg: meson press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.14619/1891.
Gál, Réka Patrícia, and Petra Löffler, eds. Earth and Beyond in Tumultuous Times: A Critical Atlas of the Anthropocene. Future Ecologies. Lüneburg: meson press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.14619/1891.
Gal, Reka Patricia. “Machines of Liberation, Machines of Control: The Ambiguous Roots of Data Capitalism.” In Algorithmic Culture: How Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Are Transforming Everyday Life, edited by Stefka Hristova, Soonkwan Hong, and Jennifer Daryl Slack, 85–107. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2020.
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Space Forces and The Making of (Other) Worlds: An Interview with Fred Scharmen.” 4S Backchannels, 2021. https://members.4sonline.org/news_archive_headlines.php?org_id=4S&sniid=34319549
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “The Interstellar Railroad, Or Speculation and Shareholder Whiteness in the Space Economy.” Environmental Media Lab, 2021. https://www.heliotropejournal.net/helio/the-interstellar-railroad
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Climate Change, COVID-19, and the Space Cabin: A Politics of Care in the Shadow of Space Colonization.” Mezosfera, no. 9 (October 2020). http://mezosfera.org/climate-change-covid-19-and-the-space-cabin-a-politics-of-care-in-the-shadow-of-space-colonization/.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Klímaváltozás, COVID-19 és az űrkabin: a gondoskodás politikája az űrgyarmatosítás árnyékában.” tranzitblog, Klímaképzelet Reader, 5 June 2020. http://tranzitblog.hu/klimavaltozas-covid-19-es-az-urkabin-a-gondoskodas-politikaja-az-urgyarmatositas-arnyekaban/
Deicke, Wolfgang, Thies-Rasmus Propp, Max Peers, Reka Patricia Gal, Marc Hélier, Wyn Morgan, Louise Woodcock, et al. “EUA’s Learning and Teaching Initiative – Report from the Thematic Peer Groups in 2017.” Brussels, Belgium: European University Association, 2017.
Conference Presentations
Mancias, Juan B., and Réka Patrícia Gál. 2025. “This Land Is Not a Launch Pad: Carrizo/Comecrudo Resurgence, Refusal of SpaceX and the Reworlding of Somi Se’k.” Democratisation of Outer Space Conference, Linköping, November 28.
Gál, Réka Patrícia, and Juan B. Mancias. “SpaceX and Breaking Things in the Rio Grande Valley: A Call for Refusal.” Ethnographies of Outer Space 2025, Vienna and Hybrid, September 25, 2025.
Bieler, Patrick, Réka Patrícia Gál, Joerg Niewohner, and Thomas Roiss. “Molecular Design beyond Toxicity. Relational Epistemic Politics in Green Chemistry?” Paper presented on the panel “Toxic volatility: Knowing chemical relations beyond dose and damage” at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Seattle, Virtual, September 5, 2025.
Liburkina, Ruzana, Patrick Bieler, Joerg Niewohner, Réka Patrícia Gál, and Thomas Roiss. “Reverberations of Progress. Exploring (Social) Theory out of Anthropogenic Chemicals.” Roundtable presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Seattle, Virtual, September 3, 2025.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “SpaceX’s Starbase, or Breaking Things on the Rio Grande and Beyond.” Invited lecture presented to the Maintenance and Philosophy of Technology Special Interest Group of The Society for Philosophy and Technology, Virtual, 13 June, 2024.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Concrete Rain and Rocket Debris: Mapping the Environmental Harms of SpaceX’s Boca Chica Rocket Launch Facility.” Invited talk given at the Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, 29 January, 2024.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Foregrounding Maintenance and Reciprocity in Space Science and Engineering.” Paper presented at the Lunar and Planetary Institute’s Advancing IDEA in Planetary Science conference, Virtual, 25-29 April 2022.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “The Politics of Care in Outer Space.” Paper presented at the conference Planetary Drifts— Methodology, Technology, and the Creative Imagination in the Age of Planetary Transformation, Université de Montréal, 21 April 2022.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “A Collective Ontology for an Interstellar Future.” Paper presented on the panel “Un-Earthing the Environmental Humanities” at the Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers, Virtual, 1 March 2021.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Space Trouble: Insights for Sustainable Environmental Practices on Earth.” Paper presented at Ruptures, Transformations, Continuities. Rethinking Infrastructures and Ecology, a conference of the DFG Centre for Advanced Studies “Futures of Sustainability”, Virtual, 25-26 November 2021.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “The Interstellar Railroad: Extending Empire into Outer Space.” Paper presented on the panel “The Colonial Logic of Cosmic Infrastructure” at the Annual Conference of the Society for the History of Technology, Virtual, 20 November 2021.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “The Politics of Care in Outer Space.” Paper presented on the panel “Rethinking Outer Space and Science: Critical Engagements with The Cosmos and The Extra-terrestrial” to the Annual Conference of the Society for the Social Studies of Science, Toronto and Virtual, 6-9 October 2021.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Outer Space / Media / Power.” Roundtable presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Communication Association, Virtual, 1-4 June 2021.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Wombs and tombs: Fallout Shelters and Biosphere Projects as Container Media.” Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Communication Association, Virtual, 1-4 June 2021.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “The Politics of Care in the Shadow of Space Colonization.” Paper presented on the panel “Close to You, So Far Away: Technological Outlets for Feminist Resistance and Rage” at the Annual International Communications Association Conference, Virtual, 27 May 2021.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Construction of National Identity Through the Rhetorics of Fear in the Hungarian Government’s Anti-Refugee Campaigns.” Paper presented at Global Perspectives on Populism and the Media International Communication Association Preconference, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, 22 May 2018.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Hyperreal Artifacts: What the 3D-Printed Reproduction of the Palmyran Arc of Triumph Means for Theory and for Praxis.” Paper presented at Interdisciplinary Conference for Student Research, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 21 September 2017.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Developing the next generation: Student perspectives on research-based learning”, 1st European Learning & Teaching Forum, Université Pierre et Marie Curie – Paris VI, Paris, France, 29 September 2017.
Guest Lectures and Invited Talks
Armstrong, Eleanor, and Réka Patrícia Gál. 2024. “The Playboy Bunny and the Astronaut Wife: Constructing Femininities and the United States Space Program.” Invited FutureSpace Talk, Online, December 11.
Boucher, Marie-Pier, Réka Patrícia Gál, and Yuxing Zhang. “Space Media Working Group Presentation.” Invited talk and round table at the Earth Day event ‘The Waste Cycle of Planetary Vision Infrastructures,’ Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan de Montréal, 22 April 2022.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Corporate Capitalism and Space Exploration.” Invited lecture presented to COMN4700: Popular Culture and Communications, York University, 8 February 2021.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “Wombs and Tombs: Fallout Shelters and Biosphere Projects as Container Utopias.” Invited lecture in VCC492H5S Topics in Visual Culture and Communication: Taking Shelter, University of Toronto Mississauga, November 25, 2020.
Gál, Réka Patrícia. “s(Exit) Fictions”, Paper presented at Observing Strange Attractors: Auto-Fictions, Ex-Embassy Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 1 June 2019.
Projects
Co-organizer, “OVERVIEW AFFECT: Prioritising care, maintenance, and repair in space science education” research project, Stockholm University, 2023-2024
Member, “Space Media” Working Group, McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto, 2020-2021
Co-organizer “The Ends of the World” Graduate Reading Group, McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto, 2020-2021 (with Robert Blair Frost, Arun Jacob, Brendan Smith, Yolanda Zhang)
Co-organizer, “Media Theory, Media Fiction, and Infrastructures Beyond the Earth” Workshop, University of Toronto, 2019-2021 (with Marie-Pier Boucher, Jeremy Packer, and Tero Karppi)
Organizer, “Atlas of the Anthropocene” Symposium, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 7-8 June 2019
Member, Thematic Peer Group “Building a link between research and teaching missions of the university,” European University Association, Brussels, 2017
Curator, „Narrative Across Media“ Exhibition, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, June 2016
Research Assistantships
Research Assistant to Dr. Sarah Sharma, McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto, Toronto, CA 2020 Nov-current
Literature review on technology and care work; acquiring and formatting relevant images and figures for publications; article proofing
Research Assistant to Dr. Marie-Pier Boucher, McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto, Toronto, CA 2020 Sept-current
Compilation of a glossary of terms related to outer space in media studies scholarship;
transcription of interviews
Research Assistant to Dr. Michelle Murphy, Technoscience Research Unit, University of Toronto, 2020 June-July
Conducting research on the health harms of chemicals used by industrial facilities in Sarnia, Ontario; updating the database of the Pollution Reporter App with findings
Research Assistant to Dr. Petra Löffler, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2018 – 2019
Literature review on the media ecology of lead and underground technologies; copyediting of English language articles for Krause-Wahl, Antje, Änne Söll, and Petra Löffler, eds. Materials, Practices and Politics of Shine in Modern Art and Popular Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing, forthcoming; assistance with teaching
Research Assistant to Dr. Gerhard Scharbert, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2018 – 2019
Literature review and copyediting for Kittler, Friedrich. Musik und Mathematik II: Roma aeterna. 1. Sexus, 2. Virginitas. Edited by Gerhard Scharbert, Verlag Wilhelm Fink, 2020.
Research Assistant to Dr. Wolfgang Schäffner, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2014 – 2019
Literature review on active matter and the history of mathematics, responsibility for digitization initiatives, database maintenance, and copyediting of English language articles
Réka Patrícia Gál 