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The 6th EACAS conference in Barcelona

We are happy to announce that the 6th European Conference for Critical Animal Studies will take place at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain.

It will be organized by the UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics and the research group CRITICC at the Department of Communication.

Organising committee conists of Núria Almiron, Eze Paez, Catia Faria, Daniela R. Warldhorn and Laura Fernández.

Expected date: 22nd – 24th May 2019
Call opening: 15th September 2018
Call deadline: 15th December 2018
Notifications of acceptance/rejections: 15th January 2019
Online registration opening the 15th January 2019

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Review of the Fifth European Conference for Critical Animal Studies

CfHAS PhD candidate Abi Masefield (UK) offers a review of the recent Fifth European Conference for Critical Animal Studies, held at the Pufendorf Institute, Lund University, Sweden 26-28th October 2017

NONHUMAN ANIMALS IN SOCIETY:
EXPLORING NEW PATHWAYS FOR RESISTANCE, CHANGE, AND ACCOMMODATION

The European Association for Critical Animal Studies (EACAS) www.eacas.eu

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Photo: Terry Hurtado

This was my first Critical Animal Studies (CAS) Conference and set against the backdrop of bright Autumnal Lund I was certainly not disappointed. The stated aim of this conference was to ‘display how scholarly work can contribute to eliminate the domination and oppression of all animals’. It was very much an international event with over 125 people attending from over 19 countries spanning 5 continents, and the event was impressively managed by the 6 strong organizing committee (The full programme can be found at: https://animalsconferencelund.wordpress.com/).

Spread over three full days, the skeleton of the conference was structured around a quartet of key note presentations by Zipporah Weisberg; Jo-Anne McArthur; Erika Cudworth and Matthew Cole; and Volker Sommer. In between these deep-dives, the classical conference structure of parallel panel presentations prevailed to flesh out the content and provide an abundance of opportunities for researchers to both share their work and digest the rich offerings of others. Personally, I had not anticipated just how important the feedback I received following a presentation of my own research (at Edge Hill University – exploring the intersections of coloniality and speciesism in development discourse around tackling hunger and malnutrition and ‘the right to food’ with ‘the right to not be food’) would be in terms of helping me to prioritise the relative significance of certain messages as well as to fire up my motivation.

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Photo: Tereza Vandrovcová

Coffee breaks (known as ‘fika’ in Swedish and sometimes accompanied by a delicious sweet treat to energise participants) often felt too short to continue conversations and a delicious dinner at Kao’s vegan restaurant in Malmo provided a much needed breathing space for further discussion.
Of course, a conference is experienced from specific vantage points. Looking back, this one was nothing less than a richly orchestrated three-day firework display of explosive ideas, sparking questions and colourful interactions. As a researcher embarking on the daunting adventure of a PhD the overall effect was both dazzling and inspiring.

The key note presentations were each fascinating in their own way. However, one in particular stood out by resonating with my own research and introducing me to a key thinker who I had somehow failed to register so far in the wanderings of my literature review. So I am especially grateful to Lund for acquainting me with Erika Cudworth and her insights into the ‘theoretical and political challenges to exclusive humanism’ and the animalization inherent not only in colonialism, but in the entire ‘civilizing process’ in which we are all caught up and thereby alienated from our animal selves. Erika’s paper setting out a ‘posthumanist manifesto’ and call for a ‘strategy of terraism’ starts from both the ‘bodied nature of the human’ and the ‘shrinking of the idea of the human as we know it.’ Needless to say, I have been hungrily exploring her writing in the weeks since the conference.

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Photo: Tereza Vandrovcová

So many other ideas have continued to resonate through my thinking long since the conference ended. Zipporah Weisberg’s discussion of animals’ capacity to care as an additional confirmation of their agency has opened my awareness (as a Terran) in reconnecting with animals. Jo-Anne McArthur’s powerful images have reinforced my appreciation of the requirement to resist the urge to turn away. David Pederson’s ‘Meat-a-Physics’ has made me more determined than ever to better understand meat as a core identifier of humanism. Iselin Gambert and Tobias Linne’s exploration of the entanglement of milk with colonial power and white supremacy drew important connections. And whenever I hear ‘the news’ before long I am reminded of Terry Hurtado’s examination of the connection between dehumanisation and animal suffering in times of war and the characterisation of war as the animalisation of humans (the exclusion of the human enemy from the moral community).

The conference also pushed participants to think more about the potential value of Marxist perspectives for critical animal studies (particularly Adorno with reference to the human’s forgotten ‘likeness to animals’) and invited participants into urban spaces as well as among camel and chimpanzee communities.

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Photo: Tereza Vandrovcová

With the conference drawing to a close, inevitably, and just like every delicious feast, satiation began to set in and I started to realise that my mind was getting tired. But as my youngest daughter always reminds me, no matter how full we may feel, there is always a room for a desert. So, it was with EvaMarie Lindahl’s innovative and deeply moving performance piece, set in the Bishops House gallery and evolving from her practice based doctoral project in which she rewrites art from the perspective of the non-human animals who are standing inside the frame. EvaMarie is a Malmo based artist and doctoral student with the Centre for Human Animal Studies at Edge Hill University. This unexpected experience, transporting those present to an entirely different realm, made the perfect closure for a weary brain, as it spoke to somewhere entirely different – perhaps more embedded in my animal self.

As thoughts turn to the next CAS Conference – Barcelona in 2019 – EvaMarie’s performance also lights up the tremendous creative possibilities presented by the opportunity to go bolder, re-imagine and further de-civilize the very institution of the Conference (carnference?) – one that remains so firmly rooted in the ‘civilizing’ project. To harness the performance itself to contribute to destabilising the classical divides of human and animal, mind and body, theory and practice, academic and activist that gave rise to the birth of Critical Animal Studies in the first place.

But before time moves on, what remains to be said is one final and truly heartfelt THANK YOU to Lund for making possible an unforgettable exchange with such wonderful people. This conference was a special moment – the sort that occur only occasionally in life, but will be treasured for long after.

Abi Masefield (PhD Candidate, Centre for Human-Animal Studies, Edge Hill University, UK)
January 2018

CFP: (Un)common worlds: Contesting the limits of human–animal communities

Human–Animal Studies Conference — 7–9 August 2018 Turku, Finland

 

The Finnish Society for Human-Animal Studies (YKES) is proud to organize the first international Human-Animal Studies conference held in Finland.

Keynote speakers are Erica Fudge (University of Strathclyde), Jamie Lorimer (University of Oxford) and Helena Telkänranta (University of Bristol and University of Helsinki)

The deadline for abstracts: February 28, 2018.

Conference website: https://uncommonworlds.wordpress.com/

 

Conference call:

Humans and other animals share spaces and create communities together. They touch each other in various symbolic and material ways, constantly crossing and redrawing communal, ethical and very practical boundaries. As of late, this multifarious renegotiation of human-animal relations has sparked intense debates both in the public arena and in academia.

For instance, Bruno Latour argues that the anthropocene (marking the massive human impact on ecosystems) creates a new territory in which traditional subject/object separations are no longer useful. What is called for is the transgressing or dissolving of these limits in order to “distribute agency as far and in as differentiated a way as possible” (Latour 2014, 16). Various inclusive, more-than-human notions, such as ‘cosmopolitics’ (Stengers 2010) or ’common worlds’ (Latour 2004) are brought forward to this end. These discussions highlight what is becoming a core challenge for various disciplines and fields of study: how to live together in complex places, spaces and societies, with intersecting and overlapping borders and traces of cultures, histories and politics. Furthermore, the discussions bring forth the question of how to work against the premises of exclusive human agency and interest in order to explore and imagine multispecies futures.

However, the various conceptualisations of inclusive, common worlds entail a risk of disregarding or devaluing that which is not shared: the aspects of multispecies lives that cannot be or become common but that nevertheless matter for shared existences. There is also the issue of becoming “common” – of territorialisations and inclusions of some beings to the exclusion of others. What will remain the “uncommon” (i.e. unconventional) in common worlds? Moreover, are common worlds envisaged as free of political struggles and borders? What are the politics of becoming common and remaining uncommon?

With this Call we invite you to discuss and develop ideas about human-animal worlds both common and uncommon. We invite presentations to this interdisciplinary conference from various fields, including but not limited to social sciences, law, arts and humanities, and natural and environmental sciences. We also invite artists to present their work. If you are interested in this option, please contact the organizers to discuss your ideas.

 

Submission guidelines

Please send your abstract (max. 250 words) by e-mail to uncommonworlds2018@gmail.com no later than February 28, 2018. Please include in your submission the title of your presentation, your name, affiliation, and contact information. We will notify you of acceptance on March 2017.

 

Conference costs and registration

Registration for the conference opens in March 2018.

Early bird registration fees (until 31 May 2018) are 110 Euros for members of the society, 130 Euros for non-members, and 90 Euros for students.

Late bird registration fees (until 31 July 2018) are 130 Euros for members of the society, 150 Euros for non-members, and 110 Euros for students.

The conference fee includes refreshments during the conference. Conference dinner is subject to an additional fee.

 

About the Finnish Society for Human–Animal Studies

The Finnish Society for Human–Animal Studies is a scientific association that brings together researchers in the multidisciplinary field of human–animal studies in Finland. Founded in 2009, the society has since organized six annual national human–animal studies conferences. The society is a member of the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. For more information, please visit: https://elaintutkimus.wordpress.com/finnish-society-for-human-animal-studies/.

 

Please feel free to circulate this to anyone who might be interested!

CFP: 2nd International Symposium on Veganism and Law 22nd and 23rd of July 2017 Berlin, Germany

Call for Papers

**DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: April 7th, 2017**

Veganism is rapidly growing in popularity but how are vegans supported by our laws and equality measures or the regulations and polices that they influence? Whilst the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission states that veganism comes within the scope of protection of human rights and equality measures, veganism in other countries is regarded to be largely exempt from such protection.

In the recent past, vegan lawyers have successfully litigated in cases concerning discrimination against vegans and some countries, such as Italy and Portugal, have made attempts to obtain legal protection for the dietary aspect of veganism.

In 2016, an All Party Parliamentary Group was established in the UK to give a voice to the demands of vegans; Jeanette Rowley published a chapter in Critical Perspectives on Veganism arguing that veganism is transformational for the exclusivity of human rights; Italian Carlo Prisco published The Right to Vegetarianism and Ralf Müller-Amenitsch published Vegan im Recht in Germany.

This growing area of interest is critical to the development and well-being of the global vegan community and has enormous potential for animal rights. In 2017 and onwards, we expect to see more vital and informative work in this area.

Building on our first international Symposium on The Right to a Plant Based Diet, and our concluding Declaration that veganism comes within the scope of various human rights principles and provisions, this Symposium asks further questions about veganism in law. Its aims are to examine the strengths and limits of international and regional laws for veganism and vegans, to highlight the value that legal protection for veganism can bring to nonhumans and to explore how vegan rights can contribute towards the end of speciesist prejudice. For more detailed information on the call please see http://www.theivra.com/symposium-2017.html

Call for contributions: Animal Liberation and Pedagogy

Deadlines: 28. February 2017 Outline + Bio | 30. April 2017 Contribution

Vegan educators are invited to contribute to this volume of essays on animal liberation and pedagogy. For the purposes of this book, the term ‘educator’ is very loosely defined and does not only refer to professionals in teaching positions. This project invites anybody who sees themselves as a facilitator of knowledge, be they teachers, authors, artists, activists or anybody else who is in a position to offer a platform for knowledge exchange in a private or public setting (including parents and guardians, key workers, public speakers, etc.).

The book hopes to serve as a platform for the exchange of practical tools, including revolutionary communication skills and radical approaches to pedagogy, all of which should incorporate a thematisation of animal liberation, speciesism or animalisation/dehumanisation amongst humans. Through this, it shall serve as a critique of and counterbalance to neoliberal education and its adherence to a mostly binaristic, white, heteronormative, masculinist, Euro- and anthropocentric curriculum.

Preference will be given to essays that critique the predominantly Eurocentric neoliberal, white, masculinist approach to (teaching) animal liberation, and/or to essays that present or imagine alternatives to dominant approaches in animal liberation in an educational context.

Contributions could address, but are not restricted to, the following areas:

– teachers as activists and activists as teachers

– pedagogical approaches to communicating animal suffering

– the ethics of teaching animal liberation (e.g. to children or when using imagery of animal suffering)

– animal oppression as part of a larger system of injustice (e.g. discussions of kyriarchy, or intersectionality if not appropriated by white contributors)

– teaching animal liberation (antispeciesism, veganism) as resistance to imperialism, racism, misogyny, genderism, heteronormativity, ableism, classism etc.

– animal liberation in an indigenous and anticolonialist / decolonialisation context

– teaching animal liberation in an interdisciplinary context (e.g. through a combination of science and art)

– making animal liberation relevant in specific subjects (e.g. Food Technology; Critical Food Studies; Media Studies; International Relations; Gender Studies; Disability Studies etc.)

– introducing veganism into non-animal-centered movements (e.g. doing vegan outreach in some form or another within feminism, queer communities, Antifa, BLM, occupy, environmentalism etc.)

– being a vegan pedagogue in a context that is hostile towards vegans

– teaching animal liberation under government repression (i.e. anti-terror laws, military regime etc.)

– teaching animal liberation from a marginalised position

Please outline your proposed work in 500 words and add a few lines about yourself to the proposal email. Contributions will be chosen in January and the final pieces could have a word count between 2500 and 7000 (please include a roughly estimated word count in your outline).

The English used in the essays should be as accessible as possible. Personal accounts, letters, diary entries, are welcome as are critical and academic analyses, however when theory and/or jargon is used it should be explained in the text itself or a glossary. If footnotes are used, please include them on the page they refer to.

Email Dr Agnes Trzak | a.trzak@gmail.com

CFP Animal Liberation in Pedagogy Extended

Zoopolis event at University of Winchester, England.

Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka are coming to the University of Winchester to discuss their book Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights on Monday, 6 June, 10.00-15.00.  Joining them on the panel will be

Sabina M. Lovibond, Emeritus Fellow of Worcester College, University of Oxford

Alasdair Cochrane, Senior Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Sheffield

Kay Peggs, Professor of Sociology and Animal Studies, University of Winchester

Thomas Nørgaard, Director, Institute for Value Studies, University of Winchester

The event is free will be small in scale (to facilitate discussion) so places are limited.  To register please get in touch with Madelaine Leitsberger:

M.Leitsberger.15@unimail.winchester.ac.uk

 

Call for papers: Critical Animal Studies Europe

Dear colleagues and friends,

The third European Conference of Critical Animal Studies, which took place in Karlsruhe, Germany, in November 2013, co-organized by the Institute of Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis, was dedicated to the relation between critical animal studies and technoscientific developments. The conference engendered a number of fruitful debates among the participants which we are now hoping to evidence and extend with an anthology of texts on the subject. We therefore invite all participants of the conference, as well as other CAS scholars working with the theme to which the conference was dedicated, to submit a paper for the book “The Challenge of Technoscience and Critical Animal Studies” (working title), eds. Arianna Ferrari and Kris Forkasiewicz.

If you would like to submit a paper, please indicate your interest with an (updated) abstract of approx. 250-500 words via email to arianna.ferrari@kit.edu before 15 April 2014. Those who will be invited to contribute a chapter to the volume are asked to send in their full paper before 30 September 2014.

The length of your paper should be approximately 5000-7000 words (including references and footnotes).In case you would like to include pictures, graphs and tables, please shorten the text accordingly or ask the editors for further information. Please find attached a pdf version of this call for papers with the abstract of the book.

We are much looking forward to hearing from you.

we are letting the cfp as pdf circulate, please write me if you want also the complete pdf withh the abstract of the book

Please help us to let this cfp circulate among scholars!

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