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.

Bibliographical reference for Lotman piece

Here's the bibliographical reference for 'Da Lotman og semiotikken kom til Norge' [When Lotman and semiotics came to Norway], which I got to see in print for the first time last Monday:

Dinda L. Gorlée and Morten Tønnessen 2010. "Da Lotman og semiotikken kom til Norge". Pp 258-259 in Turid Farbregd and Øyvind Rangøy (Eds.): Estland og Norge i fortid og nåtid - Norsk-estisk forening 25 år. Oslo: Norsk-estisk forening.

The article includes a picture (in Dinda Gorlée's ownership) from Sebeok and Lotman's encounter in Bergen in 1986.

'Food vs. nature' declined AGAIN

My text 'Food vs. nature: How human taste has shaped nature as we know it', which was first submitted to and rejected by a special issue of Politics and Culture on food sovereignty, has now been declined also by The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, after a 16 month+ review process.

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Most of the content has already been published elsewhere.

Pecha Kucha Night Oslo - record-brief history of philosophy

Last Thursday I presented "The history of philosophy in 1-2-3" At Pecha Kucha Night Oslo, vol. 15, for an audience of perhaps 400, as part of my commercial project Spør Filosofen (Ask The Philosopher - which is also on Facebook).

Pecha Kucha is a format for very consice Powerpoint-style presentations - 20 slides are presented, they shift automatically, and you only have 20 seconds to talk about each one (for more info, see here).

I have uploaded some pictures from other presentations that same evening in my Norwegian blog Utopisk Realisme, and am in the process of uploading a video of my own 6 min 40 sec performance to Youtube.

Norwegian HAS anthology: Authors in process of being confirmed

The human-animal relations anthology I will be editing with eco-criminologists Guri Larsen and Ragnhild Sollund is in the process of scheduling participation with invited contributors. Last Thursday I met with political scientist Svenn Arne Lie in Oslo. Hopefully both he and environmental historian Finn Arne Jørgensen will confirm their participation.

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Conservation scientist Tormod V. Burkey has confirmed his participation. So has professor in biology Dag Hessen, who will co-write a chapter with me on what is unique about humans and what we have in common with other creatures. My further contributions will entail two chapters written solely by me (one on carnivore wildness and the other on man as a global species) and two introductory chapters co-written with my two fellow editors.

Minding Animals Pre-Conference Lectures in Oslo and Sydney

The last few days I have been in contact with Minding Animals International's convenor Rod Bennison (Newcastle, Australia) and others discussing the possibility of a Pre-Conference Lecture event in Oslo at some point towards the end of 2011. The initiative is Rhys Evans'. He has just started working for the Norwegian University College for Agriculture and Rural Development (Høgskolen for landbruk og bygdenæringer - HLB) in South-Western Norway. I am also likely to attend a Pre-Conference Lecture event in Uppsala, Sweden, around the same time. MAI and The Nordic Animal Studies Network will be the broader networks auspicing the events. Further details follow...

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I am further a candidate for giving a lecture at the Pre-Conference Lecture event which will take place in Sydney, February 19th 2011, in connection with the workshop on the history and philosophy of ethology. For all these occasions, cf. the MAI webpage soon.