Multispecies Collective Reading Group

All our welcome at the Multispecies Collective Reading Group where we discuss some of the most topical issues concerning multispecies flourishing.

Our reading group is our flagship gathering where our members meet our network to discuss texts that inspire us to think toward better futures.

You are welcome to join us in person or online.

Theme

Taking Interspecies Communications Seriously (in conversation with whales and Project CETI)

We will be discussing our theme, chosen by our network, through engagement with two texts and in conversation with special guest Fiona Korwin-Pawlowski who joins us from Project CETI. Together, the readings and conversation will explore important questions about what it means to communicate across species boundaries, how humans recognise and interpret nonhuman meaning, and the possibilities and limitations of different approaches to understanding other animals.

Special Guest

We are very excited to hold this reading group in conversation with whales and Fiona Korwin-Pawlowski from Project CETI.

Fiona Korwin-Pawlowski is Chief Strategy and Programs Officer at Project CETI, a nonprofit organization and National Geographic Society program on a mission to listen to and translate the communication of whales in the Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica. She has over 20 years of experience building programs and partnerships within the social impact space. At Rihanna's Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF), which funds and supports climate resilience and climate justice projects in the U.S. and Caribbean, Fiona served as the organization’s lead on programs and grantmaking and managed partnerships, communications and campaigns from 2016-2022. During her tenure at CLF, the foundation received a variety of honors including selection as one of Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas for its Climate Resilience Initiative. 

A specialist in developing structure and strategy for new organizations and initiatives, before joining the CLF team Fiona developed UNICEF USA’s first corporate disaster response program. In her previous roles with Global Citizen, she led nonprofit partnerships, international advocacy campaigns and event production. Committed to storytelling as a tool for social change, in 2011 Fiona co-founded Project Istwa, a nonprofit organization that produced Photovoice (photography and writing) and youth development workshops across Haiti. She is co-founder of the production, experiential and branding house, Owl Bridge Media (OBM) where she supports the company as an advisor on social impact projects. Fiona has a BA in Politics from Oberlin College and an MS in Global Affairs focused on International Development and Humanitarian Assistance from New York University. Her thesis and companion photobook Having A Voice: Communication between Residents and Organizations in IDP and Refugee Camps was a best thesis nominee. She is a member of the Operation Triple Threat Board of Directors.

Learn more about Fiona’s work with the CETI project in an interview available here.

Texts

You are very welcome to join us whether you are able to read both texts, just one of them, or none at all!

Reading

• César Rodríguez-Garavito, David F Gruber, Ashley Otilia Nemeth and Gasper Begus, 'What If We Understood What Animals Are Saying? The Legal Impact Of AI-assisted Studies Of Animal Communication’ (2025) 52(1) Ecology Law Quarterly

• Serena Jampel, ‘Are Whales Trying to Tell us Something?’ (The Harvard Crimson, 26 October 2024) <https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/10/26/project-ceti-translating-whales-scrutiny/> accessed 13 August 2026

Optional further resources:

• 'Listening to Our Animal Kin: Legal & Ethical Principles for Nonhuman Animal Communication Technologies' (NYU More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program) <https://www.ouranimalkin.com/> accessed 13 August 2026

• 'He Whakaputanga Moana: The Whale Protection and Legal Personhood Declaration’ (released 5 February 2026, signed 28 March 2024) <https://www.whaledeclaration.com/> accessed 13 August 2026