Eben Kirksey catalyzed dialog at the Multispecies Salon as a curator, an artist, an ethnographer, and editor. Exploring the interplay of ideas about hope and collaboration has led Eben to cross conventional disciplinary divides and contribute to theoretical conversations in the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts. Freedom in Entangled Worlds, his first book, blends ethnographic research with indigenous parables to explore how indigenous activists from West Papua negotiate complex interdependencies (Duke U Press, 2012). Following the movements of multiple species across the fragmented landscapes of the Americas, his second book Emergent Ecologies considered how multispecies communities have been transformed by chance encounters, historical accidents, and parasitic invasions (Duke U Press, 2015). His latest book, The Mutant Project, explores how human life has been remade in the era of biotechnology. Currently he is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Deakin University.
Eben is the lead author of four essays in the book:
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Introduction: Tactics of Multispecies Ethnography
by Eben Kirksey, Craig Schuetze, and Stefan Helmreich
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Chapter One: Hope in Blasted Landscapes
by Eben Kirksey, Nicholas Shapiro, and Maria Brodine
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Recipe Three: Multispecies Becomings
by Eben Kirksey
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Chapter Five: Life in the Age of Biotechnology
by Eben Kirksey, Brandon Costelloe-Kuehn, and Dorion Sagan
He also contributed a number of artworks to The Multispecies Salon. “Multispecies Migrations” (2012), “The Frog Pregnancy Test” (2010-2012), and “The Utopia for the Golden Frog of Panama” (2012).
