S2E1: Phenomenology with Zipporah Weisberg
In the first episode of Season 2, which is focusing on ‘Animals and Experience’, Claudia speaks to independent scholar Zipporah Weisberg about the concept ‘Phenomenology’. They touch on the potential of phenomenology as a concept and a practice for better understanding the lives and experiences of animals, also contemplating some of the tensions that are embedded therein.
About Zipporah Weisberg
Zipporah Weisberg is an Independent Scholar, animal activist, and contemporary dancer currently living in Granada, Spain. Her areas of specialization include: Critical Animal Studies, the Critical Theory of the Early Frankfurt School, and Existentialism and Phenomenology. In 2013 Zipporah completed her PhD in Social and Political Thought at York University, and was awarded the APPLE postdoc fellowship, which was renewed for a second year. During the tenure of the fellowship, Zipporah's research focused especially on the ethics of biotechnology and the phenomenology of animal life, and led to the publications of "Biotechnology as End Game: Ontological and Ethical Collapse in the 'Biotech Century'" (NanoEthics, 2015) and "The Simple Magic of Life: Phenomenology and Re-enchantment" (Humanimalia, 2015). Zipporah is currently working on a paper about interspecies friendship and the politics of Eros. Connect with Zipporah on Academia.edu or via email (zipporah.weisberg@gmail.com).
Listen Here...
Recorded 12 August 2020
-
A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans with A Theory of Meaning by Jacob von Uexküll;
-
Phenomenology of Perceptionby Maurice Merleau-Ponty;
-
The Simple Magic of Life: Phenomenology and Re-enchantment by Zipporah Weisberg;
-
I and Thou by Martin Buber.
Featured Readings:
Elephants are matriarchal and have the longest gestation period of any mammal - 22 months!