Zoosemiotics discussed in recent number of Hortus Semioticus journal

Hortus Semioticus has recently released a its 7th journal issue, a zoosemiotics special issue that is also its first after a 10-year hiatus. The journal was originally developed as a student initiative within the department of semiotics at the University of Tartu, and this current edition intends to continue this tradition.

Hortus Semioticus is best characterised as an online open access peer-reviewed journal, aimed at publishing students’ research (Bachelor, MA, and PhD) while also encouraging them to be creative and experimental with their academic work. The journal accepts both Estonian and English language articles, book reviews, and interviews concerned with semiotics.

The earlier Hortus Semioticus issues focused on a wider range of topics, from the relationship between the self and the other, to cultural semiotics, crises, and nature. This current edition, while all the articles follow a zoosemiotic perspective, also covers numerous topics. Yekaterina Lukina deals with social relations between humans and herd animals, while Jaanika Palm discusses the representation of foxes in children’s literature. Mirko Cerrone covers social change and the age language experiments, while Carlos H. Guzmán, Rhea Colaso, and Siiri Tarrikas are all concerned with animal cognition, however each takes a different perspective: Guzmán develops an approach drawing from cultural archetypes, while Colaso focuses on rationality, and Tarrikas investigates ritual and creativity. The issue also has an interview with the department of semiotics head, Timo Maran, in which Pauline Delahaye – from Sorbonne University – inquires about Maran’s book, Ecosemiotics. The Study of Signs in Changing Ecologies, as well as more general aspects of academic life.

The issue was edited by Andrew Mark Creighton, and the members of the editorial board are Eleni Alexandri, Andrew Mark Creighton, Karl Kivastik, Nelly Mäekivi, Katre Pärn, and Keily Tammaru. 

The edition also features art, as Kaustubh Khare contributed an illustration of Timo Maran to accompany Maran’s interview. Further, Eleni Alexandri created the issue’s cover art, which includes the journal’s logo, a “minimalistic tree with roots”. Alexandri is also the most recent student profiled in the Student Showcase section on Hortus Semioticus Blog, a newly created online space for the semiotic community. In this showcase you will find Alexandri’s synopsis, about her experiences as a semiotics student, as well as an explanation of the meaning and thought behind her logo design.
Hortus Semioticus’ blog, edited by Oscar Miyamoto, Carlos Guzmán, Karl Kivastik, Keily Tammaru, and Letícia Vitral, offers students a place to share their nonacademic creative text. A news section, areas to present texts on the popularization of semiotics, and a section to discuss useful tools, tips, etc., for studying and working with semiotics is also integrated into the site. The blog is not peer reviewed and is intended as a more informal place for students, and those generally interested in semiotics, to discuss and learn more about the community.

Both the journal and the blog publish papers on semiotics in Estonian and in English.

Both can be found at www.hortussemioticus.ut.ee, and the current issue can be found at www.hortussemioticus.ut.ee/hortus-semioticus-7-2020/. You are also invited to join our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/hortussemioticus, and submission guidelines for the journal can be found at www.hortussemioticus.ut.ee/guidelines-for-authors.

More information: Andrew Mark Creighton, editor