Encountering Extinction: A talk by author Dolly Jørgensen

In the halls of natural history museums all over the world, you can peer through the glass and come face-­to-­face with the ghosts of extinction. Extinction has been going on as long as there has been biological life—in fact over 99% of all species that have ever existed on Earth are extinct--but extinction usually happen at a slow place. We are now, however, living through the Sixth Mass Extinction, with species rapidly going extinct because of human actions. These are the ghosts of extinction that now make their homes in the museum.

In this talk based on her new book Ghosts Behind Glass, Dolly Jørgensen takes visitors with her to encounter the extinct. Journeying through the halls of over 80 museums worldwide, she identified trends, similarities, and differences in display techniques and storytelling with remains of the extinct. In conversation with the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology’s own displays, listeners will learn about the challenges of encountering extinction and the potential for them to raise awareness of the connections between humans and nonhumans over time.

Dolly Jørgensen is Professor of History at the University of Stavanger in Norway, specializing in environmental history and environmental humanities. Her current research agenda focuses on cultural histories of animals. She has published three books: Ghosts Behind Glass: Encountering Extinction in Museums (University of Chicago Press, 2025), The Medieval Pig (Boydell, 2024) and Recovering Lost Species in the Modern Age: Histories of Longing and Belonging (MIT Press, 2019).

This talk is taking place in the Whale Hall of the Museum of Zoology. Doors open at 6.45pm, with the talk beginning at 7pm.

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Host or Publisher Cambridge University Museum of Zoology