Kittens and Cows:
(Critical) Animal Studies
(Critical) Animal Studies
Format: On-site at Shaninka and online
Language: Russian, English
Moderators: Iana Fishova (Pompeu Fabra University), Mark Mefyod (Shaninka graduate, independent researcher), Antonina Menshikova (student at the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television), Lilian Rubtsova (Shaninka student)
Language: Russian, English
Moderators: Iana Fishova (Pompeu Fabra University), Mark Mefyod (Shaninka graduate, independent researcher), Antonina Menshikova (student at the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television), Lilian Rubtsova (Shaninka student)
Abstract
Animal studies is an interdisciplinary field that draws from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, focusing on past and present human-animal relationships, their representations, ethical implications, and social, political, and environmental dimensions. Critical Animal Studies (CAS) offers a more radical perspective on human-animal relations, aiming to end animal exploitation and oppression. CAS challenges numerous aspects, including animal industrial complex, animal experimentation, meat culture, and the invisibility of animal suffering (S. Best). It incorporates a critical view of human-animal relations, an intersectional approach to animal rights and ethics (C. Adams, S. Taylor, A. and S. Ko, A. George), the analysis of speciesism (D. Nibert) and anthropocentrism in human cultures and communities (M. Calarco, R. Twine, N. Taylor), politics (S. Donaldson, W. Kymlicka, E. Meijer), communication (N. Almiron), philosophy (C. Oliver, D. Wadiwel), literature (S. McHugh, S. Vint), education (H. Pedersen, P. MacCormack, K. Horsthemke), as well as posthumanist (C. Wolfe, E. Cudworth) and vegan studies (V. Stănescu, L. Wright, A. Potts).
Researchers engage with animals both directly — studying their behavior, emotional lives, consciousness, and communication through ethical observation and interaction — and indirectly, analyzing representations of animals in art, media (film, television, social media), literature, religious texts, and legal systems. Critical Animal Studies aim not only to challenge the reduction of humans to animals and elevate marginalized groups but also to radically transform power structures.
According to biologist Jakob von Uexküll’s theory, all living beings have their own Umwelt—subjective worlds shaped by perception and action specific to their species. The environment influences and defines nonhuman animals, but animals also construct and reshape their Umwelt through interaction with their surroundings. Humans integrate nonhuman beings into their communities on discursive and material levels, often violently, depleting their Umwelt.
Animals possess complex and diverse forms of existence, sensory experiences, and communication. The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, signed by researchers in April 2024, recognizes consciousness in many animals, including mammals and birds, and acknowledges the possibility of consciousness in all vertebrates and many invertebrates. This suggests that animals experience emotions, are aware of their existence, and interact with their environment on a profound level. The third principle of the Declaration emphasizes that if animals have conscious experience, ignoring this experience in decisions affecting their lives is irresponsible; it must be considered in shaping our shared future.
The key question for this year’s section is how can Critical Animal Studies help us rethink coexistence with nonhuman animals? We will discuss ethical approaches to studying real and symbolic animals, the contributions of posthumanist theory and continental philosophy to animal rights and well-being, the role of gender in Critical Animal Studies, the presence of animals in social, economic, and political spaces, the role of animals in the development and maintenance of capitalist production, the material and symbolic exploitation of animals in war, strategies for representing animals in film and other media, and how vegan studies can critically expand and deepen animal studies.
Researchers engage with animals both directly — studying their behavior, emotional lives, consciousness, and communication through ethical observation and interaction — and indirectly, analyzing representations of animals in art, media (film, television, social media), literature, religious texts, and legal systems. Critical Animal Studies aim not only to challenge the reduction of humans to animals and elevate marginalized groups but also to radically transform power structures.
According to biologist Jakob von Uexküll’s theory, all living beings have their own Umwelt—subjective worlds shaped by perception and action specific to their species. The environment influences and defines nonhuman animals, but animals also construct and reshape their Umwelt through interaction with their surroundings. Humans integrate nonhuman beings into their communities on discursive and material levels, often violently, depleting their Umwelt.
Animals possess complex and diverse forms of existence, sensory experiences, and communication. The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, signed by researchers in April 2024, recognizes consciousness in many animals, including mammals and birds, and acknowledges the possibility of consciousness in all vertebrates and many invertebrates. This suggests that animals experience emotions, are aware of their existence, and interact with their environment on a profound level. The third principle of the Declaration emphasizes that if animals have conscious experience, ignoring this experience in decisions affecting their lives is irresponsible; it must be considered in shaping our shared future.
The key question for this year’s section is how can Critical Animal Studies help us rethink coexistence with nonhuman animals? We will discuss ethical approaches to studying real and symbolic animals, the contributions of posthumanist theory and continental philosophy to animal rights and well-being, the role of gender in Critical Animal Studies, the presence of animals in social, economic, and political spaces, the role of animals in the development and maintenance of capitalist production, the material and symbolic exploitation of animals in war, strategies for representing animals in film and other media, and how vegan studies can critically expand and deepen animal studies.
Main topics
- Animal Representation: Film, media, and literary animal studies
- Critical Animal Studies: Critical animal geographies, critical pedagogy and animals
- Feminist Animal Studies: Ecofeminism, gender, and sexuality in Critical Animal Studies
- Postcolonial Animal Studies: Decolonial perspectives on animals, animals as subjects of bio- and necropolitics
- Capitalism and Animals
- War and Animals
- Extinction Studies
Ключевые спикеры
- Susan McHugh, Professor of English at the University of New England, USA.
- David Nibert, Professor of Sociology at Wittenberg University, USA. Talk Title: "US Cold War Policy and the Entangled Oppression of Humans and Other Animals".
- pattrice jones, Writer, ecofeminist, educator, and activist; co-founder of VINE Sanctuary. Talk Title: "Queering Animal Liberation: Lessons from VINE Sanctuary".
- Diego Rosello, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Adolfo Ibáñez University, Santiago, Chile. Talk Title: "Riot Dogs in the Agora: Arendtian Reflections on Political Action Beyond the Human Species".
- Ralph Acampora, Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Hofstra University, USA. Talk Title: “Current Identity and Prospects of Animal Studies, Terminology of Animal(ity); Plant Studies; Disability Studies; Living Body (à la Merleau-Ponty)”.
- Carrie Freeman, Professor in the Department of Communication at Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA. Talk Title: Promoting a ‘Human Animal Earthling’ Identity via Inclusive Framing of Shared Values Among All Activist Campaigns.
Контакты
vectors@universitas.ru
Газетный пер., 3/5с1, Москва