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Human-Animal Studies Newsletter
September 2018
Dear Colleague,

Welcome to the current issue of the Animals & Society Institute's Human-Animal Studies e- newsletter. I hope that this issue has information that is of use to you. Please let me know what you'd like to see! For future editions of this newsletter, please send submissions to margo@animalsandsociety.org .
ASI News
This month, we are excited to announce two brand new books which resulted, in part, from the author's participation in the ASI-WAS Human-Animal Studies Fellowship! Benedicte Boisseron was a fellow in 2014, while Juno Parreñas was a fellow in 2012. Find out about their books here:

Boisseron, B. (2018). Afro-Dog: Blackness and the Animal Question . Columbia University Press. The animal-rights organization PETA asked “Are Animals the New Slaves?” in a controversial 2005 fundraising campaign; that same year, after the Humane Society rescued pets in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina while black residents were neglected, some declared that white America cares more about pets than black people. These are but two recent examples of a centuries-long history in which black life has been pitted against animal life. Does comparing human and animal suffering trivialize black pain, or might the intersections of racialization and animalization shed light on interlinked forms of oppression? In Afro-Dog , Bénédicte Boisseron investigates the relationship between race and the animal in the history and culture of the Americas and the black Atlantic, exposing a hegemonic system that compulsively links and opposes blackness and animality to measure the value of life. She analyzes the association between black civil disobedience and canine repression, a history that spans the era of slavery through the use of police dogs against protesters during the civil rights movement of the 1960s to today in places like Ferguson, Missouri. She also traces the lineage of blackness and the animal in Caribbean literature and struggles over minorities’ right to pet ownership alongside nuanced readings of Derrida and other French theorists. Drawing on recent debates on black lives and animal welfare, Afro-Dog reframes the fast-growing interest in human–animal relationships by positioning blackness as a focus of animal inquiry, opening new possibilities for animal studies and black studies to think side by side.

Parreñas, J. S. (2018). Decolonizing Extinction: The Work of Care in Orangutan Rehabilitation . Duke University Press. In Decolonizing Extinction Juno Salazar Parreñas ethnographically traces the ways in which colonialism, decolonization, and indigeneity shape relations that form more-than-human worlds at orangutan rehabilitation centers on Borneo. Parreñas tells the interweaving stories of wildlife workers and the centers' endangered animals while demonstrating the inseparability of risk and futurity from orangutan care. Drawing on anthropology, primatology, Southeast Asian history, gender studies, queer theory, and science and technology studies, Parreñas suggests that examining workers’ care for these semi-wild apes can serve as a basis for cultivating mutual but unequal vulnerability in an era of annihilation. Only by considering rehabilitation from perspectives thus far ignored, Parreñas contends, could conservation biology turn away from ultimately violent investments in population growth and embrace a feminist sense of welfare, even if it means experiencing loss and pain.

We are also super excited to call attention to the author of another of this month's new books: Sarah Bezan. Sarah was a participant in the 2018 ASI-UIUC Summer Institute in Human-Animal Studies, and is the co-editor of a new book. Congrats, Sarah!

Bezan, S. and J.Tink, eds. (2018).  Seeing Animals After Derrida . Lexington Books. This volume charts a new course in animal studies that re-examines Jacques Derrida's enduring thought on the visualization of the animal in his seminal Cerisy Conference from 1997, The Animal That Therefore I Am. Building new proximities with the animal in and through - and at times in spite of - the visual apparatus, Seeing Animals after Derrida investigates how the recent turn in animal studies toward new materialism, speculative realism, and object-oriented ontology prompts a renewed engagement with Derrida's animal philosophy. In taking up the matter of Derrida's treatment of animality for the current epoch, the contributors to this book each present a case for new philosophical approaches and aesthetic paradigms that challenge the ocularcentrism of Western culture.

The Animals & Society Institute (ASI) and Wesleyan Animal Studies (WAS) invite applications for the sixth annual Undergraduate Prize Competition for Undergraduate Students Pursuing Research in Human-Animal Studies. ASI and WAS will award a prize to an outstanding, original theoretical or empirical scholarly work that advances the field of human-animal studies. Papers can come from any undergraduate discipline in the humanities, social sciences or natural sciences, and must be between 4,000-7,000 words long, including abstract and references. The winning paper will be published in Society & Animals, an interdisciplinary journal that publishes articles describing and analyzing experiences of and with non-human animals. Topics can include human-animal interactions in various settings (animal cruelty, the therapeutic uses of animals), the applied uses of animals (research, education, medicine and agriculture), the use of animals in culture (e.g. dog-fighting, circus, animal companions, animal research), attitudes toward animals as affected by different socializing agencies and strategies, representations of animals in literature, art, or popular culture, the domestication of animals, the politics of animal welfare, or the constitution of the animal rights movement.
To find out more on how to apply, and who can apply, visit this link. Deadline: November 1, 2018.

As part of our efforts to reach out to students with an interest in human-animal studies, in 2015, ASI created Sloth , a journal for undergraduate students to publish their papers, book and film reviews, and other work. Sloth is an online bi-annual journal that publishes international, multi-disciplinary writing by undergraduate students and recent (within three years) graduates that deals with human/non-human animal relationships from the perspectives of the social sciences, the humanities, and the natural sciences. Sloth showcases the important and innovative contributions of undergraduates, giving those who are interested in human/non-human animal relationships a way to contribute to and engage with the field, as well as an opportunity to build their skills, knowledge, and resumes in anticipation of their graduate school careers. Undergraduate students, or those who recently graduated, are encouraged to submit research papers, film and book reviews, creative writing, and art. Submission and formatting instructions can be found here. Next issue’s submissions due October 15, 2018!
 
We are also looking for Sloth reviewers! Are you interested in becoming a reviewer for Sloth? Reviewers might be asked to look at one or two articles per year, if and when articles come in that match your areas of specialty. If you are interested, please email Joel MacClellan at jmacclellan@gmail.com , and provide your name, contact info and affiliation, and areas that you feel comfortable reviewing.

This week, the 24 th   video in our Defining HAS Video series  is from Richie Nimmo, who has defined the term actor-network theory. Find it here!
 
And don't forget to check out our other videos in the series:
 
1.      Naming the Field by Ken Shapiro
2.      Anthrozoology by Anthony Podberscek
3.      Speciesism by Peter Singer
4.      Intersectionality by Corey Wrenn
5.      Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare by David Favre
6.      Anymal by Lisa Kemmerer
7.      Personhood by Maneesha Deckha
8.      Ethnoprimatology by Agustin Fuentes
9.      Social Constructionism by Constance Russell
10.  Animal Law by David Favre
11.  Art and Animals by Jessica Ullrich
12.  Animal Agency by Sarah E. McFarland
13.  Zoophilia by Andrea Beetz
14.  The Political Turn by Siobhan O’Sullivan
15.  Symbolic Interactionism by Leslie Irvine
16.  Domestication by Timothy Ingold
17.  Animal Rights by H. Peter Steeves
18.  Posthumanism by Elan Abrell
19.  Animal Ethics by Kathie Jenni
20.  Derrida’s Cat by Matthew Calarco
21.  Queer Animality by Joshua Russell
22.  Sentience by Jonathan Balcombe
23.  Anthropomorphism by Robert Mitchell

HAS News
Eckerd College in Florida is hiring an Assistant Professor of Animal Studies!
Animal Studies. Assistant Professor of Animal Studies, tenure-track position, to start in September, 2019. Ph.D. in Animal Studies, Psychology, Biology, or related-field required. Teach seven courses per academic year, including Introduction to Animal Studies, Animal Behavior, Internship in Animal Studies, Senior Capstone, and an elective in area of specialty. To contribute courses to a newly developed program in Animal Studies. Participation in an interdisciplinary, values-oriented general education program is required, including a regular rotation in the two-semester first-year program. Eckerd College, the only independent national liberal arts college in Florida, has a tradition of innovative education and teaching/mentoring excellence. Submit a letter of application, vita, teaching evaluations, statement of teaching philosophy, graduate transcripts, and contact information for three references so that letters of recommendation can be requested, via https://eckerd.hirecentric.com/jobs/. Applications must be complete by November 1, 2018. Inquiries may be sent to Dr. Lauren Highfill, highfile@eckerd.edu. EOE. Applications from women/minorities encouraged . Find out more here!

Two PhD scholarships are available to initiate and conduct research on the topic 'Animals and Urban Planning in India' at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, under the supervision of Dr. Yamini Narayanan. India emerges as a critical site of biodiversity conservation and species-inclusive planning in the Urban Age. India’s scale and speed of urbanisation is almost unprecedented: in the next two decades, India, together with China, is expected to be home to almost a third of the world’s urban population. Due to urban sprawl and the making of large urban conurbations, significant loss of forestland, arable land and green cover has already occurred, and greater erasure, or contamination of diverse and fragile ecologies is predicted, even as cities are increasingly more vulnerable to climate change.
India is also in fact one of the world’s most megadiverse countries, and its cities are home to an incredible array of nonhuman animals, including species that we classify as wild (pangolins, cobras, leopards, crocodiles, sea turtles, vultures), feral (macaques, langurs), commensal (dogs) and commoditised (cows, buffalo, goats, chickens and pigs). As humans are progressively an urban species, so too are nonhuman animals who are ‘urbanised’ by land developments. A large number of biodiversity hotspots are also in or near large Indian cities. However India is already facing rapid loss of urban biodiversity, local extinction of species, and a dramatic escalation of human conflicts with nonhuman animals. The two PhD projects will be part of a larger Australian Research Council funded project that aims to address animals as crucial members of urban societies – rather than only urban ecologies - to conceptualise species-inclusive zoöpolises as cities of the future. In India, animals are enmeshed in urban political economies and societies as actors and stakeholders, from issues of livelihood, urban commons, climate change, to religious and cultural traditions. Many species of animals are also politicised in polarising sectarian, casteist agenda, leading to differential ways in which urban spaces are claimed or lost by both humans and nonhuman animals. The project will examine the everyday realities of diverse animal species and humans who co-inhabit multispecies habitats in ecologically diverse, rapidly growing, medium-sized Indian cities.
The PhD candidates will be based at Deakin University under the supervision of Dr. Yamini Narayanan, and the external supervision from the leading animal geographer Prof. Jennifer Wolch, University of California Berkeley. This research is partially funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council. Applications close 5pm, Wednesday 31 October 2018. Find out more here!

ANIMAL WELFARE: ETHICAL, EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES, Summer School from 25-29 March 2019 in Münster (Westf.), Germany

  • What does it mean for an animal to „fare well“?
  • How can we access animal welfare experimentally?
  • How can we foster animal welfare?
  • Which societal, legal and political expectations and demands should be taken into consideration?
These and other questions will be discussed during the Summer School at the University of Münster (Westphalian Wilhelm University, WWU) in Spring 2019. The Summer School is organised by the Centre for Bioethics, the Institute for Neuro- and Behavioural Biology and the Centre for the Philosophy of Science and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). We invite junior scientists from the behavioural sciences, biology, philosophy, veterinary science, law and social sciences as well as other relevant disciplines to present their theoretical and experimental approaches in 30-45 minute talks and discuss them with experts during the Summer School. Travel costs and costs incurred for board and lodging will be covered by the organisation. Working languages at the Summer School will be English and German. Interested junior scientists are invited to send their applications including a short CV and an abstract of max. 300 words until 21st October 2018 to the following e-mail address:
Centrum für Bioethik
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität
Philipp de Vries
 
Newcastle University hosts a range of seminar series during the academic year 2018-2019. Expressions of interest are now welcome for scholars who are either based in the UK or visiting the UK and who carry out ground-breaking research in the areas of biomedical education, agricultural and food ethics, and animal ethics, as well as on the intersections of these fields. Please send in the abstract (of around max. 500 words) of your proposed presentation by March 2019 to jan.deckers@ncl.ac.uk , as well as an indication of what dates and times might suit you best.

Rebecca Cassidy (anthropology Goldsmiths, University of London) and Garry Marvin (anthropology, University of Roehampton), have a contract with Routledge to edit a book series titled Multi-Species Encounters . There are now many book series out there, exploring the relationships that humans have with other forms of life, each with its particular focus or guiding ethos. This series will also have a guiding academic and intellectual ethos. A key term in the proposed title is ‘ethnographies’. We believe that ethnographic research, long-term, deep, engagement with the lives of those we seek to understand, can produce richly-textured, nuanced, and illuminating interpretive anthropological accounts of those lives. Our interest is to bring those accounts to light in a coherent series. Yes, ‘inter-species’ is a contested term, but we are interested in accounts of how humans experience, engage with, live with, other animals, but also with plants and other living matter. So – our focus will be on ethnographic studies. Such studies will be informed by, and make use of, theoretical perspectives but what will make the series special are accounts of the relationships between humans and other lives that are generated from within particular social and cultural worlds. The editors are now looking for manuscripts that are being worked on, theses that are being transformed, or plans for monographs that are being developed. If you or your colleagues have ideas for a monograph that might fit this series, please get in contact with the editors ( r.cassidy@gold.ac.uk and g.marvin@roehampton.ac.uk ) to discuss ideas and possibilities.
 
The UCLA School of Law Animal Law and Policy Small Grants Program (“Program”) is seeking small grant proposals for its 2018-2019 funding cycle. The program is happy to receive applications as soon as they are ready, but we will not make any offers of funding until we have reviewed all applications after the funding period closes. This Program is designed to support legal and non-legal empirical scholarship to advance animal law and policy reform. To learn more about the Program, including previously funded projects, please use this link.
Applications are welcome from any field as long as the potential application of the research to animal law and policy reform is clear. We have a particular interest in fields such as psychology, including moral psychology, sociology, philosophy, economics, and other social sciences. In addition, this year we are especially interested in empirical research applicable to legal reform focused on animals used in experimentation, animals harmed through pest control or “nuisance wildlife management” activities, and dogs at risk of being classified as “dangerous.” Please be aware that we do not fund any type of research on live animals, and we cannot provide funding to scholars based at institutions outside the United States. We are open to collaborative projects with non-U.S.-based scholars, so long as the principal investigator is based at a U.S. institution of higher education throughout the funding period. Applications must be received by December 1, 2018, via email or mail, for the 2018 application cycle. Awards will be announced by January 15, 2019.
New Books
Following are some of the books coming out that we are excited about!

Bezan, S. and J.Tink, eds. (2018).  Seeing Animals After Derrida . Lexington Books.
Boehrer, B., Hand, M., & Massumi, B. (Eds.). (2018). Animals, Animality, and Literature . Cambridge University Press.
Boisseron, B. (2018). Afro-Dog: Blackness and the Animal Question . Columbia University Press.
Fudge, E. (2018). Quick Cattle and Dying Wishes: People and Their Animals in Early Modern England . Cornell University Press.
Kean, H., & Howell, P. (Eds.). (2018). The Routledge Companion to Animal-Human History . Routledge.
Kogan, L. R., & Blazina, C. (Eds.). (2018). Clinician's Guide to Treating Companion Animal Issues: Addressing Human-Animal Interaction . Academic Press.
Landgraf, E., Trop, G., & Weatherby, L. (Eds.). (2018). Posthumanism in the Age of Humanism: Mind, Matter, and the Life Sciences after Kant . Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Parreñas, J. S. (2018). Decolonizing Extinction: The Work of Care in Orangutan Rehabilitation . Duke University Press.
Thompson, R. (2018). No Word for Wilderness: Italy's Grizzlies and the Race to Save the Rarest Bears on Earth. Ashland Creek Press.


To read about them, visit this link!
New Research
Following are some of the latest research articles in the field of human-animal studies:


Journals
Articles include:
 

Animals , Volume 8 , Issue 9 (September 2018) is out!

Our proposal for a special issue of  Society & Animals   on the theme The Silent Majority – Invertebrates in Animal Studies has been accepted with a projected publication date of the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020. Through our own scholarship and teaching in the field of animal studies, we have been struck by the deeply humanist bias toward vertebrates, in particular mammals, and especially social or domesticated mammals, prevalent in our interdisciplinary field. We would like to push animal studies deliberately and intentionally toward invertebrate species. In so doing we would frame the issue as an intellectual and methodological reckoning that explores what is missing from the field, reasons why this might be so, possible methodological difficulties for scholars in the field of invertebrate animal studies.  We would also like to suggest what is reproduced when we replicate a bias toward vertebrate studies – researchers just fall into the "whole vertebrate-invertebrate divide," as stated by a well-known horseshoe crab conservationist. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, invertebrates make up at least 97% of all animal species on earth. Yet most of the scholarship in animal studies have been investigations of vertebrates. This apparent 'bias against animals without backbones' might indicate what one entomologist has called 'institutional vertebratism' (Leather 2009: 413-14). When this bias is combined with the 'doubly other' status of insects this highlights their otherly status to humans andother animals (Loo and Sellbach 2013:13). In a recent study, a respondent who eats insects captured the nebulous/ambiguous status of invertebrate animals when they suggested insects 'are animals, but not animals like the real animals' (House 2016: 55). A special issue that attends to the 'silent majority' of invertebrate animals (cited in Moore 2017: 166) not only affords colleagues a timely opportunity to critically reflect on what is meant by 'animal' in human-animal studies/scholarship, it also provides a counterbalance to the vertebrate/mammalian focus of animal studies to date. We are proposing an issue that foregrounds invertebrate studies and we would attempt to get representation from as many of the six groups of invertebrates as possible— poriferans (sponges), cnidarians (such as sea jellies and corals), echinoderms (such as sea urchins and sea stars), mollusks (such as octopuses, snails, and clams), annelids (worms), and arthropods (such as insects, spiders, and lobsters). Papers are welcomed from across animal studies, including disciplines such as (but not limited to) geography, entomology, anthropology, sociology, literary studies, religious studies, art history, history, science and technology studies, ethology, psychology, behavioral sciences and ecology, bioscience/biomedical research. Indicative areas include (but are not limited to):
  • Theories and practice around invertebrate studies
  • Working with invertebrates
  • Invertebrates as 'pets'
  • Invertebrates as pests
  • Animal status and invertebrates
  • Tourism and invertebrates
  • Environment and invertebrates
  • Climate change and invertebrate
  • Agriculture and invertebrates
  • Invertebrates in Art, Music, Film and Theater
  • Consumption and invertebrates
  • Rescue movements and invertebrates
  • Biomedicine and invertebrates
  • Animal politics/advocacy and invertebrates
  • Invertebrates and Sanctuary
  •  Invertebrate welfare
  • Attitudes toward invertebrates
We will craft an introduction to this special issue. Our introductory essay would frame the issue of invertebrates in the interdisciplinary field of Animal Studies and why this issue is important for shifting the field. We want to be clear that our gesturing away from vertebrate species does not mean we wish to create a firm boundary – but rather we are gesturing toward an inclusive consideration of all animals in our field. We are seeking 5 articles of 7000 words inclusive of citations and notes (images are also possible but subtract from word count). We are also able to include topical book or film reviews for 1000-word limit. All papers and reviews will be processed through the Society and Animals editorial management system. We will act as administrators of the reviews. Typically, we will obtain two reviews for each paper. Contributors are strongly encouraged to address policy and practice issues suggested by their research. Also, papers must be submitted in the formatting and style of the journal. We would like to receive 150 - 200 word abstracts from interested authors by October 1, 2018. If accepted, full papers will be due by February 1, 2019. After rigorous peer review, publication is expected in late 2019 or early 2020.
Thank you very much,
Lisa Jean Moore lisajean.moore@gmail.com
Rhoda Wilkie r.m.wilkie@abdn.ac.uk


A German-American Journal Issue on Literary Animal Studies has been published: Literatur für Leser , Sonderheft/Special Issue "LiteraTier" ( Heft 3-2016, erschienen/published August 2018)
The Journal Social Sciences will be publishing a special issue, with the theme of: "We are Best Friends": Animals in Society, edited by Leslie Irvine. Friendships between humans and non-human animals were once dismissed as sentimental anthropomorphism. After all, who could claim to be friends with a being who did not speak the same language? Animals’ emotions were also questioned. However, decades of research on the emotional and cognitive capacities of animals have made it possible to recognize human-animal friendships as true relationships involving mindedness on both sides. Friendships with animals manifest many of the same characteristics as friendships between humans. Both parties understand the other as having interests, preferences, and other aspects of subjective experience. Both enjoy the shared presence that friendship entails, with its moments of intersubjectivity that comes with knowing another being. Both friends develop ways of communicating, apart from or in addition to spoken language. Having an animal as a best friend often takes the form of companionship understood as the “pet”, but the relationship comes in other forms, too. People who work with animals often characterize their non-human partners as friends. People who work with search-and-rescue dogs, herding dogs, or police dogs develop, and even depend on, the closeness of best friendship. The same holds for equestrians of all sorts, as horses and riders must understand each other’s bodies and movements intimately. In some situations, animals provide the sole source of affection and interaction in people’s lives. Homeless people who live on the streets with animal companions often develop best friendships largely through 24/7 togetherness. In this light, this Special Issue on humans and animals as best friends seeks to explore the various forms these friendships take. Moreover, it aims to shed light on what these friendships mean for society, broadly construed. In short, how do human-animal friendships, and best friendships, in particular, expand the existing interdisciplinary knowledge of the roles of animals in society? The editor encourages researchers from all disciplines and all methodological and theoretical approaches to submit contributions. Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2019. Find out more here.

The journal Religions will be publishing a special issue on the subject of animals in world religions, to be edited by Dr. Anna Peterson.  In recent decades, nonhuman animals have become an important focus of scholarly work in the humanities and social sciences. Anthropologists, literary scholars, historians, philosophers, and others have examined diverse issues including the significance of animals in art and literature, the role of real animals in economics, politics, and war, human moral attitudes toward animals, and a host of other issues. Animals play an important role in almost all religions, including world religions as well as smaller native traditions. Religious studies scholars have addressed topics such as animal sacrifice, animals in sacred stories and myths, symbolic animals such as totems, animal deities, and animals as moral exemplars or villains. The literature has grown in recent years, but it remains small and scattered. This special issue on animals in world religions aims to explore important and interesting contemporary scholarship on the topic. Our scope is deliberately broad – we hope to receive articles that examine many different religious traditions, in different historical periods and geographic regions. We prefer articles that focus on concrete questions and arguments, rather than on broad surveys or overviews. We also prefer studies that look at the place, treatment, and experiences of real animals in religious communities and practices. Studies of symbolic or mythical animals are also welcome, but we are especially interested in those that add a new dimension to the literature, either by employing innovative theoretical and methodological approaches or showcasing unfamiliar topics. In all cases, the goals are to expand scholarly understanding and knowledge of the important place of nonhuman animals in religious thought and practice.The journal issue will provide a valuable complement to the existing literature, by extending the range of religious traditions addressed, by encouraging innovative approaches, and by focusing on studies of real rather than purely symbolic or mythical animals. Deadline for submissions: March 31, 2019. Find out more here.
 
The field of human-animal interactions and the exploration of new ways in which animals can facilitate physical, social, and psychological well-being are growing rapidly. Much of the research, however, has been applied in nature – focusing on assessing a specific issue or testing the effectiveness of interventions. In contrast, far less research has evaluated the basic psychological processes that underlie human-animal interactions. This work is critical in helping inform existing interventions and creating the foundation for the development of novel treatments. Thus, the aim of this special issue on Basic Social and Personality Psychology Research on Human-Animal Interactions, in the Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin , is to promote and advance research regarding the psychological roots of human-animal interactions from social and personality perspectives. Papers for this special issue may include (but are not limited to) one or more of the following topics: fundamental relationship processes underlying the human-animal relationship; social cognition and perception related to animals; animal stereotyping and discrimination; understanding the role animals play within the self-concept; attitude formation and attitude change in animal preferences; and contagion of emotions between humans and animals. All submissions focusing on basic research and processes underlying human-animal relations from a social and personality psychology perspective (experimental, correlational) will be considered for this the special issue. Although all types of HAIB submissions will be consider for the special issue, preference will be given for empirical and descriptive investigations. Manuscripts should not exceed 8000 words and should conform to the sixth edition of the APA style manual. Manuscripts should be submitted using the regular HAIB online system, specifying that the submission is for the special issue on basic research on social and personality psychology in human-animal interactions. Papers should be submitted by November 30 2018 with reviews to be completed by June 2019. Please direct any inquiries (e.g., suitability, format, scope, etc.) about this Special Issue to the guest editors: Anthony Coy ( coya@usf.edu ) and Christopher Holden ( holdencj@appstate.edu ). Find out more here.
Upcoming Meetings
Are you going to a conference this year? If so, we would love your help with distributing ASI flyers to promote our human-animal studies programs! If you’d like to help, please email margo@animalsandsociety.org . Thank you!

5th International Veterinary Social Work Summit: Animals and Poverty . October 4-6, 2018, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Animals and Us: Research, Policy, and Practice Conference . October 11-13, University of Windsor.

Animal Law Conference . October 12-14, Chicago Marriott, Chicago, IL.

The Animal Conference. October 22-23, Oklahoma City.

IAHAIO symposium. October 24-26, Amsterdam.

British Animal Studies Network Meeting: Animal Machines / Machine Animals. November 2-3, Phoenix Arts Venue, Exeter.

PAWS International Captive Wildlife Conference . November 9-11, Burbank, California.

Equine History Collective Conference . Nov. 30 – Dec. 1,  Cal Poly Pomona.
 
New Directions in Animal Advocacy . December 10-11, Sydney, Australia.

Graduate Workshop: Knowing Through Animals : The Animal Turn in History of Science. February 2, 2019, Center for Science and Society, Columbia University. For more information, email ai2298@columbia.edu.

Canadian Animal Policy Symposium , March 1, 2019, Vancouver, BC.

Living with Animals . March 21-23, 2019, Eastern Kentucky University.

Animal/Language: An Interdisciplinary Conference . March 21-23, 2019, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX. Please submit all questions to animallanguage2019@gmail.com .

British Animal Studies Network Meeting: Emotion . April 26-27, 2019, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
 
Maritime Animals: Telling Stories of Animals at sea . April 26-27, 2019, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, UK.

6 th  Conference of the European Association for Critical Animal Studies (EACAS): “Rethinking revolution: Nonhuman animals, antispeciesism and power. May 22-24, 2019, Barcelona, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Decolonizing Animals: AASA 2019.  June 30 — July 3, 2019, Ōtautahi/Christchurch, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Animal Rights and Animal Politics in Asia: International Convention of Asian Scholars (ICAS 11). July 16-19, 2019, University of Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands.
 
Calls for Papers: Conferences

British Animal Studies Network Meeting: Emotion . April 26-27, 2019, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. If you are interested in giving a paper addressing the topic ‘Emotion’ from whatever disciplinary perspective please submit your title, with an abstract of no more than 200 words and a brief biography (also of no more than 200 words). These should be included within your email – i.e. not as attachments. Please send them to erica.fudge@strath.ac.uk . The deadline for abstracts is January 18, 2019. Presentations will be 20 minutes long and we hope to include work by individuals at different career stages. Sadly we have no money to support travel, accommodation or attendance costs.
Topics covered at this meeting might include (but are not limited to):
·        the history of animal emotions
·        human and / or animal attachments
·        the representation of animal emotion in human art, thought and culture
·        the ethical role of animal emotions (real or represented)
The organizers would welcome papers that deal with such issues in contemporary and historical settings, and would especially like to see papers that address these issues from contexts outside the UK, including the Global South. Papers are welcomed from across animal studies, including disciplines such as (but not limited to) geography, anthropology, sociology, literary studies, art history, classical studies, history, science and technology studies, ethology, philosophy, psychology, behavioural sciences and ecology.
 
Although human exploitation of nonhuman animals is by no means a modern development, it has grown exponentially in the last century. It is under capitalism that human abuse of their power over nonhuman animals has reached a massive scale, with a corresponding massive worsening of its consequences. This includes the suffering of trillions of sentient beings exploited in miserable conditions and killed for trivial purposes in the majority of cases, but also the massive contribution to global warming of industries like agribusiness, as well as the negative impact these practices have on social justice, intra-human violence and human health. The animal liberation movement therefore not only calls for justice and compassion for nonhuman animals, but also confront the results of industrial capitalism and modernity with a radical consciousness-raising claim. This claim is radical because it provides the most accurate condemnation of privilege and the status quo by revealing how inequality does not exist only at the intra-species level, but also at the inter-species level, and that both levels are closely interlinked and thus ought to be addressed jointly. In the spirit of the field of Critical Animal Studies, the aim of this conference is to encourage scholars, students and activists to rethink the revolution that animal liberation theory represents since its inception in the 1970s, a social movement bringing the fight against oppression to its logical conclusion. The conference welcomes proposals from a variety of scholars and disciplines – including critical academics, independent researchers, students and activists – reflecting on the intersecting themes of the conference: power, total liberation and antispeciesism. The conference also welcomes papers focused on any topic critically addressing nonhuman animals’ exploitation from a social science or humanities perspective, for a list of themes please check   http://eventum.upf.edu/go/EACAS2019 . The conference encourages the approach of critical animal studies and non-speciesist perspectives on all sorts of discrimination, oppression and abuse towards farmed animals, animals in labs and animals in entertainment, among others, including animals living in the wild.   Please send your abstracts by December 15 to  cae@upf.edu. All abstracts must be written in English. The conference language is English. Abstracts should include:
  • Abstract Title of 30 words maximum
  • Abstract Text of 500 words maximum
  • A brief biography of the author (150 words maximum) including name, affiliation and contact details
 The number of submitted abstracts per author is limited to two. We strongly encourage submissions by women and other socially underrepresented groups. Decisions on abstracts will be notified by 15 January 2019

 
Co-organizers: Robert W. Mitchell, Radhika Makecha, and Michał Pręgowski.
 
“Living with Animals 4” is an Animal Studies conference about all things animal and human-animal interaction, occurring at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU). EKU, located in Richmond, Kentucky, just south of Lexington, “The Horse Capital of the World,” began offering the first undergraduate degree in Animal Studies in 2010. We offer a Living with Animals conference every 2 years, and are pleased again to have an international set of speakers. The conference is now over three days, March 21-23, 2019. On Sunday, March 24, the day after the conference, we are hoping to have an optional day-long excursion to Salato Wildlife Center, and then to Buffalo Trace Distillery, both in Frankfort, Kentucky, but this is still in the planning stages. The conference centers on our ever-present relationships with animals examined through the arts and humanities, sciences, and applied fields. Consistent with the conference theme, our focus this time around is our diverse relationships with animals. The theme derives from Hal Herzog’s well-known and influential book, Some we love, some we hate, some we eat: Why it’s so hard to think straight about animals . We hope presenters will find the relevance of their topic to the theme, but of course any topic related to animals or human-animal interaction is welcome. The special day-long session, “Living with Horses” , a continuing conference in the Living with Animals conference, is co-organized by Gala Argent and Angela Hofstetter. We are also hoping to attract presenters on the theme of “Living with Insects,” to draw attention to the precarious nature of so many insects in the world today.
 
We have 4 keynotes:
 
  • Hal Herzog is professor of Psychology at Western Carolina University. To find out more about him, see: http://halherzog.com/about/.
  • Marcy Norton is associate professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. Her talk will focus on horse-human interactions in Western Europe and indigenous America between 1500-1800. To find out more about her, see: https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/marcy-norton/.
  • Seth Magle is the Director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. The provisional title of his talk is "Building a global network for urban wildlife research." To find out more about him, see: https://www.lpzoo.org/staff/seth-magle-phd.
  • Clare Rittschof is assistant professor of Entomology at the University Kentucky in Lexington. The provisional title of her talk is “The interwoven social lives of humans and honey bees.” To find out more about her, see: https://clarerittschof.com.

Abstracts of 200 to (approximately) 400 words should be sent to livingwithanimals@eku.edu . The first line of the abstract should be the title of the talk, and the next line(s) should be the authors’ names, positions, affiliations, and email addresses. Following this should be a blank line, followed by the text of the abstract. All should be single spaced. Reference to existing bodies of work might be made. Please also indicate if you would like your presentation to be a talk or a poster , or if you are offering a panel . (We are open to other forms of presentations.) Posters are an excellent way to present some scientific and artistic works, and allow the presenter to engage closely with conference attendees who are most interested by their work. Posters will be available during the buffet lunch on Saturday, 23 March. In addition, provide a one-page CV of your most relevant work and experience. Individual paper presentation time will be 20 minutes, including time for questions. Panels (usually 3 people; maximum time, 1 hour) are welcome. All presentations and panels will be reviewed by the organizers. Abstract submission deadline: December 10, 2018
Calls for Proposals: Books
Submissions are sought from academics, scholars, research aspirants and animal advocates for the edited collection, Approaches to the Literary Animal. The rise and expansion of Animal Studies over the past decades can be seen in the explosion of various articles, journals, books, conferences, organisations, courses all over the academic world. With the publication of Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation in 1975 and Tom Regan’s The Case for Animal Rights in 1983, there has been a burgeoning interest in nonhuman animals among academics, animal advocates, and the general public. Interested scholars recognise the lack of scholarly attention given to nonhuman animals and to the relationships between human and nonhuman, especially in the light of the pervasiveness of animal representations, symbols, and stories, as well as the actual presence of animals in human societies and cultures. Animals abound in literary and cultural texts, either they are animals-as-constructed or animals-as-such. However, we can approach any literary text from a theoretical lens where the representation of nonhuman animals is the main operative analytic frame. In literature nonhuman animals are given the titular role, they carry symbolic function, they speak human language and so on. But these create problematics and bear the politics of representation. Papers should be within 3000-4000 words following the latest MLA style sheet and must have abstract of 250 words with keywords. The papers should accompany relevant endnotes, references and authors’ bio-note. They will be scrutinised and reviewed thoroughly and checked for potential unethical practices. Selected papers will be collected in a book (with ISBN) to be published by a reputed publisher. Submission Deadline: November 30. Submit to: studiesanimal@gmail.com.


As you can see, there is a tremendous amount of activity and progress going on today in the field of human-animal studies, and we always invite your input and participation. Your donation to the Animals & Society Institute will enable us to continue to expand the field in many more ways and work in conjunction with others around the world who share these goals.

Thank you for supporting our Human-Animal Studies efforts!







Margo DeMello
Human-Animal Studies Director
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