Ante Ursić is a circus pratictioner and PhD candidate at the University of California, Davis. His dissertation investigates  human-animal relationships in contemporary circus. He is especially interested in  the aesthetic-political sphere and explores how it  relates to different understandings of animality. As a circus artist, he was awarded  a gold medal from the festival SOLyCIRCO and a special prize from the festival Cirque du Demain.  He has successfully produced projects of his own and in collaboration. He performed with established  companies such as Cirque du Soleil (Totem), Tiger Lillies Circus, Balagan, and  Circus Roncalli.  Mr. Ursić   holds a Bachelor of Dance, Context, Choreography with distinction  from Inter-University Center of Dance, Berlin,  and a distinguished  Master’s degree  in Performance Studies from New York University. His research has been supported by the German Academic Exchange Program, the Social Science Research Council, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among others.