Sociology and Animals

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The Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, and the ‘Sociology & Animals’ Thematic Group of TASA

are proud to co-host a two-day symposium

Development for Species: Animals in society, animals as society

Deakin University, Melbourne City campus, September 18-19, 2017

Extended Abstract deadline: August 4, 2017.

Nonhuman animals are typically marginalised by the anthropocentric focus of traditional scholarship in both development and sociology. As social scientists increasingly recognise nonhuman animals as critical members of society who co-produce ‘the social’ along with other animals, we are presented with the opportunity to consider nonhuman animals as more than passive companions, commodities or environmental resources. The Development for Species symposium aims to bring together scholars conducting research about, for, and/or with nonhuman animals. We are interested in what provocations and implications the framing of animals as ‘social’ can open for development discourse and practices. Hitherto, development has been complicit in invisibilising sentient nonhuman animals in the name of development, and in the violent objectification of animals, especially those designated as ‘food’. In the Anthropocene, the geologic age where humans are believed to be significantly responsible for climate change, species destruction, and the sixth mass extinction, there is urgent need to understand ecological and social realities beyond only human worlds (Rose 2009). It is increasingly important to plan for species – including the humans as species (Blue 2015). However, in addition to the overwhelming concerns for planetary environmental sustainability, there are increasingly reasons to be cognisant of the violent impacts of development on the animals.

The symposium aims to introduce nonhuman species, particularly farmed animals, into the development discourse as stakeholders, and critical members of societies, rather than their current status as environmental/economic commodities in development. With the rise of human-animal scholarship, development scholars are increasingly recognising the importance of including non- human animals in our academic endeavours, and the urgency of studying animals as actors, as well as subjects of marginalisation in societies. Together with the mounting evidence that directly link animal agriculture to planetary catastrophes like climatic change, the impetus to examine the role of animals in our shared species ecological and social worlds is of growing urgency. We seek abstracts in the areas including but not limited to:

Urban/rural sociologies and animals Religion, culture and animals ‘Food’ and sociology of farmed/production animals Sociology of relationships and animals Sexual Politics of Meat – gendered violence in animal farming Companion Animals and society Poverty and animal rights Democracy and nonhuman animals Activism and animals Developing species inclusive spaces Challenging anthropocentrism in research

Presentations are to be 20mins in duration. Please send your 200-300 word abstracts to both zoei.sutton@flinders.edu.au & y.narayanan@deakin.edu.au by August 4th 2017. A special issue of a leading journal like Society and Animals, or Journal of Development Studies is planned for the symposium.

Travel scholarships: With the support of TASA, the Sociology & Animals Thematic Group will be offering 3 scholarships to postgraduate, casually employed or unwaged staff valued at $300 each. Potential scholarship winners will need to be registered TASA members & located outside of Melbourne. If you wish to be considered for a postgraduate scholarship please indicate this in the same email as your abstract submission.

]]> 23 0 0 0 About Us http://sociologyandanimals.tasa.org.au/2017/06/10/about-us/ Sat, 10 Jun 2017 07:15:53 +0000 http://sociologyandanimals.tasa.org.au/?p=49

Critically consider the role of animals in society and highlight the necessity of their inclusion in Sociology;

Encourage scholarship which decentre the inherent anthropocentrism in sociology, and expand its ambit of recognition to nonhumans; and

Provide an avenue for animal scholars to network and present research to their peers within the discipline of Sociology.

We welcome all scholars conducting sociological research about, for, and/or with nonhuman animals.]]> 49 0 0 0 Introducing our keynotes http://sociologyandanimals.tasa.org.au/?p=62 Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://sociologyandanimals.tasa.org.au/?p=62 Nik and her best mate Loki[/caption]

Nik Taylor

is a sociologist who has been researching human-animal relations for over 15 years, after spending years running an animal shelter. Nik has published widely on the human-animal bond; treatment of animals and animal welfare; links between human aggression and animal cruelty including those between domestic violence, animal abuse and child abuse; slaughterhouses; meat-eating; critical animal studies; neoliberalisation and the marginalization of critically informed knowledge production, and, animal shelter work. Her most recent books include Ethnography after Humanism: Power, Politics and Method in Multi-species Research (with Lindsay Hamilton, Palgrave, 2017); Neoliberalization, Universities and the Public Intellectual: Species, Gender and Class in the Production of Knowledge (with Heather Fraser, Palgrave, 2016), and The Rise of Critical Animal Studies (ed., with Richard Twine, Routledge, 2014). You can find out more about Nik’s work at the Animals in Society Working Group website and blog.

Maneesha Deckha

(LLM, Columbia University) is Professor and Lansdowne Chair at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Her research and teaching interests include critical animal law, feminist analysis of law, postcolonial legal studies, reproductive rights, health law and bioethics. Her work has been published in Canada and internationally in socio-legal and interdisciplinary venues including American Quarterly, the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, the Harvard Journal of Gender and Law, Hypatia, the McGill Law Journal, and Sexualities. She has also contributed to multiple anthologies relating to critical animal studies, feminism, cultural pluralism, and health law and policy, and is the recipient of grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program. Professor Deckha has held the Fulbright Visiting Chair in Law & Society at New York University. She currently serves on the editorial boards of Politics and Animals and Hypatia.]]> 62 0 0 0 Development for Species Schedule - Sept 18-19 2017. http://sociologyandanimals.tasa.org.au/2017/09/16/development-for-species-schedule-sept-18-19-2017/ Sat, 16 Sep 2017 02:43:41 +0000 http://sociologyandanimals.tasa.org.au/?p=101 Development for Species: Animals in society, animals as society. If you are unable to join us in person don't worry - we will be recording all of our presentations and uploading them here so watch this space! For more info check out our speaker abstracts here.

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