Utopian realism: Interview on zoos and life conditions of zoo animals

Monday, 12 September 2016

Interview on zoos and life conditions of zoo animals

Last Saturday a brief interview with me featured in a long feature article by Thea Elnan in the weekend magazine (Magasinet) of the Norwegian daily Dagens Næringsliv. The 6 page article was titled "Hageliv" [Garden/park life], but "Fri og bevare" [literally "liberate and preserve"] in the magazine´s table of contents. The online version (login required) is titled "Vil legge ned dyreparkene" [Wants to close the zoos].

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Brief academic CV

Associate professor in philosophy (25% > 100% > 20% > 100% > 25% > 35% > 10%) at University of Stavanger's Department of Health Studies 2012-2016
Associate professor in philosophy (50% > 70% > 50%) at University of Stavanger's Department of Social Studies August 2014 - July 2016
Awarded "Outstanding young researchers" stipend 2017 (University of Stavanger)
Chair of local organising committee of 2015 conference by "Animals in changing environments: Cultural mediation and semiotic analysis", main organizer of the Tartu workshops on the semiotics/phenomenology of perception (Feb. 2009), co-organizer of the international conference "Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations" (April 2011), co-founder of the annual Norwegian animal ethics conference (2012-)
Chair of Minding Animals Norway (2011-2018), President of Nordic association for Semiotic Studies (2017-2023) and Secretary 2011-2017 and 2023-, member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS-AIS) representing Norway (2014-) and the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS) (2011-)
Chair of steering group for Cognitive and behavioral neuroscience lab (Cognitive Lab, University of Stavanger), 2021-2023
Chair of the board of Center for gender studies (UiS) 2019-2020
Chair of the UIS Faculty of social sciences´ Doctoral committee 2019-2020
Doctoral degree from University of Tartu (Department of Semiotics), Estonia. Title of PhD thesis (defended December 15th 2011): "Umwelt Transition and Uexküllian Phenomenology. An Ecosemiotic Analysis of Norwegian Wolf Management"
Editor with Kadri Tüür of "The Semiotics of Animal Representations" (Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi 2014), and editor with Guri Larsen and Ragnhild Sollund of the Norwegian HAS anthology "Hvem er villest i landet her?" (Oslo: Spartacus 2013)
Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biosemiotics (published by Springer Nature) July 1st 2013-2020 (Lead EiC 2018-2020). Member of the editorial board 2010-
Guest-editor with Kati Lindström of special issue of Biosemiotics (3(3)), 'Semiotics of Perception' (2010), and with Jonathan Beever and Yogi Hale Hendlin of special issue of Zeitschrift für Semiotik (37 (3/4)), 'Biosemiotic ethics/Biosemiotische Ethik' (2017)
Head of department at University of Stavanger’s Department of Social Studies (2021-2023), until Jan. 5th 2023
Member of Norway´s Council for Animal Ethics (2017-2027) representing animal protection NGOs
Member of Norwegian network "Jakt i endring" (Hunting in change), coordinated by NINA (2017-2020)
Member of the editorial board of "Wonderful World - Den nordiske festivalen for filosofi og vitenskap" (Kåkå, Stavanger, Norway) 2022-
Member of the editorial board of Environmental and Sustainability Indicators (Elsevier); Associate editor of TRACE ∴ Finnish Journal for Human-Animal Studies; member of the Associate Editorial Collective of the journal Politics and Animals (Lund University), member of the editorial board of Eikon - Journal on Semiotics and Visual Culture (Universidade da Beira Interior)
Member of The Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities" (University of Stavanger) 2022-
Member of the steering committee of NORPART project "Cuban and Nordic welfare" (2019-2023)
Member of the working committee of UHR-Helse og sosial (Universities Norway) Autumn 2022, Deputy member Spring 2022
Member of UiS research program areas "Filosofi og subjektivitet" [Philosophy and subjectivity] 2018-2022 and "The Greenhouse: A Cross-Disciplinary Environmental Humanities Initiative" 2017-2022
Member of UIS steering group for professional study in psychology 2021-2023
Professor in philosophy at University of Stavanger’s Department of Social Studies (100% position, permanent, starting August 1st 2016 (associate professor 2016-2018, professor promotion 7th September 2018))
Project leader for the Norwegian research group of the research project "Animals in Changing Environments: Cultural Mediation and Semiotic Analysis" (EEA Norway Grants EMP 151, 2013-2016)
Substitute member for Norway in the Management Committee of COST Action CA 15134, "Synergy for preventing damaging behaviour in group housed pigs and chickens (GroupHouseNet) (2016-2020)
Vice-Dean of Research at University of Stavanger´s Faculty of Social Sciences (2019-2020)

Current research fields

Agency
Biosemiotics, ecosemiotics and zoosemiotics
Child welfare, social work
Climate change, environmental change
Deep ecology (as developed by Arne Næss)
Domestication, socialisation, habituation
Economic history
Ecophilosophy
Environmental ethics, biosemiotic ethics
Environmental history
Environmentalism, activism
Epistemology
Human development
Human-animal studies (including politics and animals)
Inequality
Ontology
Phenomenology (including eco-); Uexküllian phenomenology
Philosophy of economics
Philosophy of science (especially biology)
Political philosophy
Quality of life, subjective welfare, happiness
Quality-of-life studies
Semiotic economy
Umwelt theory
Welfare research
Wolf ecology and wildlife management

Utopian realism

Monday, 12 September 2016

Interview on zoos and life conditions of zoo animals

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