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The Human-Animal Studies Report
May 2020

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Welcome to the current issue of the Animals & Society Institute's new "Human-Animal Studies Report." You’ll note this month a new name for this information channel, a change that reflects its expanded coverage.

With your interest, feedback and encouragement on the recent COVID-19 reportage and analysis over the past few months, we will continue to present and analyze aspects of how the virus is affecting animals and people. This will include the science of the pandemic, how it is affecting human entanglements with other animals, and the social consequences it is having for humans and animals. 

In order to thoroughly and adequately cover the many concerns raised by the pandemic, I will report each month on only two or three topics. This month's COVID Update covers illegal wildlife trafficking and industrialized animal agriculture.

I hope you and those you care about continue to weather the changes brought about by the pandemic as well as you can, and that you all stay healthy and safe!

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:  gala.argent@animalsandsociety.org , and if possible include a URL link to your project or announcement.
COVID-19 Update

The pandemic’s toll on humans and animals—Part 1

The zoonotic aspect of the COCID-19 virus this month pointed to several problematic human-animal intersections: the human consumption of potentially infected wild animals; the illegal wildlife trade; and the crowded conditions in which humans and animals interact within live animal markets, on the one hand, and industrialized animal agriculture on the other.

The search for the manner in which the COVID-19 virus might have transferred from animals to humans continues. Over the past few weeks, concerns surfaced that it might have been created and leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recently  shot down speculation that the virus might have been created in a laboratory , or found in the wild, brought to a lab and escaped. And another report, from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, states  there is “exactly zero evidence" that it came from a lab . 

Calls continue for shutting down live animal markets—markets at which both domestic and wild animals are sold—worldwide. Movement in that direction may be happening. In a first, China has recently banned the sale of wild animals for food, citing the risk of diseases spreading to humans. Furthermore, in instances where exotic wild animals are farmed to sell for food, China is  offering farmers in two provinces cash to quit breeding exotic animals , a practice the government had  encouraged for small farmers following the industrialization of the livestock industry .

Public opinion toward wildlife markets is also changing in other Asian countries. A March 2020 study by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature surveyed people in Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam  to measure opinions on the potential of closing all illegal and unregulated wild animal markets, within the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic . The study found around 80% of respondents said that closure of these markets would be effective in preventing the spread of disease, and 93% said that they would be supportive of government measures to close wild animal markets.

At the same time, much attention since last month has shifted from criticism of the markets themselves to the selling of wild animals within them. According to Thomas Lovejoy, the US biologist who coined the term “biological diversity,” simply  shutting down the markets may not be a solution . “The big difficulty,” he notes, “is that if you just shut them down—which in many ways would be the ideal thing—they will be topped up with black markets, and that’s even harder to deal with because it’s clandestine.”

It is important to point out that the illegal global wildlife trade is not limited to Asia and Africa; it is present in the Global North as well. Several studies over the last decade found large amounts of illegal meat arriving regularly at airports in EU countries—over  270 tons of illegal bushmeat arrived in France  and 100 tons in the United Kingdom, annually. Nor is the United States immune. Another  four-year study  tracked confiscated meat from JFK airport in New York, finding (among other animals) dead green monkeys, baboons, and chimpanzees, some of them carrying zoonotic agents that could act as a conduit for pathogen spread to humans. 

Evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod points to the  wild meat (or “bushmeat”) market as the source of the next pandemic . The global nature of the situation highlights the problem with sweeping criticisms of cultural food practices, particularly when those practices are often are based upon subsistence, not culinary, choices. Because of this, Garrod notes that “social and cultural sensitivity is paramount.” In some instances, wild animals are hunted, not raised, for food. In an effort to reduce this human-wild animal juncture, he onserves that communities that rely on subsistence hunting can be assisted through community development projects and programs “aimed at developing more sustainable and safer sources of protein,” and that governments and researchers must work together with traders and consumers to foster broader-based and more extensive programs to do this.

Keying to the cultural sensitivity point and well worth the 1.5 hours (30 minute presentation with the remainder question and answer), this talk by cultural anthropologist Eben Kirksey surveys primary literature from a variety of disciplines to unpack “ The Emergence of COVID19: A Multispecies Story .” He frames this presentation as follows: "Origin stories about COVID19 have circulated widely…. Outbreak narratives, about the wet animal market in Wuhan, reek of Orientalism. Media pundits, who have struggled to explain the sudden upheaval of the modern world, have reanimated old stereotypes about Asian people and exotic animals. The subjects of these multispecies stories, to reference Edward Said, share ‘in common an identity best described as lamentably alien.’ As medical doctors, virologists and epidemiologists publish new evidence, origin stories about exotic animals are starting to fall apart." (See more from the Deakin Science and Society Network COVID-19 seminar series  here .)

Rather than the closure of wet markets, some conservationists and animal welfare advocates are also shifting focus to the global trade in illegal wildlife. This is because it not only threatens human health through the risk of infectious disease, but also puts nearly 9,000 species at risk of extinction. And indeed, a recent study in  World Development found a shift in US conservation funding from 2002-2019 toward work aimed at combatting wildlife trafficking. According to the study’s co-author, Jared Margulies, this is due to  narratives framing the illegal wildlife trade as threats to international health and national security .

Xaq Frohlich, a food historian at Auburn University, agrees that  the focus should be on the wildlife trade , and notes that “by focusing on wet markets, people ignore the extent to which there are things happening in the US that also are contributing to increased risk of zoonotic disease,” such as industrialized animal farming. As Owen Rogers explains  in a recent Faunalytics post : "Animal-borne diseases are not limited to wild or exotic animals, and your average chicken or pig farm is perfectly capable of starting a deadly outbreak. While the wet markets in China might be particularly risky due to the wide variety of animals in close contact with each other, any situation in which a large number of animals are kept in cramped quarters with frequent human contact poses a threat."

Industrialized animal farming practices have been both implicated in and impacted by this particular pandemic, and pandemics in general. As environmental historian Catherine Paulin notes in “ A Reflection on Human-Animal Relations in Light of COVID-19 ,” “Industrial farming and intense animal density in small and restricted spaces, the destruction of habitats and of ecosystems, [and] a general increase in the consumption of meat in many industrialized countries since the 19th century” all shape relationships between humans, animals, and disease.

Slaughterhouses are hot spots for COVID-19 infections and have sickened and killed workers. This in turn  causing 30-40 large US meat packing plants to shut down .  Around the US, 170 meat and poultry processing facilities reported coronavirus cases and, according to the CDC, nearly 5,000 workers have fallen ill and at least 45 have died.  Indeed, these facilities have been prime places where the virus has spread most intensely. A n analysis compiled by the Associated Press,  found the 15 U.S. counties with the highest per-capita infection rates over the last three weeks are all homes to meatpacking and poultry-processing plants or state prisons.

Despite these ongoing threats to human health the US administration, concerned with meat shortages, responded with a presidential executive order mandating the Secretary of Agriculture to “take all appropriate action under that section to ensure that meat and poultry processors continue operations….” This order effectively forces the poorly paid workers in the meatpacking plants back to work in what at this point are essentially the same conditions that have fostered the extensive infections rates. It is probable more workers will die in these hotspots. We can only imagine the ways in which the return-to-work order  strains the metal well-being  of these already marginalized workers who deal daily with the emotional trauma of slaughering and dismembering the animals destined for our tables.  

From the animal side, this lack of processing capacity already has caused the “culling” or “depopulating” of over 10 million hens, most through suffocation by foam. And last month US authorities  confirmed the first cases of the highly pathogenic H7N3 Avian Influenza  in a turkey flock in South Carolina, which killed over 1500 turkeys and caused the slaughter of another 32,000 birds. Although it is rare,  this virus can infect humans .

Also due to slaughterhouse closures,  the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has estimated  that over 10 million market hogs “will need to be euthanized between the weeks ending on 25 April and 19 September 2020, resulting in a severe emotional and financial toll on hog farmers.” The NPPC press release discusses this “wrenching and tragic choice” that “goes against every farmer instinct.”

Here I will point out that language matters. The term promoted by this pork industry spokes-group euphemizes “euthanized”—which implies a humane ending—when in reality these animals will be  killed by means that include gassing, shooting, and blunt force trauma  as well as  electrocution, ventilation shutdown, and poisoning by carbon monoxide . Karen Davis with United Poultry Concerns  takes sharp issue with the intentional optics endorsed by agribusiness and upheld by major news media over this situation : “With our words of commission and omission we muzzle our guilt—the condition of guilt we refuse to feel. The animals are being euthanized—put to sleep—so we can rest easy and return to normal.”

Further, one wonders about the effectiveness of the NPPC’s rhetorical appeal to pathos behind the focus on the “emotional toll” of these killings on the hog farmers who might be witnessing what befalls the animals they routinely raise for customary (if unwitnessed) traumatic endings. But I won’t go there. Any more than I have, that is. Other than to recall the words of Albert Schweitzer, "Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight."

This is not to say individual farmers are not adversely affected by the actions they are forced to take, now in the light of day. But as Matthew Scully, author of  Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy , comments, “ It’s not always clear whether industry representatives regret the waste of life or just a waste of food. ” 

For the broader industrialized agricultural industry, food is about money. In an ironic loop back to the relationship between factory farming and pandemics,  according to one report  the decline in pork availability in the US is being exacerbated by fact that the highly contagious virus  African swine fever  has swept through China’s hog farms over the past year. So “while pork supplies tightened [in the US] as the number of pigs slaughtered each day plunged by about 40 percent since mid-March, shipments of American pork to China more than quadrupled over the same period, according to US Department of Agriculture  data .” (For another thorough discussion of the meat supply chain problems, see this analysis, “ America’s meat shortage is more serious than your missing hamburgers: The meat supply chain is breaking down, but that’s only part of the story .”)

Through all of this, the  demand for meatless meat has skyrocketing during the pandemic , and it is proving more ethical for animals  and  humans. This is because “while meat plants require workers to stand shoulder to shoulder as they kill and take apart animals, the facilities manufacturing plant-based products don’t need their workers to be so tightly packed together and working at warp speed. Impossible Foods said that workers are able to maintain social distancing and are provided with masks.” Investors have caught on, with  $930 million invested in alternative proteins in the first quarter of 2020 .

The crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 virus has both exacerbated and illuminated problems within industrialized animal agriculture. This has stimulated public critique and calls to  transform the global food system , to  support and encourage a shift from intensive animal agriculture to smaller farms , and to  rebuild the broken meat industry—without animals . According to op-ed authors Liz Specht and Jan Dutkiewicz (in the latter article): "The most pragmatic way to start building a resilient food value chain in the wake of the pandemic is to leverage the strengths of the existing system while building alternatives to the most vulnerable and highest-risk elements. There is a very strong economic case to be made that this should start with phasing out animals from the food system. Such a transition will be much easier if the government and incumbent companies lead the change. They now face a critical choice: exacerbate our current problems and risk disruptions from future crises, including other pandemics and climate change, or be a participant in their own disruption.”
 
While it remains to be seen whether we might develop a global food system without meat, one move toward the end of the industrialized animal agriculture industry is in the works.  US Senator Elizabeth Warren has recently signed on to a bill cosponsored by Senator Cory Booker and Representative Ro Khanna in December, 2019, the Farm System Reform Act . While continuing to support smaller farms, the act would make new  large factory farms  illegal, and force existing farms to plan to stop expansions and operations within 20 years.

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled the human race to pause, to suspend activity we had considered normal—or if not normal, then unalterable. There have been appeals that in this recess we might examine our more destructive relationships with animals and redefine them in new, less harmful, more considerate and compassionate ways. Animal studies scholars and advocates Nik Taylor and Heather Fraser suggest  radically imagining human-animal relations after the COVID-19 pandemic : “The pandemic has shown the fragility of our systems and the folly of our practices. It is now urgent that we think about the kinds of changes in our relations with other animals that we want—need—to enact post-pandemic.”
 
One way we might begin to proceed, as eco-philosopher Andreas Weber remarks, is through  nourishing community in pandemic times . He observes: "Humans are asked to stop their activities in the name of something, which had not been much in the focus of western—and global—policy in the last decades: Community…. The virus has temporarily changed human ecology. Instead of devouring everything that moves, we are slowed down, we grant others space (quite literally, queuing at a street kitchen in safe distances), we sit and listen. The majority of the world population thus responds to what is the most important, though often unacknowledged, problem of global western societies—namely how to relate to those who are weaker, who are more vulnerable, and, from an ecological viewpoint, even those who are not even human at all, but other living beings: Plants and animals, streams and forests, rocks and mountains."

I would like to imagine that we as a species shall come together in community to do this—for ourselves, for the other beings with whom we share the world, and for the planet itself. As we move forward, let us try.
 
ASI NEWS

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new, public,  Human-Animal Studies Facebook group . Over 500 people have joined within the two weeks since going live, and members have already populated the group with relevant and interesting posts and discussion. 

Because interest in social media has edged out the email listserves popular ten years ago, this new group replaces and extends as an interactive space our HAS Yahoo listserve, which we closed early this year. The group is designed to fill the need for a network for sharing information and promoting research, accomplishments, jobs, events and activities related to the multifaceted and complex relationships that exist between human and other animals.

The scope of the group is global. We recognize that human-animal relationships vary widely around the world, and that people in the group will hold very different personal beliefs about these intersections. This group welcomes a range of posts from its members. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged! At the same time, we recognize that human-animal relationships are complex and rooted in particular historical and spatial contexts. Because of this our concern there is not with judging other cultures’ practices by our own personal or cultural standards, but rather with investigating the broad contexts in which they exist. 

Please  join us there , share HAS-related information, and spread the word!


In other ASI news, former ASI-UIUC Summer Institute fellow Dr. Seven Mattes has been  awarded Michigan State University College of Social Sciences’ “Teaching Excellence Award.”  The Teaching Excellence Award honors faculty who demonstrate exceptional performance in the classroom, innovate effectively, inspire learning, and have a lasting impact on the quality of the student experience. Dr. Mattes’ dissertation work focused on the anthropology of Japan, human-animal studies, and disaster. Congratulations, Dr. Mattes!

HAS News and Opportunities

The stay-at-home orders of the COVID-19 pandemic have created a surge in domestic violence and animal abuse. The virus  presents additional risks to already-vulnerable people and to their pets,  which may be the only source of trusted companionship and love in an abusive relationship, and as noted in the above article, the United Nations, and groups in (at least) the United Kingdom, France and Spain are seeking measures to keep women from the risk of harm. In the US a bipartisan group of 80 federal legislators is requesting that  emergency funding be included in the next COVID-19 relief funding package  to support survivors of domestic violence and their companion animals. See the  May  LINK-Letter  of the  National Resource Center on the Link Between Animal Abuse And Human Violence  for more articles on the current crisis.

The Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals (SSEA) has launched its in-progress " Teaching Resources " project. The focus so far has been on consolidating a list of recommended readings, videos and syllabi for animal ethics courses. Contact  ce.abbate@unlv.edu  if you have any suggested additions!

The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence is offering a new online course which begins June 7, 2020, on indigenous research methodologies and animal studies research titled “ Takin' It to the Feet: Nonhuman Nature Research Methods .” Taught by Gay Bradshaw and Margo DeMello, it’s an eight-week course that will help students and scholars to incorporate animal and indigenous perspectives into their research and writing. 

Survey: Researchers of the University of Milan are exploring ways the quality of life of pets and humans is changing as pandemic-related distancing measure are modified. They need participants who do not own any pets or only own cats/dogs ( Italian and English languages can be selected in the questionnaire ).

Survey: What do dogs and cats really like to eat? Which diets make them healthiest and happiest? Despite the increasing array of conventional and alternative pet food choices, surprisingly little is known about how different types of pet food affect the health of dogs and cats, and about which diets they prefer. A new study aims to shed light on some of these questions. If you’re over 18 and have shared your household with a dog for at least one year, then you and your pet (via you!) can participate.  The online survey takes around 10 minutes to complete .


Funding and Job Opportunities

Two funded PhD positions in the Anthropology of Herders-Animals Relationships  are available in Paris, France. The research is through the scientific environment of the PASTODIV programme (ANR JcJc 19_CE32-0004) and the GRD RESODIV (INEE: 2034): a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional research collective dedicated to the comparative analysis of livestock diversity management systems in five main study areas (Mongolia; Kyrgyzstan; India; Chad; Niger) as well as to the ethological study and statistical analysis of social networks. The doctoral research program in anthropology of pastoral societies will include long-term ethnographic work (several months) with shepherd/herders and focus on three aspects that will have to be addressed in an original ethnographic work.
1) What do humans and livestock know about themselves and their environments and how do they learn it?
2) What are the perceived, and used, changes in the spatial heterogeneity of the ecosystems visited?
3) What is the role of building social networks among humans and with animals in contemporary adaptations of pastoral communities?
The positions were posted May 13, 2020, and no deadline is given.

VetVine®—an accredited online continuing education provider for veterinary professionals and educational resource on pet health topics for pet care professionals and owners—is searching for a  Virtual Pet Loss Support Facilitator . As an extension of supportive services to veterinary professionals, VetVine® is developing an online, virtual pet loss/grief support service to which veterinarians can refer their clients. They are seeking individuals with experience in pet-related grief counseling and support to serve as facilitators of real-time virtual support sessions.  No deadline noted.
New Books

Following are some of the books out this month that we are excited about!

Blanchette, Alex. 2020.  Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm . Duke University Press.

Cimatti, F. and Salzani, C. 2020.  Animality in Contemporary Italian Philosophy . Palgrave McMillan.

Colling, Sarat. 2020.  Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era . Michigan State University Press.

Driscoll, C. J. (Ed.). (2020).  Animal-Assisted Interventions for Health & Human Service Professionals . NY: Nova.


Skonieczny, Krzysztof. 2020.  Immanence and the Animal: A Conceptual Inquiry . Routledge.


New Journal Articles and Chapters

Following are some recent research articles and book chapters published in the field of Human-Animal Studies.

Bremhorst, A., Sutter, N.A., Würbel, H.  et al.  2019. Differences in facial expressions during positive anticipation and frustration in dogs awaiting a reward.  Sci Rep  9 ,  19312.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55714-6

Kristin Buller and Kelly C. Ballantyne. 2020. Living with and loving a pet with behavioral problems: Pet owners’ experiences.  Journal of Veterinary Behavior.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2020.04.003

Clark, S.D.; Martin, F.; McGowan, R.T.; Smidt, J.M.; Anderson, R.; Wang, L.; Turpin, T.; Langenfeld-McCoy, N.; Bauer, B.A.; Mohabbat, A.B. 2020. Physiological State of Therapy Dogs during Animal-Assisted Activities in an Outpatient Setting.  Animals, 10, 819.  https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10050819

Pütz, R. 2020. Making companions: Companionability and encounter value in the marketization of the American Mustang.  Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space .  https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848620924931

Losey, R.J., Nomokonova, T., Arzyutov, D.V.  et al.  2020. Domestication as Enskilment: Harnessing Reindeer in Arctic Siberia.  Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory .  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09455-w

Rosenberg, S., Riggs, D. W., Taylor, N., & Fraser, H. 2020. ‘Being together really helped’: Australian transgender and non-binary people and their animal companions living through violence and marginalisation.  Journal of Sociology .  https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783319896413

Corey Wrenn & Alexus Lizardi. 2020.  Older, greener, and wiser: charting the experiences of older women in the American vegan movement ,  Journal of Women & Aging , DOI: 10.1080/08952841.2020.1749501 

Calls for Proposals: Book Chapters

The editors of a volume ”Developing feminist animal studies: critical perspectives on food and eating” have issued a  call for chapter proposals . This volume advances feminist approaches in critical animal studies (CAS), exploring the cultural and structural oppression of non-human animals and possibilities for changing their condition from critical feminist perspectives, and focussing on analyzing human–animal relations in the context of food production, consumption and politics. This volume offers an opportunity to consider how contemporary feminisms can inform CAS in the context of food and eating, thus offering novel insights into the development of feminist animal studies. For question or to submit an abstract (maximum 250 words) contact Kadri Aavik at  kadri.aavik@helsinki.fi   by May 31, 2020.  


Calls for Papers: Journals

The open access journal Animals in Social Work is seeking articles for a special section on animals and social work. The ways in which animals are used in social work or inform social work practice are very broad. The interventions with animals and social work include (but are not limited to):  Animal Assisted Intervention  (AAI)   where the intervention intentionally includes an animal as part of the intervention process (eg medical assistant animals); Animal Assisted Therapy  (AAT) where the animal is deliberately included in a therapeutic treatment plan;  Animal Assisted Activities  (AAA) this includes visits to rest homes, cat cafes etc—less formal activities primarily social in focus, and  Family violence and risk assessment —non-accidental injuries to animals is often an indicator of violence in the home. See  journal guidelines  for more info about requirements and for how to register a please submit on line  here . Contact special section editors Simon Lowe or Carole Adamson for more information:  Simon.lowe@waikato.ac.nz ,  ceadamson@hotmail.com .  Submission of full articles due June 15, 2020.

The Human Animal Interaction (HAI) Section of the American Psychological Association has issued a call for papers for a special issue covering “Therapies Incorporating Horses to Benefit People: What Are They and How Are They Distinct?” Please direct any inquiries (e.g., suitability, format, scope, etc.) about this special issue to the guest editor: Wendy Wood  wendy.wood@colostate.edu .  The deadline for manuscript submittal is November 30, 2020.

A special issue of the journal  Animals  addressing " The Social Agency of Animals in Animal-Assisted Interventions " is now open for submission. Specific topics of interest include but are not limited to: comparative or outcome studies of animal agency in AAI; the impacts of supporting animal social agency when working with specific human populations; recognizing the difference between assent/consent and dissent/coercion in animals in AAI; tools or methods for measuring agency, stress behaviour, and calming signals; the impacts of imposed or coercive interactions and touch on animals and humans in AAI; the link between trauma and agency across species; trauma-informed principles and AAI; the correlation between animal and human biomarkers and animal agency in AAI (such as heart rate variability, cortisol, behavioural observation); case studies related to animal agency; etc. Articles pertaining to animal-assisted activities (e.g., animal visitation programs, therapeutic or adaptive riding) are welcomed, as are articles focused on the inclusion of dogs, cats, horses, and other animals in psychotherapy, experiential learning, life and business coaching, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.  No deadline given.

Voices in Bioethics  operates on a  continuous publication model , aiming for one to three weeks from submission to approval. Voices accepts submissions in two categories: Op-Eds are expected to address current issues and must present novel arguments or analysis. Topics are wide-ranging from clinical ethics to environmental policies. Features should be approximately 1500–4500 words on topics ranging from philosophy or history of bioethics to current clinical issues. Any bioethics topic is welcome but surveys and overviews will tend not to be published.

Calls for Papers: Conferences
and Workshops

Editor’s note: Assume that events noted within this HAS E-News are in flux. Although I have left calls and notifications for conferences in, I suggest you contact the conference organizers to ascertain whether or not gatherings of interest will occur.

The 2020 Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) Conference Special Session on Animals and Culture with the Animals and Society network has issued a  call for papers dealing with the multifaceted roles and representations of animals in popular culture . The conference will be held at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire, October 23-24, 2020.  Proposals are due June 1, 2020.

Save the date: The Faculty of Kinesiology of the University of New Brunswick is hosting a two-day conference on Sport, Animals, Ethics, May 26-28, 2021. Paper proposals will be welcomed from all disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Watch for the Call for Abstracts in October 2020. For more information, contact Gabriela Tymowski-Gionet  tymowski@unb.ca  and Sam Morris  morrissp@miamioh.edu .

Save the Date: The Minding Animals— Animals and Climate Emergency Conference  (ACEC) conference and events will be held over 22 to 29 July, 2021, in Sydney, Australia, in a central Sydney city venue. A conference registration website and the call for abstracts will appear mid-year. In the meantime, please see  mindinganimals.com  for further information. For information, please contact Rod Bennison at  acec@mindinganimals.com.

Meetings, Conferences and Presentations

Below are upcoming meetings and conferences for which the submission deadlines have passed, or for which submissions were not requested. Again, given the COVID-19 situation, please contact the conference conveners to confirm the conference is still being held. 

The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare 2020 conference “ Recent Advances in Animal Welfare Science VII ” will now be a conducted online, on Tuesday, June 30 and Wednesday, July 1, 2020. This virtual event is free to attend.


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!








Gala Argent, PhD
Human-Animal Studies Program Director
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