Adam Cardilini PhD » Team

Adam Cardilini is an ecologist and conservation social scientist focussed on properly considering animals in research and society.

Adam is interested in transparently reporting the subjective experiences of animals in science and society, and whether taking an animal perspective can influence our beliefs and behaviours towards animals. He uses systematic review and social science methods to do for animal use in biomedical research, conservation biology, and animal agriculture. Adam intentionally collaborates with philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, and other discipline experts, to foster interdisciplinary thinking about animals and challenge conventional wisdom within the sciences.

Adam trained as a biologist and ecologist at Deakin University, Melbourne Australia, and completed a PhD in ecological genetics from 2011-2016. During his PhD Adam was exposed to, and participated in, ecological and conservation practices that made him question prevailing conservation ideology which positions animals as objects and consider how our science would change if we recognised them as subjects. The discovery of alternative ethical models for considering animals and new approaches to conservation, e.g., compassionate conservation, have helped Adam realign his research to centre animals. Working with other PAN network members, Adam is investigating 1) what it looks like to practice compassionate conservation particularly in situations of ethical conundrums, and 2) developing methods to quantify and share the impact that conservation has on individual animals.

In his role as Lecturer of Environmental Science at Deakin University, Adam teaches sciences students Communicating Science Ideas and Science & Society. He uses these teaching opportunities to foster students critical thinking about science and to expose science students to concepts from humanities disciplines. Adam worked in the area of learning design for several years after his PhD and hopes to use the skills he’s developed to create accessible and scaffolded learning experiences that centre animals.