Presenters

Umwelt collapse

In the era of the sixth mass extinction, how do animal species experience their withering populations and degradation of ecosystems? In my talk, I will discuss umwelt collapse as the disintegration of animals’ umwelts resulting from cumulative errors in meaning-making.

Timo Maran is a Professor of Ecosemiotics and Environmental Humanities at the Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu, Estonia. Maran’s research interests include theory and history of eco semiotics; ecocriticism, Estonian nature writing and semiotic relations of nature and culture; and theory and semiotics of biological mimicry. His publications include Mimicry and Meaning: Semiotics of Biological Mimicry (2017) and Ecosemiotics. The Study of Signs in Changing Ecologies (2020). Maran has also authored several poetry collections.