S2E1: Phenomenology with Zipporah Weisberg

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. 

Date recorded: 12 August 2020

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).

Host: Claudia Hirtenfelder is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University and is currently undertaking her own research project looking at the historical relationships between animals and cities. Contact Claudia via email (17ch38@queensu.ca) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne).

Featured readings:  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. 

Quote: “Believe in the simple magic of life, in service in the universe, and it will dawn on you what this waiting, peering, “stretching of the neck” of the creature means. Every word must falsify; but look, these beings live around you, and no matter which one you approach you always reach Being.” — Martin Buber 

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