LLC45: Animal Studies

Collaborative Goals

Over the past few decades, animal studies scholarship has exploded, and questions of human and animal relationships now figure prominently in mainstream academic journals, monographs, edited volumes, and book series across the humanities, as well as in specialized venues. Despite the growth and promise of this subfield, institutional support is lacking and declining, both within individual universities and between them. For instance, just in the past year, the Animals & Society Institute, a nonprofit that has supported animal studies research since 1983, has closed. Moreover, in the central and upstate New York region, no departments, centers, or networks dedicated to the study of human-animal relations currently exist.

The Animal Studies Working Group will build and support an initial network of 25 animal studies scholars working across the humanities, including anthropology, geography, history English, gender & sexuality studies, and architectural studies, among others. Our topical, historical, and regional interests are equally diverse. We are made up of 21 members from 8 Corridor institutions and 5 members from 3 non-Corridor institutions. Our members include postdoctoral fellows and visiting assistant professors all the way to department chairs and center directors.

The goals of our group are, first, to reassess the state of animal studies, much of which has been divided among disciplines, and, second, to chart future directions theoretically and methodologically.

Our activities in the first year will consist of a reading group (to meet, make connections, and discover shared interests) and a workshop of pre-circulated papers (to advance our research and foster potential collaborations). Each activity will be paired with “seeings” (experiential visits to sites of human-animal interaction). Discussions during the activities will inform future objectives, which might include, as we have already discussed, speakers, symposia, and a writing retreat.