iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 13/11/2025

On November 8, @ethicsiit.bsky.social at @illinoistech.bsky.social held our Ethics of Technology conference. Great to connect with many amazing international scholars, and to present my research incorporating John Dewey’s work on agency and architecture into ethical questions regarding urban animals

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 14/06/2025

I recently had the opportunity to present some of my research on street dogs and multispecies waste relations at Waste Matters: The Many Afterlives of Junk conference in Helsinki. An amazing interdisciplinary conference focused on social, political, ethical, and aesthetic considerations of waste!

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 08/05/2025

What I really care about is obvious, because the first thing I noticed when I saw this breaking news was the seagulls. Currently the most visible birds on the planet.

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 28/04/2025

There is an implicit feeling of trust I sensed while in close proximity to them that also feels a bit undeserved and heartbreaking given the role anthropogenic factors have had in the decline of their species over the last century.

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 28/04/2025

African penguins have absolutely no fear of humans given that they have not evolved around land-based animals that would harm them.

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 28/04/2025

Boulders Beach is a protected site where artificial nests have been constructed to supplement a lack of natural nesting sites, to facilitate breeding, and to keep them safe from predators and weather. It is a magical experience being surrounded by these highly intelligent and socially complex birds.

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 28/04/2025

Many of them are starving to death because of drastically reduced fish stocks resulting from industrial fishing and climate change. Other factors contributing to their decline are coastal development, oil spills, and diseases such as bird flu.

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 28/04/2025

Sadly, the African penguin has recently been reclassified as critically endangered. Populations have declined by 97% over the last 100 years, and there are currently fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs remaining. They are one of the most threatened seabirds in the world.

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 28/04/2025

A belated post in honor of World Penguin Day on Friday. Here are a few photos from September of 2022 when I had the honor of visiting the African penguin colony at Boulders Beach in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 26/04/2025

A red-tailed hawk on campus today at the University of Oregon

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 21/04/2025

One of the highlights of my recent trip to San Francisco was meeting Major, who is perhaps the most famous dog in the city. His human, Omar, owns Key Food Market in Lower Haight, where Major “works” behind the counter and is a central part of the local community.

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 17/04/2025

Excited to be in San Francisco for the American Philosophical Association Pacific division meeting! I’m part of a session this evening on new directions in American philosophy where I’m presenting some research on John Dewey and animal agency. #APAPacific25

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 22/03/2025

Happy to see the latest issue of The Pluralist in print, which includes my paper on Dewey, Singer, and Effective Altruism!

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 19/03/2025

So cool to be in Helsinki when President Zelenskyy of Ukraine happened to come to town! 🇺🇦

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 25/02/2025

I'm happy to share that my paper, "Consequentialism in the Work of John Dewey and Peter Singer: Considering the Case of Effective Altruism" has been published in The Pluralist. muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 18/02/2025

An hour of Brunito’s day in 30 seconds. It’s a common misconception that street dogs tend to have very active and stressful lives. This depends on context. Yet, in my time researching street dogs in Peru I have found them to often be some of the most relaxed and content beings I have ever met.

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Bjørn Ralf Kristensen @bjornkristensen.com · 28/01/2025

This term at the University of Oregon, I'm thrilled to be teaching an interdisciplinary course focused on multispecies urban entanglements (Multispecies Cities), which draws on the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, with close attention to non-Western and Global South perspectives.

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