Sophia Efstathiou

Om

I work across philosophy of science, applied ethics and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) topics, exploring how science can responsibly respond to complex societal challenges including climate change, health justice and food system transformation. My current research projects explore concepts of meat as animal-based, and human-animal relationships around food-making.

Inspired by feminst pedagogies, I am developing art-based approaches to philosophy and Art, Science and Technology Studies. The Science Humanities and Arts Knowledge Exercises (SHAKE) mix the format of serious games and performance to elicit thinking through feeling - see my personal website for more.

During 2020-2024 I am leading the four-year KLIMAFORSK project MEATigation: Towards sustainable meat-use in Norwegian food practices for climate mitigation. The project is a collaboration across the Social Sciences Humanities and Arts and Norwegian business and cultural actors with the aim to explore and transform Norwegian food practices towards reducing meat use. (1.5M euro)
- You can listen to my argument for 'How industrialised meat production is ironically facilitating the end of meat', here --Thank you to my hosts -- CONEF: Configuring Environment and Food: Critical Techno-Scientific Networks and the Agri-food Sector in Greece, and the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
During 2021-2024 I am also leading part of the three-year HORIZON 2020 project ISEED: Inclusive Science and European Democracies. The project joins EU and Latin American partners to explore what we might learn from engaging people in citizen science to engage people in inclusive knowledge-based democratic deliberation in Europe (2.7M euro)
During 2024-2027 I am leading part of the three-year European Joint Programming Initiative 'A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life', FOODRECTEC project comMEATted: Committed to the responsible development of meat replacement products and practices - Comparing multidimensional barriers and potentials in European countries (1.2M euro)

I hold a first Master of Physics degree in Mathematics and Physics (Warwick, 2000), an MA in Philosophy (2006) and PhD in Philosophy and Science Studies (2009) from University of California, San Diego on The use of race as a variable in biomedical research.

My work uses analytic, empirical and award-winning artistic research methods, and has been supported by EU, NSF, Max Planck and White funding, invited by the Athens Biennale (2012, 2018), Ars Electronica (2020), Cornell Biennial (2020) and presented at the Society for Artistic Research (2023).

Publikasjoner

Meat we don’t greet: How ‘sausages’ can save pigs or how effacing livestock makes room for emancipation

I propose that the intensification of meat production ironically makes meat concepts available to be populated by plants. Technologies of effacement facilitate intensification by blocking face-to-face encounters between animals and people.

2025

Efstathiou, Sophia. (2025) The Debate on Human Enhancement and Transhumanism.
Annen presentasjon
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2025) Rethinking Sustainable Meat: Recognise, Replace and Refine. Routledge Routledge
Vitenskapelig antologi/Konferanseserie
Efstathiou, Sophia; Koshy, Mrudhula Soe; Pandit, Avijit Vinayak. (2025) Starting from hopelessness – grand challenges, sustainable development goals, and responsible research and innovation under urgency and uncertainty. Journal of Responsible Innovation
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2025) Keep it ‘Natural’, ‘Wild’, ‘Organic’ and ‘Pure’: Thick Concepts Crossing Nazi Art, Science and Environmental Policy. Food Ethics
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Korsnes, Marius; Efstathiou, Sophia; Veine, Sven; Loeng, Martin; Papalexandri-Alexandri, Marianthi; Grandis, Giovanni De. (2025) Losing control, learning to fail: leveraging techniques from improvisational theatre for trust and collaboration in transdisciplinary research and education. Global Social Challenges Journal
Vitenskapelig artikkel

2024

Efstathiou, Sofia; Roe, Emma. (2024) The eat-er and the fed-er: Feeling, feeding and livestock in morethan-animal worlds.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Palmer, Helen Suzanne; Efstathiou, Sofia; Lykknes, Annette. (2024) Towards more culturally aware teaching of ‘scientific practices’: Understanding science as a social-historical human endeavour. Nordic Studies in Science Education (NorDiNa)
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Johannessen, Vilde; Giæver, Fay; Efstathiou, Sophia; Russell, Sally. (2024) Emotion regulation of sustainability professionals facing adversity. Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO)
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Kanerva, Minna; Efstathiou, Sophia; Béné, Christophe. (2024) Editorial: How to achieve a planetary health diet through system and paradigm change?. Frontiers in Sustainability
Vitenskapelig artikkel

2023

Efstathiou, Sofia; Martín, Rebeca Ibáñez. (2023) For the love of meat: A conversation. Consumption and Society
Vitenskapelig artikkel

2021

Efstathiou, Sophia. (2021) Meat we don’t greet: How ‘sausages’ can save pigs or how effacing livestock makes room for emancipation.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Morris, Carol; Kaljonen, Minna; Aavik, Kadri; Balázs, Bálint; Cole, Matthew; Coles, Ben. (2021) Priorities for social science and humanities research on the challenges of moving beyond animal-based food systems. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Vitenskapelig artikkel

2020

Efstathiou, Sophia; Börjessen, Johan. (2020) Beyond Measure: Art and knowledge in the age of over-measuring. Trondheim Kunstmuseum Trondheim Kunstmuseum
Vitenskapelig antologi/Konferanseserie
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2020) Measuring the Everyday in Science: Found Science by analogy to Found Art.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Swierstra, Tsjalling; Efstathiou, Sophia. (2020) Knowledge repositories. In digital knowledge we trust. Medicine, Health care and Philosophy
Vitenskapelig artikkel

2019

Pérez, Elena; Efstathiou, Sophia; Swierstra, Tsjalling. (2019) Getting our hands dirty with technology -The role of the performing arts in technological development. Peripeti
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2019) Facing animal research: Levinas and technologies of effacement.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia; Nydal, Rune; Lægreid, Astrid; Kuiper, Martin. (2019) Scientific knowledge in the age of computation: Explicated, computable and manageable?. Theoria. An international Journal of Theory, History and Foundations of Science
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia; Korsnes, Marius; Gabrielsen, Ane Møller; Finstad, Terje; Giæver, Fay; Driessen, Clemens. (2019) lnvestigating the elasticity of meat consumption for climate mitigation: 4Rs for responsible meat use.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel

2018

Murray-Leslie, Alexandra; Efstathiou, Sophia; Teran, Michelle; Haykowsky, Mika; Brunner, Johanna; Einarsdottir, Unnur Andrea. (2018) ALL WOMEN’S NETWORKED JAM SESSION (AWNJS).
Scenekunst
Efstathiou, Sophia; Myskja, Bjørn Kåre. (2018) Appreciation Through Use: How Industrial Technology Articulates an Ecology of Values Around Norwegian Seaweed. Philosophy & Technology
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2018) Im Angesicht der Gesichter: Technologien des Gesichtsverlusts in der Tierforschung.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel

2017

Efstathiou, Sophia. (2017) Performance and Philosophy of Science: Trashfiguring Epistemic Cultures Through the Performance Art of FYTA.
Faglig kapittel

2016

Grandis, Giovanni De; Efstathiou, Sophia. (2016) Introduction: Grand challenges and small steps. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Leder
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2016) Genetics and Racial Minorities in the United States.
Leksikonartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2016) Is it possible to give scientific solutions to Grand Challenges? On the idea of Grand Challenges for life science research. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Vitenskapelig artikkel

2015

Efstathiou, Sophia; Grandis, Giovanni De. (2015) Joint first editors of a Special Section on "Interdisciplinary Integration: The Real Grand Challenge for the Life Sciences?". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Leder

2014

Efstathiou, Sophia; Mirmalek, Zara. (2014) Interdisciplinarity In Action.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel

2012

Efstathiou, Sophia. (2012) Beauty and health as medical norms: The case of Nazi medicine.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2012) The Nazi Cosmetic: Medicine in the Service of Beauty. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2012) How Ordinary Race Concepts Get to Be Usable in Biomedical Science: An Account of Founded Race Concepts. Philosophy of Science
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Nydal, Rune; Efstathiou, Sophia; Lægreid, Astrid. (2012) Crossover Research: Exploring a Collaborative Mode of Integration.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel

2011

Cartwright, Nancy; Efstathiou, Sophia. (2011) Hunting causes and using them: Is there no bridge from here to there?. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science
Vitenskapelig artikkel

Tidsskriftspublikasjoner

Efstathiou, Sophia; Koshy, Mrudhula Soe; Pandit, Avijit Vinayak. (2025) Starting from hopelessness – grand challenges, sustainable development goals, and responsible research and innovation under urgency and uncertainty. Journal of Responsible Innovation
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2025) Keep it ‘Natural’, ‘Wild’, ‘Organic’ and ‘Pure’: Thick Concepts Crossing Nazi Art, Science and Environmental Policy. Food Ethics
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Korsnes, Marius; Efstathiou, Sophia; Veine, Sven; Loeng, Martin; Papalexandri-Alexandri, Marianthi; Grandis, Giovanni De. (2025) Losing control, learning to fail: leveraging techniques from improvisational theatre for trust and collaboration in transdisciplinary research and education. Global Social Challenges Journal
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Palmer, Helen Suzanne; Efstathiou, Sofia; Lykknes, Annette. (2024) Towards more culturally aware teaching of ‘scientific practices’: Understanding science as a social-historical human endeavour. Nordic Studies in Science Education (NorDiNa)
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Johannessen, Vilde; Giæver, Fay; Efstathiou, Sophia; Russell, Sally. (2024) Emotion regulation of sustainability professionals facing adversity. Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO)
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Kanerva, Minna; Efstathiou, Sophia; Béné, Christophe. (2024) Editorial: How to achieve a planetary health diet through system and paradigm change?. Frontiers in Sustainability
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sofia; Martín, Rebeca Ibáñez. (2023) For the love of meat: A conversation. Consumption and Society
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Morris, Carol; Kaljonen, Minna; Aavik, Kadri; Balázs, Bálint; Cole, Matthew; Coles, Ben. (2021) Priorities for social science and humanities research on the challenges of moving beyond animal-based food systems. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Swierstra, Tsjalling; Efstathiou, Sophia. (2020) Knowledge repositories. In digital knowledge we trust. Medicine, Health care and Philosophy
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Pérez, Elena; Efstathiou, Sophia; Swierstra, Tsjalling. (2019) Getting our hands dirty with technology -The role of the performing arts in technological development. Peripeti
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia; Nydal, Rune; Lægreid, Astrid; Kuiper, Martin. (2019) Scientific knowledge in the age of computation: Explicated, computable and manageable?. Theoria. An international Journal of Theory, History and Foundations of Science
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia; Myskja, Bjørn Kåre. (2018) Appreciation Through Use: How Industrial Technology Articulates an Ecology of Values Around Norwegian Seaweed. Philosophy & Technology
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Grandis, Giovanni De; Efstathiou, Sophia. (2016) Introduction: Grand challenges and small steps. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Leder
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2016) Is it possible to give scientific solutions to Grand Challenges? On the idea of Grand Challenges for life science research. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia; Grandis, Giovanni De. (2015) Joint first editors of a Special Section on "Interdisciplinary Integration: The Real Grand Challenge for the Life Sciences?". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Leder
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2012) The Nazi Cosmetic: Medicine in the Service of Beauty. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2012) How Ordinary Race Concepts Get to Be Usable in Biomedical Science: An Account of Founded Race Concepts. Philosophy of Science
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Cartwright, Nancy; Efstathiou, Sophia. (2011) Hunting causes and using them: Is there no bridge from here to there?. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science
Vitenskapelig artikkel

Kunstneriske produksjoner

Murray-Leslie, Alexandra; Efstathiou, Sophia; Teran, Michelle; Haykowsky, Mika; Brunner, Johanna; Einarsdottir, Unnur Andrea. (2018) ALL WOMEN’S NETWORKED JAM SESSION (AWNJS).
Scenekunst

Bøker

Efstathiou, Sophia. (2025) Rethinking Sustainable Meat: Recognise, Replace and Refine. Routledge Routledge
Vitenskapelig antologi/Konferanseserie
Efstathiou, Sophia; Börjessen, Johan. (2020) Beyond Measure: Art and knowledge in the age of over-measuring. Trondheim Kunstmuseum Trondheim Kunstmuseum
Vitenskapelig antologi/Konferanseserie

Del av bok/rapport

Efstathiou, Sofia; Roe, Emma. (2024) The eat-er and the fed-er: Feeling, feeding and livestock in morethan-animal worlds.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2021) Meat we don’t greet: How ‘sausages’ can save pigs or how effacing livestock makes room for emancipation.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2020) Measuring the Everyday in Science: Found Science by analogy to Found Art.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2019) Facing animal research: Levinas and technologies of effacement.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia; Korsnes, Marius; Gabrielsen, Ane Møller; Finstad, Terje; Giæver, Fay; Driessen, Clemens. (2019) lnvestigating the elasticity of meat consumption for climate mitigation: 4Rs for responsible meat use.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2018) Im Angesicht der Gesichter: Technologien des Gesichtsverlusts in der Tierforschung.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2017) Performance and Philosophy of Science: Trashfiguring Epistemic Cultures Through the Performance Art of FYTA.
Faglig kapittel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2016) Genetics and Racial Minorities in the United States.
Leksikonartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia; Mirmalek, Zara. (2014) Interdisciplinarity In Action.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Efstathiou, Sophia. (2012) Beauty and health as medical norms: The case of Nazi medicine.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel
Nydal, Rune; Efstathiou, Sophia; Lægreid, Astrid. (2012) Crossover Research: Exploring a Collaborative Mode of Integration.
Vitenskapelig Kapittel/Artikkel/Konferanseartikkel

UTSTILLING

Efstathiou, Sophia. (2025) The Debate on Human Enhancement and Transhumanism.
Annen presentasjon

Undervisning

I contribute to the mandatory Humanities Faculty courses

HFO1004 The Human Era? // Menneskets Tidsalder?
- Topic: Animals in the Anthropocene
HFO1003 Diversity and Integration: Transcultural dynamics // Mangfold og integrering: Transkulturelle dynamikker
- Topic: Found Science – Addressing ‘racial’ health disparities and other societal challenges scientifically

Veiledning

I supervise Masters and PhD projects within history and philosophy of science and applied ethics, with a focus on sustainability, food and animal studies.

Formidling

MOREMEATLESSMEAT

The MOREMEATLESSMEAT exhibition (Trondheim Kunstmuseum 15.02 -01.05.23) curated by the Center for Genomic Gastronomy and Chicks on Speed was an art-science collaboration in MEATigation www.meatigation.no w chef Heidi Bjerkan, and Stephen Barstow.

PODCAST on PLANTIFICATION

In this podcast MEATigation members Arve Hansen, Ulrikke Wethal, Sophia Efstathiou and Johannes Volden discuss the pressing need for us to reconsider our relationship with meat, particularly in light of its significant impact on climate change.