Festival Nature Through her Eyes, VII Academy: Interview of Vinciane Despret

The Nature: Through Her Eyes festival was a special event with free admission celebrating and highlighting women’s roles in storytelling about nature and the environment, including writers, photographers, filmmakers, as well as camera and sound operators.

The festival was held in Perpignan, France from October 18-21st, 2019 with presenters from the media, literature, academia and research, and legal and commercial worlds. Programming included professional workshops, seminars, film screenings, and mentoring, and these videos offer a glimpse into the 4 days of exciting events.

The UPVD was a partner of the event.

Vinciane Despret is passionate about ethology and has made it the subject of her research for many years. Some of her earliest research dates back to 1996, studying birds in Birth of an ethological theory: the dance of the flaked craterop and then undertaking a thesis on emotions that would become the subject of two books, The emotions that make us. Ethnopsychology of authenticity and When the wolf lives with the lamb. She was the scientific curator of the exhibition Bêtes et Hommes (Beasts and Men) at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris in 2007. Other publications include To Be Stupid, co-written with Jocelyne Porcher, The story makers with Isabelle Stengers; Thinking like a rat; What would animals say if they were asked the right questions? and The Happiness of the dead, Stories of those who remain. A children’s book, The home of animals, announces her interest in the question of territory and habitats, which she also deals with in her latest book, Living as a bird. The common thread that drives her research is the question of good research devices: how do we (or do we not) manage to make living things interesting? How does research enrich the situation it is trying to describe?

Learn more about the festival at: http://www.naturethroughhereyes.com.

Find more about Vinciane Despret at : http://www.vincianedespret.be/