Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Welcome to the Animals & Society Institute's monthly Human-Animal Studies Report.

As we at ASI prepare to celebrate our 40^th anniversary, it is worthwhile to note just how far the organization and the field of HAS have come. A key gauge of this growth is that this may well be one of the most full, and thus longest, and Human-Animal Studies (HAS) Reports yet!

As noted below, ASI is making its mark with programs and initiatives having global impact on both scholarship and the broader awareness of our effects—positive and negative—on nonhuman animal welfare and wellbeing.

Growth in the HAS field itself is apparent in the wealth of job and funding opportunities, and books and articles from HAS-related and other diverse publishers and journals show that interest in our relationships with nonhuman animals are very much at the fore. And if one good thing has come out the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the profusion of HAS-related material now being shared in the format of podcasts and webinars. 

Your ongoing support of ASI and our Human-Animal Studies efforts continue to enable us to have these positive results. 

Stay healthy and safe, and do what you can to protect those you can.

Best,

Gala

Editor’s note: The HAS e-newsletter is organized as follows: Jobs, grants, and calls are ordered chronologically by deadline dates, with the earliest first, and will continue to be posted until the deadlines expire. Books and articles include, where possible, links to access them directly from this email. Because publication reference styles vary by source, they might not always be consistent or pretty, but they will get you there. To read more about the topics discussed, click the bold hyperlinks for source material and additional information. 

Please send your comments, suggestions, and submissions to: [email protected], and if possible include a URL link to your project or announcement.





As ASI looks to celebrate our 40th anniversary year starting Fall 2023, this is a time of change and opportunity. With that being said, ASI’s Board of Directors are pleased to welcome Elijah Brice-Middleton as our new Executive Director. Elijah joins us from Plainfield Area Humane Society and was previously a fellow at Metro Denver CAT and the lead admissions counselor at the Animal Care Centers of NYC. 

ASI is also pleased to welcome Susan McHugh as Editor-in-Chief of our managed journal, Society & Animals. Susan assumes the position after serving as the Humanities Managing Editor for the journal. She is a Professor of English at the University of New England, where she teaches writing, literary theory, and animal studies. She is the author of Love in a Time of Slaughters: Human-animal Stories Against Extinction and Genocide (2019) and Animal Stories: Narrating across Species Lines (2011) and a large number of co-edited volumes and scholarly articles. Dr. McHugh would like authors interested in having their recently published books considered for review in Society & Animals to have a copy sent to: Susan McHugh, SAH, Marcil Hall, University of New England, 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, ME 04005 USA.

ASI Board President Kenneth Shapiro presented on ASI’s BARK Diversion Program at a "Lunch and Learn" session with Counseling for Change, in New York, on April 5, 2023. ASI offers a number of resources for professionals in law enforcement as well as social workers, mental health providers, and others interested in reducing violence towards animals and people to promote the human-animal bond. Find information on BARK (Behavior, Accountability, Responsibility, and Knowledge: An Intervention Program for Animal Maltreatment Offenders)™ and other resources from mental health practitioners here.

The recording of last month’s online Animals & Society Colloquium Series presentation by Dr. Lindsay Palmer, “Kicking the Dog: The Endorsement of Hegemonic Masculinity Predicts the Endorsement of Aversive Training Techniques” is now available. The presentation garnered registrants from 38 countries and lively discussion. Over 130 people attended and 456 registered in order to receive the recording. The Animals & Society Colloquium Series is an ongoing collaboration between ASI and the American Sociological Association’s, Animals and Society Section.

Our upcoming Animals & Society Colloquium Series presentation will take place on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET / 6:30pm BST, and is entitled, “Animal Cultures: A Paradigm for Determining What Matters to Animals.” Presenting this colloquium will be Isabella Clarke, whose work explores animal cultures and critical aspects of animals’ existence. In this presentation, Clarke argues that, while humans may never be able to speak for animals, we can learn to speak with them, and suggests ways we can seek to better embrace and support nonhuman animals. Register at the link above.

ASI’s 2019 International Development Program grant awardee, The University of Lisbon’s HAS-Hub, will co-host an international seminar alongside the Envisioning Sustainability Hub titled, “Multispecies Justice, Resilience, and Sustainability.” The seminar will take place on June 1, 2023 and will feature a discussion from Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Jeff Sebo. 



The April LINK-Letter about animal cruelty’s intersections with child, elder and domestic abuse covers, among other topics: New Mexico has become the 49^th state to outlaw bestiality. Three key Link bills are in the Delaware state legislature. And a new textbook can help children when animal abuse occurs. 

The Society & Animals article “Horse Riders’ Perceptions of Communication with Horses and How it Translates to Communication with Family” by A. M. Scholtz, V. Koen and C. M. Oosthuizen is now available free access for a limited time. The study’s findings “reveal similarities between the communication that takes place between the participants and horses, and between the participants and their family members.  These similarities make it possible for the communication in one context (with horses) to be translated to the other context (with family members), and the findings suggest that such a translation is possible and is supported by the systems theory.”

Dr. Lisa Kemmerer’s recent book, Vegan Ethics: AMORE—Five Reasons to Choose Vegan, is currently available for free on Amazon as a Kindle edition e-book. The book explores the many reasons why the number of vegans grows each year—animal well-being, human health, human oppressions (world hunger, labor, sexism, racism, classism, ableism, ageism, homophobia, and trans aggression), religious commitments, and the health of the planet. 

A recent article, “Why do animals living with humans evolve such similar features? A new theory could explain ‘domestication syndrome’” explores a new explanation focused on big changes in the way domesticated animals live.

The first global census of wild mammal biomass, conducted by Weizmann Institute of Science researchers reveals the extent to which our natural world—along with its most iconic animals—is a vanishing one. The new report shows that the biomass of wild mammals on land and at sea is dwarfed by the combined weight of cattle, pigs, sheep, and other domesticated mammals. 

The latest issue of the ASI-managed Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 26(2), is now available with the following articles:

Companion Animal 

Community Programming for Companion Dog Retention: A Survey of Animal Welfare Organizations

Amanda Russo, Seana Dowling-Guyer & Emily McCobb

Factors Contributing to the Satisfaction of Animal Shelter Volunteers: The Importance of Voice

Laura A. Reese, Jacquelyn Jacobs & Tessa Grebey

Lawns Too Hot for Dogs in Warm Weather

Paul Hudak

Population Dynamics of Community Cats Living in a Tourist Area of Onomichi City, Japan, before and after the Trap-Test-Vaccinate-Alter-Return-Monitor Event

Aira Seo, Yoshihide Ueda & Hajime Tanida

Citizens’ Beliefs Regarding Dog Breed-Specific Legislation. The Case of Romania

Ruxandra Malina Petrescu-Mag, Dacinia Crina Petrescu & Ancuta Radu Tenter

Farm 

An Estimation of Lameness in Sable Island Horses Using Radiographic Evaluation of the Distal Phalanx and Hoof Capsule

Martha A. Mellish, Zoe N. Lucas, Sarah M. Puchalski & T. Alexandra Kusch

Effect of Topical Spray Containing Lidocaine on Piglet Behaviour Post castration

Meghann K. Pierdon & Sara E. Berdahl

Environmental enrichment strategies for weaned pigs: Welfare and behavior

Larissa Braganholo Vargas, Fabiana Ribeiro Caldara, Isabella Cristina de Castro Lippi, Geyssane Farias de Oliveira, Agnês Markiy Odakura, Maria Fernanda de Castro Burbarelli, Rodrigo Garófallo Garcia, Ibiara Correia de Lima Almeida Paz & Luan Sousa dos Santos

Enriched environment during adolescence modulates lipid metabolism and emotion-related behaviors in mice

Ling Xu, Ming Jiao, Ze-Lin Cui, Qing-Ya Zhao, Yan Wang, Shu Chen, Jun-Jie Zhang, Yin-Hui Jin, Di Mu & Yu-Qin Yang



Zoo/Wildlife 

Social Dynamics of a Newly Integrated Bachelor Group of Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus): Welfare implications

Amy L. Schreier, Taylor S. Readyhough, Anneke Moresco, Maura Davis & Sharon Joseph

Using Anticipatory Behavior as Preference Test in The Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

Stefano Bigiani & Cristina Pilenga

The Effects of Choice-Based Design and Management on the Behavior and Space Use of Zoo-Housed Amur Tigers (Panthera tigris altaica)

Charles P. Ritzler, Kristen E. Lukas, Laura M. Bernstein-Kurtycz & Diana C. Koester

The ASPCA announces the following opportunities for speakers and research funding in animal welfare:

ASPCA-AAWA Research Forum

• The ASPCA is accepting speaker abstracts (due May 12) for the 3^rd annual virtual Research Forum, to be held November 1 in partnership with the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement. If your research has direct, practical implications for improving the welfare of animals in shelters and/or communities, please consider submitting your proposal for a 30-minute live virtual presentation plus Q&A. Click the “Submit a proposal” link on the event page above.

• If you would simply like to attend (which is free, and open to all), you can sign up on the event page to be notified when registration opens later this year.

The ASPCA has announced $390,000 in grant funding that will be available to U.S. and Canadian organizations to support research that either directly or systemically has the potential to benefit animals, with a focus on projects that examine access to veterinary care, applied behavior, cruelty, and psychological trauma. The deadline for proposals is July 31, 2023. 

The ASPCA Open-Access Publishing Fund, designed to support the broad dissemination of high-quality research in animal welfare by covering article processing costs in open-access journals. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis.

The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at the North Carolina State University Libraries and the Culture & Animals Foundation (CAF) are offering the third annual Tom Regan Visiting Research Fellowship. The Fellowship supports the use of the SCRC’s Animal Rights Archive—the largest scholarly archive of animal rights collections in the country—and provides a $5,000 stipend for research complete in residence for a term of no less than four weeks to begin on or after July 1, 2023. The deadline for applications is April 30, 2023. 

Tiny Beam Fund - a small US-based charitable foundation - is offering fellowship and research planning grant funds to academic researchers interested in drivers and negative impacts of large-scale, industrial animal agriculture, especially concerning LMICs (low- and middle-income countries). Applications should address the “Burning Questions” list. The deadline for applications is June 8, 2023. 

Eckerd College invites applications for a visiting Assistant Professor position in Animal Studies to start in Fall 2023. This position is for one year, but there is the possibility a similar tenure track position will become available. Applications will be reviewed starting April 1, 2023, but the position will remain open until filled.

The Department of Comparative Pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University invites applications for two faculty positions in Human-Animal Bond(HAB): 1) HAB faculty at the rank of Assistant/Associate Professor in human-animal bond; rank to be commensurate with experience, and departmental appointments to align with candidate's expertise and interests, and 2) HAB-AMR faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor with a research focus in infectious diseases with antimicrobial resistance at the human-animal interface. Review of applications began February 15, 2023 and will continue until the positions are filled. For more information please contact Dr. Hsin-Yi Weng at [email protected].

Carroll College invites applications for a one-year full-time Visiting Professor of Anthrozoologywith a focus on canine science, canine behavior, and canine training, with an emphasis on learning theory to start August 2023. The successful applicant will be responsible for teaching classes in Canine Science and Canine Training and mentoring undergraduate students in the broader field of Anthrozoology. The deadline is March 1, but the positions will remain open until filled.

Saint Francis University, located in Loretto, PA, is searching for an adjunct instructor to teach in a new fully online minor: Animal-Assisted Health and Education. Courses are to be taught asynchronously, over 8-week modules in the fall and spring semesters. Candidates should have experience with the delivery of animal-assisted interventions and with online asynchronous teaching. Master’s degree or higher in a related field is required. Please send a letter of interest, a CV and an official transcript to: [email protected] No deadline given.





This section includes both upcoming live events, and past events that were recorded.

The Center for Animal Law Studies will host a webinar titled, “The Global Impact of your Advanced Degree in Animal Law” on April 20, 2023 at 12pm PT. This webinar will discuss ways in which international students can use their advanced degrees in animal law to make an impact in their home countries. 

The online webinar, Interspecies Perspectives on Decent Work: Inequalities and New Solidarities in Work Between People and Equids, will take place on May 24 and June 1, 2023, and welcomes proposals for “traditional” academic/practitioner presentations (15 mins), & for shorter “provocations” (5 mins). The deadline for submissions is April 28, 2023. 

In the webinar titled, Big Brains in Small Spaces: The Impact of Captivity on Cetaceans, Lori Marino discusses the welfare of whales in captivity and provides an update on a planned whale sanctuary in Nova Scotia.  

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Exchange hosted the webinar, “Assistance Animals and Fair Housing: Navigating Reasonable Accommodations” to educate housing providers and others involved in housing transactions, as well as persons with disabilities, who seek reasonable accommodations related to assistance animals.

Episode 52 of Knowing Animals’ Protecting Animals series interviews activist and Managing Director of Mercy for Animals, AJ Albrecht.  

In Episode 099 of Transforming Trauma, Philip Tedeschi, clinical professor and Founder of the Institute for Human-Animal Connection, shares how his path originally started in the veterinary field with a passion for animals, and explores ways to enhance our well-being through the human-animal connection. 

In Episode 21 of The Anthrozoology Podcast: Discussing Humanimality, Therese Lillesköld discusses the issue of animal hoarding and research she has conducted on animal hoarding in Sweden. 

Episode 92 of Always for Animal Rights interviews Richard White about vegan anarchist geographies, veganism as prefigurative praxis, and Critical Animal Studies.

Just Wondering’s recent animated video release, Into the Planthroposcene - together with the the photosynthetic ones, explores the relationships we have with the photosynthetic ones - those being thanks to whom we can breathe, and thus, be alive, and pushes us to explore other ways of being human and thus disrupt colonial and anthropocentric understandings of what plants are.

As part of The Brooks Institute’s Animal Law Fundamentals series, Professor Lori Gruen discusses the topic, Animal Ethics: Figuring Out What Is Right and Wrong. 

A recording of the Annual Lecture in Animal Rights Law and Policy, University of Victoria, “Carceral Logics and Animal Law,” by Justin Marceau, JD is now available.

Following are some recent books published of interest to the field of Human-Animal Studies.

Colombino, A., & Bruckner, H.K. (Eds.). (2023). Methods in Human-Animal Studies: Engaging with Animals through the Social Sciences (1st ed.). Routledge. 

Raffael Fasel & Sean Butler (2023). Animal Rights Law. Bloomsbury. (The companion website provides access to briefs on the latest developments in this fast-changing area, and gives readers the tools to investigate their own legal systems with a list of key references to the latest cases, legislation, and jurisdiction-specific bibliographic references.)

Gilly Ferreira & Joanne Williams (2023). Understanding Animal Abuse and How to Intervene with Children and Young People: A Practical Guide for Professionals Working with People and Animals. Routledge.

Pankaj Goyal, Abhayan G.S, Sharada Channarayapatna (Eds.) (2023). Animals in Archaeology: Integrating Landscapes, Environment and Humans in South Asia. Heritage.

Earl J. Hess (2022). Animal Histories of the Civil War Era. Louisiana State University Press.

Kemmerer, L. (2023) Vegan Ethics: AMORE—Five Reasons to Choose Vegan. Independently Published.

Kemmerer, L. (2023). Oppressive Liberation: Sexism in Animal Activism. Springer.

Gabi Maue and Katja Krauss (2022). Dogs in Translation – A Unique Journey of Observation and Interpretation. First Stone Publishing.

Shanan, A., Pierce, J., and Shearer, T. (eds) (2023) Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals: Principles and Pracice, 2^nd Ed. Wiley. 

Swarbrick, S. (2023) The Environmental Unconscious: Ecological Poetics from Spenser to Milton. University of Minnesota Press.



Following are some recent articles and book chapters of interest to the field of Human-Animal Studies.

A new Special Issue of Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Social Relationships in Farm Animals, is in press, with pre-proofs available.

A Special Issue of Humanimalia, 13(2), Horses and Humans, edited by Kristen Guest and Monica Mattfield is available open access.

Abbasi, R., Jami, Odulo, M., Farzaneh, Sadat & Zaranj, Z. (2023). Investigating the social factors affecting the phenomenon of animal abuse in the urban environment. Journal of Environmental Science Studies, 8(3), pp. 6928-6935.

Coghlan, S., Parker, C. (2023). Harm to Nonhuman Animals from AI: a Systematic Account and Framework. Philos. Technol. 36.

Janice H. Cox (2023). Animal Welfare - Environment - Sustainable Development Nexus: Scoping Study. WellBeing International.

Lisa Emmett, Nina Kasacek & Birgit Ursula Stetina (2023). Demographic Characteristics of Individuals Who Abuse Animals: A Systematic Review. People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 4(1).

Salonika Hardie, Dac Loc Mai & Tiffani J. Howell (2023). Social Support and Wellbeing in Cat and Dog Owners, and the Moderating Influence of Pet–Owner Relationship Quality. Anthrozoös.

Kapek-Goodridge, A. (2023) Animal Suffering and the Civilizing Process. E-International Relations. [online]. 

Rochelle Morton, Kendrew Ngai & Alexandra L. Whittaker (2023). “Commenting” on Animal Cruelty: A Content Analysis of Social Media Discourse on Animal Law Enforcement in Australia. Anthrozoös.

Keith Moser (2023). A Biosemiotic Reading of J.M.G. Le Clézio’s Fiction: (Re-) Envisioning the Complexity of Other-Than-Human Semiosis and Trans-Specific Communication. Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism.Pre-print.

Juri Nakagawa Naoko Koda (2023). Emotional Depictions of Dogs and Cats in Interactions with Humans in Picture Books. People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 6(1): 1-11.

Renata Roma, Christine Tardif-Williams, Shannon Moore & Patricia Pendry (2023). My 'perfect' dog: Undesired dog behaviours and owners' coping styles. Human-Animal Interactions.

Ineke R. van Herwijnen, Joanne A. M. van der Borg, Chantal M. Kapteijn, Saskia S. Arndt & Claudia M. Vinke (2023). Factors regarding the dog owner’s household situation, antisocial behaviours, animal views and animal treatment in a population of dogs confiscated after biting humans and/ or other animals. PLOS ONE.





Corey Wrenn invites submissions to an interdisciplinary Special Issue of the Journal of Appalachian Studies, Animals and Appalachia: Introducing Critical Appalachian Animal Studies. Submissions are that center Nonhuman Animal experiences, analyze intersectional relationships between humans and other animals, interrogate speciesism, or otherwise speak to the core principles of Critical Animal Studies in the context of Appalachian studies. Author information for submissions to the Journal of Appalachian Studies can be found here. Please submit a title and abstract (or brief description of topic area) to Corey Wrenn ([email protected]) no later than April 16th, 2023.

The Plant and Animals in Latin American Cultures calls for abstract submissions. This volume edited strives to show the profound interspecies entanglements and especially welcomes proposals with a transhistorical and interdisciplinary approach to critical plant and animal studies. The deadline for submission is April 30, 2023. 

Frontiers invites abstract submissions for the edition, One Health: A Framework to Cross Boundaries of Humanities and Social Sciences. The goal of this edition is to bring together practitioners and researchers who are working with and studying the role of the environment on interspecies interaction/relationships amid climate justice. The deadline for submission is April 30, 2023. 

A new volume of the journal, Transpositiones, calls for papers that speak to the thematic focus of ‘Queer Animalities’.  Proposals comprising a 250-word abstract in English and a brief biographical note should be sent to:[email protected] by June 15, 2023.



A Call for Papers is out for a Special Issue of Qualitative Research in Psychology, Qualitative methods in psychology after the animal turn: human-animal and multi-species relations. The key aim of this special issue is to showcase how qualitive methods in psychology can make nuanced, insightful and critical contributions to our understanding of the relations between human and nonhuman animals, other species, and aspects of nature. The editor invites explorations of any human-animal or multispecies domains in or relevant to psychology informed by qualitative methods; as well as reflections on adapting existing qualitative methods to meet the challenges of studying human-animal relationships. Qualitative methods here includes visual creative and arts-based approaches. Deadline for submission of full paper (6000-8000w): November 15, 2023. Initial, informal discussion of potential proposals is encouraged, and should be sent with abstract draft to Dr. Matthew Adams at [email protected] by July 1st 2023.

A call is out for chapter contributions to a volume Reclaiming historically silenced voices of the natural world, Volume 2: Animals. This volume will be part of a five-volume series, “Gender, Colonialism, and Science: A Cross-Cultural Compendium of Primary Sources” (General Editors: Donald L. Opitz and Banu Subramaniam) from Routledge. Collectively, the volumes aim to offer a readily-accessible compendium of primary source materials that span geographies and cultural perspectives, during a period when understandings of nature by women, queer, non-binary, two-spirit and/or transgender persons, became increasingly visible and important, and yet all the more contested. More details on the project are available here. Submissions and questions go to volume editors Samantha Muka ([email protected]) and Ariehn Matamonasa ([email protected]). No deadline given.



The in-person Human-Animal Interaction Conference with the theme of Animal Assisted Services: Focus on the Animal will take place April 28-29, 2023 in Brewster, NY.

The 2^nd International Multispecies Methods Research Symposium will take place online on May 8-12th, 2023 with online access beginning April 8th. Recordings will be available. This symposium is a unique academic-practitioner event that brings together scholars, artists, Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, animal care providers, and animal communicators to share knowledge, ideas, and build a multi-sectoral and multispecies research community. Registration is currently open.  

The ISAZ organizing and host committee announces the program of the 32nd International Society for Anthrozoology Conference to be held in-person from June 15-18, 2023 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The ISAZ 2023 theme is “Anthrozoology: The Spectrum of Human-Animal Interactions and Relationships.” You can access the full ISAZ 2023 website here.

The Universities Federal for Animal Welfare online Animal Welfare Conference 2023 will take place June, 20-21, 2023. Keynote speakers are Dr. Beth Ventura (University of Lincoln, UK), “Animal welfare: The elephant in the room is us” and Professor Lars Chittka (Queen Mary, University of London, UK), Bee sentience and its welfare implications. If you have questions about this event, please contact Dr Stephen Wickens at [email protected]

The Animal Advocacy Conference: Insights from the Social Sciences will take place in person, June 22-24, 2023, at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. The conference will bring together researchers from different fields in the social and behavioural sciences, and animal activists and advocates from around the world. Campus accommodation is available to book during the registration process. 



As you can see, ASI is promoting a tremendous amount of activity in the field of Human-Animal Studies. 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 ASI's Human-Animal Studies efforts!