Myles Oakey

I am an Early Career Researcher in the School of Humanities at the University of Sydney and a research member of the Sydney Environment Institute (SEI). My research is situated in the broad field of the environmental humanities, but emerges at the intersection of multispecies studies, science and technology studies, philosophical ethology, and extinction studies.

My research critically engages with various epistemic practices within the natural sciences, particularly ecological and ethological literatures, to explore their world-making effects in the context of endangered-species conservation and extinction. My most recent work explores how animal behaviour shapes and is shaped by ecological and social environments, attending to the various ways in which the social and cultural behaviours are both embodied and emplaced in multispecies contexts.

My PhD research, The Death of a Songbird: Listening to Worlds in their (Un)Making focused on the conservation efforts for the regent honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia), a critically endangered songbird endemic to the southeast of Australia.

Areas of Expertise

Environmental Humanities

Multispecies Studies

Science and Technology Studies

Philosophical Ethology

Extinction Studies

Recent Projects

van Dooren, Thom, Matthew Chrulew, Myles Oakey, Sam Widin, and Drew Rooke. 2025. "Animal Cultures at the Edge of Extinction." Theory, Culture & Society 42 (2): 3-23.
(Q1 journal)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02632764241280346

van Dooren, Thom, Zoë Sadokierski, Myles Oakey, Timo Rissanen, Samuel Widin, and Ross Crates. (2024). “A bird, a flock, a song, and a forest: The decline of Regent Honeyeater life”. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 35 (1-2): 39-48

Multimedia project (desktop only)

https://www.curatorium.au/taja-journal/form-content/a-bird-a-flock-a-song-and-a-forest

van Dooren, Thom, Catherine J. Price, Peter B. Banks, Oded Berger-Tal, Matthew Chrulew, Jane Johnson, Gabrielle Lajeunesse, Kate E. Lynch, Clare McArthur, Finn C. G. Parker, Myles Oakey, Benjamin J. Pitcher, Colleen Cassady St. Clair, Georgia Ward-Fear, Sam Widin, Bob B. M. Wong, and Daniel T. Blumstein. 2023. "The ethics of intervening in animal behaviour for conservation." Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 38 (9): 822-830.
(Q1 journal)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534723000915

Recent non-traditional research outputs

Animal Tales “The Papuan Hornbill” – Myles Oakey

Audiovisual work available to listen to at:

https://animaltales.com.au/stories/papuan-hornbill

This is an interactive, multimedia, storytelling project that explores the strange and fascinating lives of animals. This project brings together an assortment of animal stories inspired by the collection of the Chau Chak Wing Museum, the University of Sydney

Myles Oakey

myles.oakey@sydney.edu.au