Pre-conference workshop and horse farm tour attended in Lexington, Kentucky (USA)

I arrived in Lexington, Kentucky, late on Sunday August 9th. On Monday (i.e. yesterday) I attended the pre-conference workshop «A “Walkthrough” of Public US Wellbeing Datasets», with instructors Harry Brisson and Robert Moore, both representing the NGO Gross National Happiness USA (GNHUSA), along with about ten others. Today I have attended a Half-Day Thoroughbred Horse Farm Tour in Kentucky, along with about 15 others.

Over the next three days I will be attending the 24th Annual Conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS 2026), with the theme «Beyond the Bluegrass: Harnessing Research to Enhance Quality of life». The conference venue is University of Kentucky´s Gatton Student Center, in Lexington, Kentucky.

See also:

ISQOLS 2026 papers scheduled for presentation in Lexington, Kentucky August 13th and 14th

Workshop invitation

Some time ago I was invited to take part in a high-level workshop on the theme "Making Meaning in Biology: From the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis to Biosemiotics”, which is to be hosted by the Lorentz Center, in Leiden, The Netherlands, 18–22 August, 2025. Due to a lack of funding I will not be able to go.

Pre-conference workshop on psychology of wellbeing attended in Burlington, Vermont

Today I have attended a pre-conference workshop ahead of the ISQOLS 2022 conference here in Burlington, Vermont at University of Vermont, "A Crash Course in the Psychology of Well-Being and Quality of Life" by Joseph Sirgy.

I arrived yesterday.

Animal history workshop presentation described in ZIF-Mitteilungen

A report from the research workshop "Animal (Pre)History, Agency & Legacy" (held digitally May 10-12th), where I presented the paper "Individuality and subjectivity in animals in light of Umwelt temporality", is published in ZIF-Mitteilungen, published by the Universität Bielefeld´s Zentrum for interdisciplinary Forschung (Center for Interdisciplinary Research), no. 2/2021, p. 39-40. About my presentation it says:

Die Biosemiotik regte indes dazu an, tierische Interaktionsformen als spezifische Umweltwahrnemnung und Kommunikation zu erfassen und deren Diversität und Alterität ernst zu nehmen (Morten Tønnessen).  

3 meetings and (parts of) a research workshop

Today I have attended three meetings and 2 hours of today´s session of the international interdisciplinary research workshop "Animal (pre)history, agency and legacy". The meetings included the second day of the University of Stavanger Lederforum, and the Spring´s third and last staff meeting at Department of social studies, which I chaired (the meeting was attended by more than 40 people).

Blurb for workshop presentation: Individuality and subjectivity in animals in light of Umwelt temporality

I have just composed the blurb below for my invited presentation at a workshop to be held in May.

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Individuality and subjectivity in animals in light of Umwelt temporality  

In a biosemiotic understanding, all animals are endowed with an Umwelt as described by the German-Baltic biologist Jakob von Uexküll (1864–1944) in his classical Umwelt theory, which was developed in the period 1909–1940. In my work I have focused on developing perspectives on Umwelt temporality, starting with a notion of “Umwelt transition” (i.e., environmental change as seen from an Umwelt perspective). While some Umwelt transitions are regular (e.g. developmental), others represent historical events. Another central term in my work is “Umwelt trajectory”, representing the path through time taken by a living being as described by way of its changing relations to significant others. These notions may be applied in historical studies as well as futures studies. This provides us with a theoretical framework and methodology for studying animals as agents endowed with individual semiotic agency. 

To present at workshop on the historicity of animals in May

I have agreed to present at a digital workshop titled "Animal (Pre-)History, Agency and Legacy" which is to be held "at" University of Bielefeld, Germany, May 10-12th. There might be a physical follow-up later on in the autumn.

UiS news story on welfare research network workshop

The University of Stavanger has published a news story on "Første workshop for Nettverk for velferdsforsking" (First workshop for Network for welfare research), which I co-arranged, moderated and where I presented.

Welfare network workshop held; presentation given; chair

Today I have attended - and co-arranged, and chaired - a workshop held in connection with the establishment of a Network for welfare research at University of Stavanger. The workshop took place on Sola strandhotell, and some 40 people attended. The workshop included my presentation "Velferdsutviklingen I Norden og globalt" (Welfare development in the Nordic countries and globally) and a session on the story of Siw, featuring journalist Thomas Ergo, Sverre Nesvåg (KORFOR/UIS) and Sarah Hean (UIS).

Two meetings

Today I had the first performance appraisal with the Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences, as Vice-Dean of Research. I also attended another planning meeting for the Network for welfare research workshop that will be held April 30th - this time focused on the group work we´ll have.

Presentation, program for UiS welfare research workshop

Here (in Norwegian) is program for and presentation of the workshop that will be held by University of Stavanger´s Network for welfare research (under establishment). 

Welfare network workshop: Invitations sent; program made public

Invitations to attend our workshop April 30th, in relation to the establishing of a Network for welfare research, have now been sent to University of Stavanger and NORCE employees with an interest in welfare research. The workshop will take place 9.00-13.45 on Sola Strandhotell.

I am scheduled to speak 9.10-9.30.

See also:

Welfare talk scheduled for presentation at UiS workshop

Welfare talk scheduled for presentation at UiS workshop

On a workshop held by University of Stavanger´s Faculty of social sciences on April 30th, I will give a presentation work titled "Velferdsutviklingen i de nordiske landene og globalt" (The welfare development in the Nordic countries and globally).

Oslo proposal writing workshop on ERC Consolidator Grants attended

Today I have attended a workshop on writing successful ERC Consolidator Grant applications in Oslo (FOrskningsparken), held by Research Council of Norway and hosted by University of Oslo.

UiS workshop on ERC grants attended; preliminary ERC project title

Today I have attended a half-day workshop on applying for ERC grants organized by the program area for research "The Greenhouse" with assistance from the University of Stavanger research and innovation unit.

The preliminary title for my ERC Consolidator Grant application is "Assessing human and animal wellbeing in the Anthropocene".

Phenomenology workshop attended

Today I have attended (most of) a one-day workshop at UiS on applied phenomenology organised by Sarah Hean and held by Vanessa Heaslip of University of Bournemouth.

MSCA-IF proposal writing workshop attended

Today I am attending a UiS proposal writing workshop, held by Yellow Research, on MSCA Individual Fellowships (2018 call).

To present during Paris phenomenology workshop in May

I have been scheduled to present a reading of excerpts of Kurt Goldstein´s The organism on May 11th during a workshop on phenomenology on Paris organized by Ståle Finke (NTNU).

To present research project application on Umwelt theory on PRE-FRIPRO workshop

I have been scheduled to offer a brief presentation of my research application "Umwelt theory for our time" at a PRE-FRIPRO (see previous posts) workshop which will take place at University of Stavanger on March 18th, along with 3 others so far. The workshop will involve feedback on the projects presented.

Abstract: "Animal and Eve: How representations of wolves and sheep are used to construct human identities"

Yesterday I wrote and submitted the following abstract to the international workshop "Humanimals: Examining Histories and Productions of Animal-Human Relationships", to be held in Oslo September 26-27th:

Animal and Eve: How representations of wolves and sheep are used to construct human identities

Morten Tønnessen

Associate professor at University of Stavanger (Department of health studies) and Chair of Minding Animals Norway

The questions of the nature of the wolf, sheep, and humans, are methodologically problematic for two different reasons: Human’s nature because we are the topic to be investigated; the wolf’s and the sheep’s nature because we are not wolves nor sheep. However, what we think about what it is like to be a wolf or a sheep actually says a great deal about what it means, for us, to be human.

Wolves and sheep are among the animals that have been the most significant in terms of cultural impact. The animal representations involving these two animals – which are often perceived as being in fundamental opposition to each other – are countless; only a few examples can be mentioned in this paper. These include wolf-derived names from Adolf Hitler to Varg Vikernes, words and expressions (“lone wolf terrorist”), fairy tales and Bible stories, and canine or ovine appearances in a number of contemporary TV series and movies. Whereas the werewolf is conceptually a wolfman, the hilarious 2006 movie Black Sheep introduced the weresheep (and thus the sheepman).

In popular culture, the wolf symbolizes evil, bottomless hunger, and raw sexuality. The fact that in old Norse “vargr” (cf. the Swedish varg), the word for wolf, meant “outlaw”, and was also used in the sense of “murderer”, “slayer”, is telling of the way we routinely attribute human characteristics to wolves, and vice versa. To some extent the same can be said about the sheep, which traditionally symbolizes that which is to be protected, flock animals, and stupidity.

This paper will draw on semiotics, philosophy, and Human-Animal Studies at large.