An ethics scholar who converses with animals
Rosalyn Berne
Rosalyn's Gift
TBA.
As an academic, Rosalyn W. Berne, holds the Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professorship of Applied Ethics and chairs the Department of Engineering and Society in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Virginia. She co-directs the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science (OEC), and directs the University of Virginia’s Engineering Character Strength Initiative (ECSI). She earned her PhD in Religious Studies, and, as a scholar, explores the intersecting realms of emerging and converging technologies, science fiction and myth, and the links between the human and non-human worlds. Berne’s most recent book-length publication is an edited volume called Animals, Ethics, and Engineering: Intersections and Implications (2025). Other scholar books include Creating Life from Life: Biotechnology and Science Fiction (2014) and Nanotalk: Conversations with Scientists and Engineers about Ethics, Meaning and Belief in the Development of Nanotechnology (2006). Two award-winning books in the body/mind/spirit genre are When the Horses Whisper (2013); and Waking to Beauty (2016). She's also written the SF novel, Waiting in the Silence (2012).
Rosalyn Berne's personal life has been enriched by communicative encounters with a variety of animals, and inspiring communications from the Great Mother – Earth.