Michela Dianetti
Lucy Elvis
Chiara Li Mandri
Nora Ward
The aim is to explore the ethical and philosophical significance of attention to non-charismatic species – such as pigeons, seagulls, bugs, worms, woodlice, rodents, eels, herring – within human-dominated environments. We focus on the overlooked multispecies community of the university campus. Through a series of public philosophy events, reflective practices, and sensory engagements, we aim to challenge anthropocentric perceptions and cultivate attentiveness to the shared lives and entanglements of humans and non-human beings. Drawing on Simone Weil and Mary Midgley, our activities, culminating in a multispecies poetry performance, invites participants to reimagine the campus as a hybrid, co-inhabited space of care, complexity, and hope.
Team Ireland is part of AIRE - an innovative approach to scholarship:
In response to contemporary individualism — reinforced by political, academic, and economic systems — AIRE challenges the assumption that meaningful scholarship must centre on individual authorship, competition, and institutional prestige. They work as a collective, embracing a hybrid, collaborative form of subjectivity. The aim is not only to demonstrate that research can emerge through shared inquiry, but to actively embody and promote this alternative model of academic work.
Some more information about the individuals nonetheless below.
Michela Dianetti
Michela Dianetti is a lecturer in Philosophy and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Galway. Her PhD research developed a literary ethics of attention grounded in the philosophies of Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch, applying them to the literary work of Elsa Morante. She facilitates philosophical inquiries for children in Galway primary schools, as well as for young adults and older persons.
insight-centre.org/our-team/michela-dianetti/
Lucy Elvis
Lucy Elvis is a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Galway, a founder of Curo Thinking for Communities a not-for-profit that focuses on empowering groups to think philosophically together in non-formal educational contexts from music festivals to art galleries and libraries and an art writer. Her research and teaching focuses on the power of art and of philosophical thinking to enrich human life.
universityofgalway.ie/our-research/people/history-and-philosophy/lucyelvis/
Chiara Li Mandri
Chiara Li Mandri is a PhD candidate at the University of Palermo, Italy. Her current research draws on Giacomo Leopardi to develop an innovative educational method to raise awareness of contemporary climate and ecological disruptions, emphasising the role of poetry and art as essential educational tools.
Nora Ward
Nora Ward is a lecturer in the philosophy department at the University of Galway. She received her BA and MA from the University of Galway and her Ph.D. from the University of North Texas. Her research focus is on environmental ethics and philosophy, with a particular interest in ecological attention, rewilding, and ecofeminism.
Pigeons