Research

Jami Weinstein, Ph.D.

I arrived at Linköping University, Tema Genus, in September 2010 as a LiU forskarassistent to direct my proposed project entitled: The Zoontology Research Team. In addition, I pursue independent research in areas such as: contemporary continental philosophy; feminist, gender, and queer theory; animal studies; posthuman(ities) studies; and science and technology studies.

See Annika Agebjörn's recent article on my research here (in swedish) or here (in english).

ZOONTOLOGY RESEARCH TEAM (ZRT)

One of the most basic and foundational philosophical enterprises is that which studies, delineates, defines, and comprehends the nature of existing things, otherwise known as metaphysics or first philosophy.  This branch of philosophy considers questions about: being and existence, causality, identity, relation, time, and space.  Perhaps the most complex and interesting subdivision of these studies is ontology, or that which concerns the nature of being or existence. 

Briefly, this project is at base an ontological one.  For, understanding what it is to be human is thought to give us insight into who and what we are.  And this insight has ramifications for how one might act, what sorts of responsibilities and obligations one has toward other beings and the world, what kinds of political agendas and strategies one might employ, and how one might live.  It is unlikely that any other philosophical pursuit could be more integral to shaping our worldview than this one. 

This project takes up ontological inquiry from our current historical context; it endeavors to locate an ontology of the human in the post-Enlightenment (post-human) age. Borrowing the term zoontology from Cary Wolfe, the ZRT aims to invoke the sense in which human ontology is inextricable from animal (zoo) being.  Thus, this project endeavors to repudiate Enlightenment Humanism, or the hegemonic characterization of human ontology as an autonomous, rational, self-identical, stable subject. The research of the ZRT will strive to contribute to an alternative, posthumanist, vision of human ontology, one that can foster a more progressive ethical and socio-politcial landscape.

As such, the Zoontology Research Team is situated at the crossroads of contemporary philosophy, technoscience studies, animality studies, viral and bacterial studies, biology, evolution, feminist and gender studies, ethics, and politics.  

For more information about the activities of the ZRT, click here.

                                      ≈  ZRT NEWS ≈

Sept 2011:  POSITION FILLED - Check back for future positions  

DOCTORAL POSITIONS AT THE ZOONTOLOGY RESEARCH TEAM 

Click here for more information: PhD Position