Doctoral defense of Hildegunn Marie Tønnessen Seip attended

Today I have attended the trial lecture and doctoral defense of my sister Hildegunn Marie Tønnessen Seip. Her thesis is entitled "Playing our way: Participation, recognition and creativity as resources for growing up across cultures". The defence was hybrid and included the candidate´s physical presence, with a limited audience, at Ansgar høyskole (Ansgar university college), and transmission from University of Oslo and the work places of the opponents.

Two meetings, a pick-up and a corona test

Yesterday I attended the faculty leadership group meeting, picked up the outfit of the Dean in preparation of Thursday´s Ph.d. defence which I will chair, took a corona test, and attended the kick-off meeting of a work group established to plan for a cognitive lab at University of Stavanger.

Two meetings

Today I have attended two meetings. First, a planning meeting for this year´s Norwegian animal ethics conference (Dyreetikkonferansen digital edition) - now tentatively titled "Velferd i isolasjonens tid (Welfare in the time of isolation). Then, a test meeting in preparation of tomorrow´s Ph.d. defence, which I will chair.

PhD defense - Erica von Essen, Uppsala

Today I have been in Uppsala, Sweden, as part of the three-person Examination Board (evaluation committee) for Erica von Essen´s doctoral thesis "In the Gap between Legality and Legitimacy - Illegal Hunting in Sweden as a Crime of Dissent". We unanimously approved Erica´s PhD. She has taken her PhD, in the field of environmental communication, at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, at Department of Urban and Rural Development.

William Smith was opponent, and in the Examination Board I was joined by Stellan Vinthagen (chosen as chair) and Mari Pohjs-Mykrä. Hans Peter Hansen, assistant supervisor, served as our host. Some 50 people attended the doctors defence.

PhD defence attended

Yesterday I attended two hours of the PhD defense of Arne Endresen at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies.

Appointed as member of PhD Evaluation Committee at SLU

Today I have been notified that the Chairman of Postgraduate Studies Board at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) has appointed me to act as member of the Evaluation Committee at Erica von Essens´s public defence of her thesis for the doctor’s degree. The defense will take place September 16th.

See also:
To be member of PhD evaluation committee

To be member of PhD evaluation committee

I have tentatively agreed to be a member of a PhD evaluation committee at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala. More info as the engagement is confirmed.

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]

October 2011: PhD defence trip arranged

Around the end of October 2011 I arranged my visit to Tartu, Estonia, December 14-16 at the occasion of the defence of my PhD thesis "Umwelt transition and Uexküllian phenomenology: An ecosemiotic analysis of Norwegian wolf management" which was to take place (and did indeed take place) December 15th that year. I would go with my parents, my wife and my aunt Marte.

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

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.

Academic travel plans

This weekend I have arranged tickets for two academic trips the coming months:

* Tartu: October 23-26 [in Oslo 22-23] (to stand before the doctoral committee, and to participate in zoosemiotic research seminar)

* Hamar: October 30 - November 1 (for conference on predators and grazing animals)

I will further be going to Uppsala in October, and to Tartu once again in December (for defense of doctoral degree).

(We have also booked tickets for a holiday - Kristiansand-Bodø and back by train (1526 km each way, says Google Maps), November 3-6)

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)

Tartus

I am sitting in the guest apartment of Estonian Naturalists' society (Eesti Looduseuurijate Selts), with a view to the entrance of Bibliotheca Universitatis Tartuensis. I have been staying here in ELUS for four nights, and have one more to go, before returning to Norway. I might only be back in Estonia for the defense of my doctoral degree, perhaps in November.

It is my fourth time here in ELUS (the first time was in 2001, during my very first stay in Estonia - then I returned in 2005, and again in November 2010).

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.

Brief report from my visit in Estonia Sept. 5-9 (= Academic news in brief XI)

1. On Monday 6th of September I met for the first time with the Estonian wolf ethologist Ilmar Rootsi, with Nelly Mäekivi as mediator. Me and Rootsi (72) agreed to co-write an academic article on man-eating and rabid wolves in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia. The article will have a perspective of at least 200 years of history. Fellow ecosemiotician Silver Rattasepp later agreed to partake in making the article happen, stepping in for Nelly as mediator. He will be credited as a co-author.

:)

2. For a week or so, I pondered upon contributing to the third Center of Excellence in Cultural Theory conference, which is due in late October, with a joint poster presentation on wolves. Prospective cooperators were too busy, however.

:)

3. Tuesday 7th I met with my supervisor Kalevi Kull. We agreed on a time schedule for my thesis work this last year of my PhD studies. A full thesis (monograph) is to be completed by April 1st, 2011, and revised following comments by pre-reviewers by May 20th, at which point I'll formally apply for a doctoral degree. The defense will take place approximately September 30th, 2011, at Tartu's Department of Semiotics.

:)

4. The same day I met the Italian PhD student Davide Weible, who studies a topic not so different from mine (phenomenology + biology).

:)

5. On Wednesday 8th I met briefly with the Estonian folklorist Merili Metsvahi, who specializes on Estonian werewolves.

:)

6. An important task during this visit was to move our things from the apartment we have been renting up until August 15th, in Kuu street. Me and my wife left the country with 66 kg of luggage, after having sent 25 kg by post.

:)

7. Around the conclusion of the trip I arranged tickets for my next visit to Tartu, which will take place November 23rd-30th.