Examiner, University of Stavanger

I have been appointed as examiner (sensor) for Ex.Phil. (introductory philosophy) students at University of Stavanger for a period of one year. In practice, this means that I will correct exam papers in November/December this year. It will be my second time.

Filosofisk Forum - looking back, and ahead

Today Filosofisk Forum (Agder University) had what turns out to be our last event for the semester (a seminar-style talk/discussion about love). Unfortunately Camilla Serck-Hanssen (University of Oslo) has had to cancel her planned talk in May - but we expect to host a lecture by her this autumn in stead.

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I have agreed to continue as a member of the steering group this autumn. We'll have to find new student representatives from the fresh one-year philosophy students come September.

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Next week we'll have a steering group meeting. Following that, we'll conduct a report on the activities of this semester.

Agents in hiding

I am in the process of contributing, as part of a proposed panel on animal agency, with an abstract to the 6th conference of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH), to be arranged in Turku, Finland, June/July 2011. The title of my abstract is "Wolf history: Agents in hiding".

Wolf criminology

My abstract "The legality and ethical legitimacy of wolf hunting in Scandinavia" has been accepted for presentation at the 52nd research seminar of the Scandinavian Research Council for Criminology (SCRfC), to be arranged at Hønefoss, Norway, May 10-12.

Research assistant (+100)

I am in the process of signing a new contract (or get my current contract renewed) as a research assistant for the Agder University project Multimodalitet, lesemidler og læremidler (Multimodality, literacy and learning), for another 100 hours.

CV

I have updated my CV.

Wolf land online

My article Wolf land has been published online (April 23rd) as part of the special issue of Biosemiotics Semiotics of perception. You'll find it here (full access for subscribers only) - and a free preview here.

Abstract
Wolf land is in the context of the present article to be considered as an ambiguous term referring to “the land of the wolf” from the wolf’s perspective as well as from a human perspective. I start out by presenting the general circumstances of the Scandinavian wolf population, then turn to the Norwegian wolf controversy in particular. The latter half of the article consists of an elucidation of current wolf ecology related to what is here termed wolf land, and a concluding comment to the now controversial notion of wilderness. The final section of this article further includes identification of changing factors in current Scandinavian wolf ecology in terms of its semiotic niche, and ontological niche, respectively.

Keywords Wolf ecology - Wildlife management - Anti-conservationism - Land - Territory - Wilderness

The following articles have also been published online (print version is due in December):

* Merleau-Ponty’s Concept of Nature and the Ontology of Flesh
Ane Faugstad Aarø
* Ecosystems are Made of Semiosic Bonds: Consortia, Umwelten, Biophony and Ecological Codes
Kalevi Kull
* Autocommunication and Perceptual Markers in Landscape: Japanese Examples
Kati Lindström
* Plant as Object within Herbal Landscape: Different Kinds of Perception
Renata Sõukand and Raivo Kalle
* Introduction to the Special Issue Semiotics of Perception Being in the World of the Living—Semiotic Perspectives
Kati Lindström and Morten Tønnessen