October 2011: Table at restaurant Volga reserved for PhD defence dinner

Around the end of October 2011 I reserved a table for 5-10 persons at restaurant Volga in Tartu, Estonia, at the occasion of my PhD defence (see thesis introduction) December 15th the same year. This is were I was to (and indeed did) celebrate my PhD, with the family members accompanying me, my supervisor Kalevi Kull and my opponents Jesper Hoffmeyer and Dominique Lestél.

[This blog post is part of my backlog catch-up]

List of illustrations in my doctoral dissertation

Figure 7: Waiting for wolves.

Figure 1. The levels of biosemiosis

Figure 2. Phenomenal fields

Figure 3. Umwelt transition – wolves becoming dogs – depicted over several steps

Figure 4. Umwelt transition in human relations to sheep and wolves

Figure 5. Umwelt transition in the relation of sheep and humans (overstated)

Figure 6. Field trips – map of places visited

Figure 7. Waiting for wolves

Figure 8. Feeding time

Figure 9. Life at Polar Zoo

Figure 10. Six stuffed (mounted) wolves in Norway

Figure 11. Secluded overview

Figure 12. Phenomenal fields – intragroup variation

Figure 13. a) A tripartite model of the human Umwelt, b) combined with phenomenal fields

See also:

Contents of my doctoral dissertation

Doctoral thesis submitted

Doctoral thesis submitted

My doctoral dissertation was submitted to the University of Tartu's Council of Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics on October 10th.

The final title ended up being "Umwelt transition and Uexküllian phenomenology: An ecosemiotic analysis of Norwegian wolf management". The Estonian version of the title reads "Uexkülli fenomenoloogia ja omailma üleminekud: Norra hundipopulatsiooni majandamise ökosemiootiline analüüs".

Doctoral dissertation accepted for defense

The Council of Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics (University of Tartu) has just unanimously decided to accept my doctoral dissertation "Umwelt transition and Uexküllian phenomenology: An ecosemiotic analysis of Norwegian wolf management" for defense on December the 15th.

More info to follow - as for now I have a 1 month backlog in Utopian Realism... Hope to be back on track by a week.

Selection of articles for my doctoral thesis

1. MT 2009. Umwelt Transitions: Uexküll and Environmental Change. Biosemiotics 2 (1): 47-64.

2. MT 2009. Steps to a Semiotics of Being. Biosemiotics 3.3: 375-392 (online version, published April 30, 2010: DOI: 10.1007/s12304-010-9074-0).

3. MT 2011. Semiotics of Being and Uexküllian Phenomenology. Pp. 327-340 (chapter 27) in Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (ed.): Phenomenology/Ontopoiesis Retrieving Geo-Cosmic Horizons of Antiquity (= Analecta Husserliana CX/110).

4. MT 2011. Mapping Human Impact – Expanding Horizons: Interdisciplinary Integration. Pp. 93-106 in Tiina Peil (ed.): The Space of Culture - the Place of Nature in Estonia and Beyond (= Approaches to Cultural Theory vol. 1). Tartu: Tartu University Press.

5. MT 2010. The Global Species. New formations: a journal of culture/theory/politics 69 (Special Issue guest-edited by Ashley Dawson, Imperial Ecologies): 98-110. Featured as additional content in Encyclopaedia Britannica (www.britannica.com).

6. MT 2010. Wolf Land. Biosemiotics 3.3: 289-297 (online version, published April 23, 2010: DOI: 10.1007/s12304-010-9077-x).

7. MT 2011: I, Wolf: The Ecology of Existence. Pp. 315-333 in Johannes Servan and Ane Faugstad Aarø (eds.): Environment, Embodiment and Gender. Bergen: Hermes Text.

See also: Update on my doctoral dissertation (and more)

Attestation review 2010/2011

This night I finished my annual attestation review report, or more presicely progress review, as a doctoral student at University of Tartu's Department of Semiotics (8pp). This is the fourth and last time I do so, given that I intend to finish writing over the summer and submit my dissertation in early September.

The meeting of the attestation review committee takes place Tuesday July 12th. I have applied not to be present in person.

Stats for the academic year 2010/2011:
* 6 presentations at international conferences, 3 cases of roundtable participation and chairing, 2 further presentations
* 11+1 academic publications, 7 popular publications

Attestation review: Reported publications

This year's attestation review for doctoral students at the Department of semiotics will take place July 12. Today was the deadline for submitting all publications from this academic year, so that the attestation committee will have the chance to read them (it is the first time this procedure is followed). A lot of my publications have appeared the last year (totalling 170 pages or so, not including texts edited):

Published July/August 2010 and not mentioned in the attestation review for 2009/2010 under "C. Scheduled for publication the summer of 2010":

— Tønnessen, Morten 2010. A Stroll Around the Worlds of Zoosemioticians and Other Animals. Book review. Semiotica issue 181 (August 2010): 317-325 (online version, published August 24, 2010: DOI: 10.1515/semi.2010.047). [note that page numbers in the attached text were not final]

— Tønnessen, Morten and Riin Magnus 2010. The Bio-Translator – Interview with Professor in Biosemiotics Kalevi Kull. Hortus Semioticus 6: 77-103. Includes full bibliography of Kalevi Kull’s biosemiotic publications.

— Tønnessen, Morten; Riin Magnus and Nelly Mäekivi 2010. Editors’ Foreword to the Special Issue Semiotics of Nature. Hortus Semioticus 6: 1-6 (includes Estonian version, "Toimetajate Eessõna").

Published within the academic year 2010/2011 (September 2010 to June 2011):

— Tønnessen, Morten 2010a*. Guest aditor, along with Kati Lindström, of a special issue of Biosemiotics (Springer), vol. 3, no. 3 (December 2010); entitled Semiotics of Perception. 136 pp.

— Tønnessen, Morten 2010b*. Steps to a Semiotics of Being. Biosemiotics 3.3: 375-392 (online version, published April 30, 2010: DOI: 10.1007/s12304-010-9074-0)

— Tønnessen, Morten 2010c*. Wolf Land. Biosemiotics 3.3: 289-297 (online version, published April 23, 2010: DOI: 10.1007/s12304-010-9077-x).

— Tønnessen, Morten 2010d. The Global Species. New formations: a journal of culture/theory/politics 69 (Special Issue guest-edited by Ashley Dawson, Imperial Ecologies): 98-110. Featured as additional content in Encyclopaedia Britannica (www.britannica.com).

— Tønnessen, Morten 2010e. Is a Wolf wild as Long as it Does Not Know that It Is Being Thoroughly Handled? Humanimalia – a journal of human/animal interface studies 2(1) (Fall 2010): 1-8 (http://www.depauw.edu/humanimalia/Tonnesen).

— Tønnessen, Morten 2010f. The Legality and Ethical Legitimacy of Wolf Hunting in Scandinavia. Pp. 65-72 in the Research seminar report 52 of the Scandinavian Council for Criminology.

— Tønnessen, Morten and Dinda L. Gorlée 2010. Da Lotman og semiotikken kom til Norge [When Lotman and semiotics came to Norway]. Pp 258-259 in Turid Farbregd and Øyvind Rangøy (eds.): Estland og Norge i fortid og nåtid – Norsk-estisk forening 25 år [Estonia and Norway past and present – Norwegian-Estonian Society 25 years]. Oslo: Norsk-estisk forening. [not attached - in Norwegian]

— Tønnessen, Morten and Kati Lindström 2010*. Being in the World of the Living – Semiotic Perspectives: Introduction to the special issue Semiotics of Perception. Co-written with Kati Lindström. Biosemiotics 3.3: 257-261 (online version, published April 20, 2010: DOI: 10.1007/s12304-010-9073-1).

— Tønnessen, Morten 2011a. I, Wolf: The Ecology of Existence. Pp. 315-333 in Johannes Servan and Ane Faugstad Aarø (eds.): Environment, Embodiment and Gender, Bergen: Hermes Text.

— Tønnessen, Morten 2011b. Mapping Human Impact – Expanding Horizons: Interdisciplinary Integration. Pp. 93-106 in Tiina Peil (ed.): The Space of Culture - the Place of Nature in Estonia and Beyond (= Approaches to Cultural Theory vol. 1). Tartu: Tartu University Press. [note that page numbers in the attached text were not final]

— Tønnessen, Morten and John Deely 2011. The Semioethics Interviews III: John Deely: Human Understanding in the Age of Global Awareness. Pp. 171-189 in the edited collection Semiotics: Theory and Applications (New York: Nova Science Publishers) [only word file is attached, since the ebook is secured. Final publication date: June 1, 2011].

* appeared as online publication in the academic year 2009/2010; in print 2010/2011 (December 2010)

To be published the summer of 2011:

— Tønnessen, Morten 2011d. Semiotics of Being and Uexküllian Phenomenology. Chapter 27 in Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (ed.): Phenomenology/Ontopoiesis Retrieving Geo-Cosmic Horizons of Antiquity (= Analecta Husserliana CX).

Change in time schedule for PhD

I originally planned to deliver my dissertation and apply for doctoral degree Monday May 24th. Early in May, however, I decided to take a few more months writing. I now intend to deliver my dissertation and application at the very beginning of the autumn semester, in the beginning of September. It might be possible to defend my thesis already in November. Despite the change of plans I appear to be the only PhD student in my cohort who will finish in this calender year, on time. As it happens, spending the summer as well writing will allow me to take the final outcome of the ongoing Norwegian policy review in carnivore management into account (though it will not allow me to take a long-awaited summer holiday).

Meanwhile, Jesper Hoffmeyer has tentatively agreed to do pre-review along with Paul Cobley.

Pre-review candidate in place

Last week Paul Cobley of London Metropolitan University agreed - if appointed by the committee in charge of this - to be my pre-reviewer in the process leading up to me submitting my doctoral dissertation and applying for doctoral degree. There might be one more pre-reviewer. Being my previewer makes him a candidate for being my opponent as well, this autumn.

Presentation in doctoral seminar scheduled

My presentation in the doctoral seminar of the Department of Semiotics has been scheduled for Tuesday April 12 (14.15-16.00). The topic will be my whole doctoral work as reflected in my thesis/dissertation, which is, according to my plans, to be submitted May 23rd.

Tartu dates

My next visits to Tartu will take place April 3-17 and May 15-24.

During the first of these I will take part in the international conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations and teach the first half of my intensive course on semiotics and phenomenology.

During the second I will teach the second half of that intensive course and apply for my doctoral degree (prospective date: Monday, May 23rd).