Vesna Liponik is a research assistant at the Institute of Philosophy at ZRC SAZU and a PhD student at the ZRC SAZU Postgraduate School. In her master's thesis she analysed the (non)trope of anthropomorphisation. Her research interests range across the connections between politics, ontology and aesthetics, as well as literary theory and stylistics. She is particularly interested in the transformations of the concepts of 'animal' and 'human' in contemporary philosophy and aesthetics. She is writing her dissertation under the supervision of Dr. Marina Gržinić Mauhler.
Articles (selection)
The Tropological Animal: Beyond the Body and the Sovereign, Filozofski vestnik, 2023, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 239–263.
Animals As Conflicts, Filozofski vestnik, 2024, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 223–250.
Grušovnik, Tomaž, Liponik, Vesna. Animal Ethics and Aesthetics Revisited: Distant Proximity, JAHR: European Journal of Bioethics, 2023, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 87–103.
Monographs and chapters in monographs
We Have Always Been Grotesque. In: Marjetka Golež Kaučič (ed.), Saša Babič (ed.). Animals in Focus. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2025, pp. 32–52.
Vičar, Branka, Liponik, Vesna. The anthropocene poetics of Uroš Prah: trans-corporeal subjectivity and marginal places. In: Godlewicz-Adamiec, Joanna (ed.), Piszcatowski, Paweł (ed.). Re-thinking agency : non-anthropocentric approaches. Göttingen: V&R Unipress: Brill, Culture - environment - society, vol. 3., 2024. pp. 403–417.
Zoo photography tips. In: Đurđević, Goran (ur.), Levanat-Peričić, Miranda (ed.), Marjanić, Suzana (ed.). Ekokritika : između prirode i kulture. Zadar: Sveučilište u Zadru, 2024. Vol. 1, pp. 311–325.
Editorial work
2024– member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Filozofski vestnik.
2023 – guest editor of the special issue of Anthropos: Journal of Philosophy and Psychology, entitled Animal (Dis)entangled or towards ‘A New Form of Civilization’
Education
2022 – Master’s Degree in Comparative literature and literary theory, and Slovene studies, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of Comparative Literature and Literary Theory and Department of Slovene Studies, Anthropomorphisation: a critical analysis of a (non)trope, mentors: Dr. Vanesa Matajc and Dr. Alojzija Zupan Sosič.
Fellowships
2024 (8 February - 9 March) - Visiting Fellow at Newcastle University, Department of Philosophy; Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle University, School X, Department of Philosophy, United Kingdom.
Employment and titles
2022– Research Assistant, Institute of Philosophy, ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, mentor: Dr. Marina Gržinić Mauhler.
Prizes, awards and scholarships
Awards
– Nahtigal Prize of the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana for the best final thesis – for the Master's thesis Anthropomorphisation: a critical analysis of a (non)trope (2022).
Lectures and conference papers (selection)
#TeamGodzilla, Non–human, all too human: on animals, monsters and other others, International Conference on Philosophy and Experimental Theory, Ljubljana, 5 March 2025.
Animal ethics as an issue : the case of animal resistance. Current issues of animal ethics, International conference, Maribor, Slovenija, 13 December 2024.
On anthropomorphism, or rather anthropomorphisation, CTP Lecture (Critical Theory and Practice) Newcastle University, School X, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, 4 March 2024.
Animals Are Rational, MLitt Lecture, Newcastle University, School X, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, 21 February 2024.
What counts is music, sex and the understandable self-evidence of zebras crossing the Savannah, The Factual Animal, Audiovisual Representations of Real Other-than-Human Animals, International Conference, Valencia, Spain, 29 November 2023.
The uncanny animal, To be continued? ... Philosophy and Psychoanalysis Today, International Conference and Workshop, Ljubljana, 15 November 2023.
From the menacing multitude to the somatic power of political flesh, Kinship in Crisis, Research Symposium, Liverpool, United Kingdom, 7 June 2023.