Research Interests
I am an environmental philosopher. In my research I have been focusing, on the one hand, on different themes in environmental ethics such as biocentric perspectives on moral standing and concepts such as natural otherness and biodiversity.
- The moral standing of non-human beings, particularly biocentrism ('political non-ranking biocentrism') and ‘problem-cases’ such as insects and microbes
- Conceptual questions about biodiversity, natural otherness, etc.
- The ethics of biodiversity conservation and species extinctions
- Land-use, new technological developments (gene drives, de-extinction) etc.
On the other hand, I also have an interest in green political theory, such as questions of interspecies and (intra-human) environmental justice and what this implies for sustainability and just conservation.
- Environmental & interspecies justice
- Just distribution of ecological space, reparative justice, political participation etc. in the context of conservation
- Responsibility and burden-sharing
- Property rights
- Sustainability, sustainable development, resilience
Background
At the beginning of 2023 I joined the Dynamic Territory project as a postdoctoral researcher. Previously I was a postdoctoral researcher in philosophy at the University of Zurich, Switzerland (2019-2022), and I taught political science modules at Keele University, UK (2018-2019). In 2018 I was awarded a PhD in Political Theory from the University of Manchester, UK. Currently, I am also an associate editor for Environmental Values.
Publications
A list of my publications (including links), details about previous projects and selected contributions for a broader audience (videos and blogs in English and German) can also be found on my personal webpage.
Wienhues, Anna; Luuppala, Linnea; and Deplazes-Zemp, Anna (2023) ‘The Moral Landscape of Biological Conservation: Understanding Conceptual and Normative Foundations‘ [research paper] Biological Conservation 288 (December), 110350.
Wienhues, Anna; Baard, Patrik; Donoso, Alfonso; and Oksanen, Markku (2023) ‘The Ethics of Species Extinctions’ [overview review article]. Cambridge Prisms: Extinction.
Wienhues, Anna (2023) ‘Environmental Philosophy in Context‘ [editorial] Environmental Values 32(6) December 2023, 675-682.
Wienhues, Anna (2023) ‘Wilderness, Morality, and Value, by Joshua S. Duclos, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2022’ [book review] Environmental Values 32(5), 671-673.
Wienhues, Anna (2022) ‘Changing Values and Valuing in Conditions of Environmental Change‘ [editorial] Environmental Values 31(4), 375-380.
Wienhues, Anna and Deplazes-Zemp, Anna (2022) ‘Otherness-based Reasons for the Protection of (Bio)diversity’ [research article]. Environmental Ethics 44(2), 161-184.
Wienhues, Anna (2022) ‘Looking Through the Microscope: Microbes as a Challenge for Theorising Biocentrism within Environmental Ethics‘ [research article]. Endeavour 46 (1-2), Special Issue on ‘The Microbiome and its Challenges for the Environmental Ethics’, 100819.
Wienhues, Anna (2022) ‘Respecting the Nonhuman Other: Individual Natural Otherness and the Case for Incommensurability of Moral Standing’ [research article]. Environmental Values 31(6), 637-656.
Wienhues, Anna (2021) ‘The Innocent Mosquito? The Environmental Ethics of Mosquito Eradication’ [book chapter] in Mosquitopia? The Place of Pests in a Healthy World edited by Marcus Hall and Dan Tamir. London: Routledge.
Wienhues, Anna (2021) ‘Zwischenartliche Gerechtigkeit und das Insektensterben: Wann handelt es sich beim Artentod um eine Ungerechtigkeit?’ [research article]. Tierstudien 20 (Extinction), 89-99.
Wienhues, Anna and Hirth, Steffen (2021) ‘Intensive Animal Agriculture, Land-use and Biological Conservation: Converging Demands of Justice’ [conference proceedings] in Justice and Food Security in a Changing Climate edited by Hanna Schübel and Ivo Wallimann-Helmer, Wageningen Academic Publishers, 277-282.
Wienhues, Anna (2020) Ecological Justice and the Extinction Crisis: Giving Living Beings their Due. [book] Bristol: Bristol University Press.
Wienhues, Anna (2020) ‘Disentangling Different Forms of Justice’ Commentary on Treves et al. on ‘Just Preservation’ [commentary]. Animal Sentience 27(21).
Wienhues, Anna (2018) ‘Situating the Half-Earth Proposal in Distributive Justice: Conditions for Just Conservation’ [research article] Biological Conservation, 228C, 44-51.
Wienhues, Anna (2018) Life in Common: Distributive Ecological Justice on a Shared Earth. [PhD Thesis] University of Manchester. Faculty of Humanities.
Wienhues, Anna (2017) ‘Sharing the Earth: A Biocentric Account of Ecological Justice.’ [research article] Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 30 (3), 367-385.
Wienhues, Anna (2016) ‘Half-earth: Our planet’s fight for life, by Edward O. Wilson, New York and London, Liveright publishing corporation, 2016, 259 pp.,’ [book review]. Environmental Politics, 25 (6), 1162-1164.