Wikipedia

Draft:Eben Kirksey

Professor
Eben Kirksey
Born1976
Florida, USA
Alma materNew College, Florida

University of California, Santa Cruz

University of Oxford, UK
Websitehttp://eben-kirksey.space

Eben Kirksey is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oxford. His primary work is in the disciplines of medical anthropology, human ecology, but he is best known for his pioneering work in multispecies ethnography[1]—an approach to studying human interactions with animals, plants, fungi, and microbes. He is the author of The Mutant Project (2020)[2], Emergent Ecologies (2015)[3], Freedom in Entangled Worlds (2012)[4], and The Multispecies Salon (2014)[5], a curated collection of artwork and essays.

He is also responsible for coining the term “chemopower”.

Early years edit

Kirksey was born in Florida and as a child moved to with his family to Tennessee, Ohio and Washington, D.C. At the age of seventeen, he lived in Indonesia as a high school exchange student.[4] Between high school and college, he hiked 1,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail.[6] In 1998, he returned to the Indonesian-occupied province of West Papua (province) where he Biak massacre.[4][7]

Education edit

Kirksey received his B.A. in Anthropology and Biology from New College of Florida in 2000. Kirksey was a British Marshall Scholar at the University of Oxford where he studied an M.Phil in History of Medicine, before he went on to earn his PhD at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the History of Consciousness and Cultural Anthropology.[8]

Career edit

He has taught at higher education institutions like Princeton University and Deep Springs College. In Australia he helped found the Environmental Humanities program at UNSW Sydney. Kirksey was Associate Professor (Research) at Alfred Deakin Institute in Melbourne, Australia, where he was studying The Promise of Multispecies Justice[9] and the chemical turn[10] in the humanities, and the circulation of viruses in multispecies worlds.

"The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography" (2010) edit

Eben pioneered a new mode of research in anthropology in 2010: multispecies ethnography. In collaboration with Stefan Helmreich, he described how creatures previously appearing on the margins of anthropology were pushed into the foreground of recent anthropological studies. Multispecies ethnography situates contemporary scholarship on animals, microbes, plants, and fungi within deeply rooted traditions of environmental anthropology, continental philosophy, and the sociology of science.[1]

The Mutant Project (2020) edit

In his 2020 book The Mutant Project, Kirksey conducted an in-depth investigation into the circumstances surrounding the birth of the world's first genetically modified children in China. The scientist at the centre of the story, He Jiankui claimed on YouTube[11] that the twin girls were healthy. Kirksey discovered that the twins were actually in a hospital neo-natal intensive care unit when the video was recorded.[2] The Mutant Project considers how gene editing enterprises with CRISPR-Cas9 are putting profits ahead of patient health and well being.[2][12]

Art Curation edit

Kirksey is best known in the art world for The Multispecies Salon, an exhibit that travelled from San Francisco to New Orleans before settling in New York City.[5][13]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Kirksey, Eben (1 January 2010). "THE EMERGENCE OF MULTISPECIES ETHNOGRAPHY" (PDF). anthropology.mit.edu. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Kirksey, Eben (2020-11-10). The Mutant Project: Inside the Global Race to Genetically Modify Humans (First ed.). St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-250-26535-7.
  3. ^ Kirksey, Eben (2015-11-24). Emergent Ecologies. Durham London: Duke University Press Books. ISBN 978-0-8223-6035-3.
  4. ^ a b c Kirksey, Eben (2012-03-21). Freedom in Entangled Worlds: West Papua and the Architecture of Global Power. Durham and London: Duke University Press Books. ISBN 978-0-8223-5134-4.
  5. ^ a b Kirksey, Eben, ed. (2014-10-20). The Multispecies Salon. Durham: Duke University Press Books. ISBN 978-0-8223-5625-7.
  6. ^ "Anthropology and Colonial Violence in West Papua". www.culturalsurvival.org. 5 May 2010. Retrieved 2023-09-22.
  7. ^ "Biak Massacre Citizens Tribunal |". Retrieved 2023-09-22.
  8. ^ "About". Eben Kirksey, Ph.D. Retrieved 2023-09-22.
  9. ^ "Duke University Press - The Promise of Multispecies Justice".
  10. ^ "Chemoethnography" (PDF).
  11. ^ About Lulu and Nana: Twin Girls Born Healthy After Gene Surgery As Single-Cell Embryos, retrieved 2023-09-22
  12. ^ Marcus, Amy Dockser (2020-11-17). "'The Mutant Project' Review: An Unsettling Visit to the Future". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2023-09-22.
  13. ^ "Eben Kirksey". The Multispecies Salon. 2014-02-28. Retrieved 2023-09-22.

External Links edit

  • official website
  • Faculty website
  • Multispecies salon This multimedia portal has over 100 distinct pages with embedded video, images, and artworks. It features L’Abécédaire of Multispecies Studies, a living glossary, with keyword entries by prominent scholars. The site has received over 50,000 page views.
  • Biak tribunal An archive of materials about the massacre in Biak, West Papua, which took place in 1998. On the fifteen-year anniversary of the killings, Citizens Tribunal at the University of Sydney where Eben Kirksey presented his eyewitness testimony alongside other survivors.
  • Multispecies Justice A compilation of lectures, and artworks, to accompany The Promise of Multispecies Justice, a book with Duke University Press.


This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.
Categories:

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:Eben_Kirksey&oldid=1214346282"