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Dr Rick De Vos serves as Senior Research Officer in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry and Adjunct Research Fellow in the Centre for Culture and Technology within the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University. He earned his PhD from Murdoch University, BA from Curtin University, and BLitCom. His academic career includes positions as Lecturer in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth from 1998 to 2000; Lecturer in the School of Arts at Murdoch University from 2000 to 2001; Lecturer in the Department of Communication and Cultural Studies at Curtin University from 2002 to 2005; Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University from 2005 to 2011; Adjunct Research Fellow in the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts at Curtin University from 2012 to 2015; and Adjunct Research Fellow in the Centre for Culture and Technology at Curtin University from 2016 to present. Previously, he coordinated the Research and Graduate Studies Programs at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University.
Dr De Vos specializes in research on anthropogenic extinction, particularly its cultural and historical significance and the ways it is articulated and practiced. He is a member of the Extinction Studies Working Group. His key publications include editing the book Decolonising Animals published by Sydney University Press in 2023, which examines the effects of colonial structures on nonhuman animals. He co-edited the special issue Extinction: Stories of Unravelling and Reworlding in Cultural Studies Review in 2019 with Matthew Chrulew. Other notable works feature essays in Knowing Animals (2007), Animal Death (2013), Extinction Studies: Stories of Time, Death and Generations (2017), The Edinburgh Companion to Animal Studies (2018), Animal Studies Journal (2014-2017), Cultural Studies Review (2019), and a/b: Auto/Biography Studies (2020). He is currently working on a book project titled Extinction: Culture and Practice, exploring the cultural significance of extinction, its discursive functions, and its role in shaping species histories. His scholarship contributes to animal studies and environmental humanities, addressing how cultural practices influence understandings of past and present extinctions to inform responses to future ones.