I conduct research in animal studies and anthropogenic extinction, and have published widely on the cultural and historical significance of extinction, the ways in which extinction is articulated and practiced, and on colonial and species histories. I am currently working as a research assistant on the ARC Discovery project Living Together: New Approaches to Multispecies Conflict and Coexistence at Curtin University, and the ARC Linkage project Extinction Imaginaries: Mapping Affective Visual Cultures in Australasia at RMIT. I am also a series editor for Sydney University Press' Animal Politics series.
New Book
DECOLONISING ANIMALS
Sydney University Press, 2023
https://sydneyuniversitypress.com.au/products/180327
This collection brings together critical interrogations, case studies, and creative explorations that identify and examine the ways nonhuman animals have been affected by and responded to historical and ongoing colonial structures and processes, the ways in which Indigenous and non-indigenous scholars, artists and activists have questioned colonial ways of knowing, engaging with and representing animals, and that suggest how humans can decolonise their relationships with nonhuman animals and with each other.
BOOK PROJECT
EXTINCTION: CULTURE AND PRACTICE
This project considers the cultural significance of extinction, and how extinction functions discursively in dialogue with other aspects of cultural life. It examines the ways in which extinction has shaped the species histories of specific groups of nonhuman animals, and the ways in which extinction has been culturally produced, practiced and disseminated in response to the disappearance of these groups of animals. The research is instigated by two principal questions:
• What does extinction mean to us and how do we practice it culturally?
• How can we better recognise and understand past and present extinctions in order to respond to them more effectively and anticipate and prevent future extinctions?
MISION
BA (Curtin), BLitCom, PhD (Murdoch)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5738-9518
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=5PQctfYAAAAJ
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-de-vos-extinction1936
https://twitter.com/RickDeVos01
VISION
- 2025 - present: Senior Research Officer, School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Curtin University
- 2025 - present: Research Assistant, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT
- 2012 - 2025: Adjunct Research Fellow, Centre for Culture and Technology, Curtin University
- 2005 – 2011: Senior Lecturer, Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Curtin University
- 2002 – 2005: Lecturer, Department of Communication and Cultural Studies, Curtin University
- 2000 – 2001: Lecturer, School of Arts, Murdoch University
- 1998 – 2000: Lecturer, Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of Wales, Aberystwyth