Politics of Terristories

After philosophical and psychological studies, Vinciane Despret specialized in ethology, the study of animal behavior, and became fascinated by the humans who work with animals. Borrowing a path from philosophy of sciences, her work combines ethological and psychological research with the goal of understanding and explaining how scientists build their theories, how they interact with historical and social contexts, and what relation is established between them and animals. She is currently Maître de Conférences at the University of Liège and at the Free University of Brussels. Despret is the author of numerous articles and books, some of them having been translated in English: Our Emotional Makeup, trans. Marjolijn de Jager (Other Press, 2004); What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions?, trans. Brett Buchanan (University of Minnesota Press, 2016); Living as a Bird, trans. Helen Morrison (Polity, 2021), Our Grateful Dead: Stories of Those Left Behind, trans. Stephen Muecke (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) and, with Isabelle Stengers, Women Who Make a Fuss: The Unfaithful Daughters of Virginia Woolf, trans. April Knutson (University of Minnesota Press, 2014).