Stephanie Jane Cussans Moran
Fellow
Stephanie Cussans Moran is an ecological researcher and visual artist who works across industry and academia. She is personally motivated by the sense of urgency gained from her biodiversity research with a focus on molluscs and recent work in the arenas of national policy and disinformation. Stephanie's AHRC-funded PhD about human visual bias in narrative drew on zoological and literary research, and she was a Fellow with John Pfeiffer's Freshwater Mussel Biodiversity and Conservation Lab at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, in 2022. Her collaborative project, ISCRI, with art collective 0rphan Drift and digital consultancy Etic Lab in partnership with the Serpentine Gallery's Creative AI Lab speculatively designed an AI that might communicate non-verbally with an octopus in the sea. Stephanie's work as a Disinformation Analyst has meanwhile given her a keen sense of digital vulnerabilities and the increasing importance of improving social cohesion. Stephanie was a board member of the Innovation Advisory Council for Wales (IACW) 2022-2024 and has been Art Editor of peer-reviewed open access journal The Ecological Citizen since 2017.
*2024-5: Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Fine Art, Brno University of Technology, Czechia *2022-5: Disinformation Analyst, Pattrn AI *2022: Research Fellow in Invertebrate Zoology, The National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
EDUCATION *PhD in Transtechnology Research, University of Plymouth, UK, 2023 *MFA Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2014 *Postgraduate Diploma Fine Art, Cyprus College of Art, Cyprus, 2003 *BA(Hons) Fine Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2000
- Freshwater mussel biodiversity and conservation;
- Ecological psychology of cephalopods and mussels;
- Molluscs in Bronze Age Minoan art and rituals
- Cultural and ecological rituals and symbolism of Minoan Crete and Central Europe
- Biodiversity and climate disinformation
Publications prior to joining the RIFS
- Hogan, A.; Moran S.C.; Hogan K., Barker B., Woodall R. 2024. Can websites reveal the extent and degree to which a business's values reflect national policy? A text embeddings approach. In: 6th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2024). Valencia, 26-28 June 2024. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2024.2024.17801
- Hogan et al. 2023. 'Welsh Digital Maturity Survey 2023'. Commissioned by the Welsh Government.
- 'What can art do for ecological thinking?' The Ecological Citizen 5(2): 103-8. July 2022.
- 'The Octopus and the Artificial Intelligence', The Marine Biologist magazine (Marine Biological Association UK), July 2021. With Maggie Roberts.
- 'Exploring the Pluriverse: Fictioning, Science and Interspecies Communication', Ecocene: Cappadocia Journal of Environmental Humanities, July 2021. With Maggie Roberts.
- 'Communicating Between Two Alien Intelligences Through Art', Art Machines 2, Hong Kong. With Maggie Roberts. July 2021.
- 'Octopus Optics and Mussel Memories: communicating and contextualising mollusc conservation research through artistic projects outside the museum', Euromal 2024, the 10th European Congress of Malacological Societies. Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
- 'Parasitic Visuality: Computer Vision AI and Freshwater Mussels.' POM [Politics of Machines] Aachen 2024.
- 'Rethinking Communication with Other Life Forms', The Marine Biologist Deep Dive, The Marine Biological Association UK, Plymouth. Youtube interview with Dr Kevin Hogan (Etic Lab) and Guy J. Baker, Editor The Marine Biologist magazine. November 2021.
- 'Strange Relations: Exploring Interspecies Communication through AI and the Arts', FIBER Festival, Netherlands. With Maggie Roberts. November 2021.
- 2022: AHRC-Smithsonian IPS Fellowship
- 2018-2023: AHRC PhD funding