Project description
Exploring biodiversity in modern fiction
We are currently witnessing an unprecedented collapse of biological diversity. One way to address today’s mass extinction is to review our perception about biodiversity. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the BIOFICTION project explores biodiversity representation in literature outside of scientific discourses. Methods such as close-reading and statistical analysis of species abundance allows the mapping of ‘environmental imagination’ and the identification of cultural prejudices, such as the tendency to focus on megafauna, which affect contemporary conservation practices. Most importantly, this research brings together indigenous fiction and viewpoints from regions with the richest biodiversity in the world for an exhaustive and inclusive history of valuing biological diversity. The project will create the first comprehensive study of biodiversity in fiction.
Objective
"Declining biodiversity is the defining challenge of our time. We are living through the greatest loss of biodiversity in human history: the Earth's sixth mass extinction. Yet, little is known about the human subjective experience of biodiversity. BIOFICTION explores the significantly understudied topic of how we perceive and portray biodiversity outside of scientific discourse, through the lens of fiction. Tigers, lions and other charismatic megafauna dominate the environmental imagination of children, but is the same true of adults? BIOFICTION uses close-reading and aggregate statistics on species richness in fiction to explore our environmental imagination and biases, which are key for conservation efforts. By including Indigenous fictions and writings from biodiversity hotspots, BIOFICTION elevates marginalized voices. BIOFICTION develops the concept of biodiversity in fiction, mapping it before its scientific conceptualization, resulting in the most comprehensive study on animals in modern fiction and the first book entirely dedicated to biodiversity in fiction. Being an accomplished modernist with five published articles on enumerations of animals in fiction, I am uniquely qualified to lead this project. My supervisor, Professor Horn, is the most qualified to help me extend, connect, conceptualize and develop these findings under the umbrella term ""biodiversity,"" seeing as she is a world leader in ecocriticism and the head of the Vienna Anthropocene network; and accomplished in a complementary modernist field to me. In the face of global warming and unprecedented planetary biodiversity loss, BIOFICTION has urgent implications for how we articulate, value and understand biodiversity richness, outside of scientific discourse."
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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1010 Wien
Austria
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