Call for papers for the Annual Conference (Virtual)

Human-Animal Relations:
Opportunities and Challenges in Changing Realities

The world around us is in constant flux – everchanging politically, socially, technologically, economically, and environmentally. Such unsettled realities lead to many practical, theoretical and ethical contemplations, which are especially prominent in the field of human-animal studies. Altering experiences can bring about, in this way, significant challenges for human-animal relations, but new opportunities as well. Perhaps most relevant is the embedded role of animals in the COVID-19 outburst. Wet markets, where various species of wild animals are sold for consumption, are considered to be a likely source for the pandemic. At the same time, the quarantine imposed in many countries has reduced the presence of humans in urban areas, allowing wild animals to roam more freely and alter cross-species interactions. These transformations raise different questions concerning the meaning of human interventions in wild animals’ habitats and their utilization, as well as the place animals occupy in human spaces and lives.

These continuous fluctuations prompt the questions: What challenges and opportunities are afforded through our understanding of contemporary transspecies entanglements? Can human actions towards nonhuman animals, now more than ever, cause significant changes to our world, and how? And what role do animals' agencies play in these alterations? What is the unique position and contribution of human-animal studies to understanding (and altering) the changing reality?

The community for Human-Animal Studies Israel, along with the Coller-Menmon Animal Rights and Welfare program, is looking to further explore this theme and is opening up its annual conference for international participation. The conference is intended to bring together scholars from various academic disciplines, who are passionate about exploring human-animal relations, and strive for generating developments and innovations in the field. The conference will be held virtually on June 1-3, 2021.

Invited speaker: Prof. Barbara J. King (Emerita Professor of Anthropology, William & Mary).
We invite you to join us in exploring the opportunities and challenges in changing human-animal interactions, by organizing a panel, or presenting your research, paper or artwork. We welcome scholars and practitioners from various disciplines (including, but not limited to: law, technology, zoology, anthropology, history, philosophy, literature, arts, public policy, and sociology).

Topics may include:
• Human-animal relations in times of crisis (Covid-19; climate
change; the Anthropocene)
• Human-animal relations in areas of conflict
• Veganism, activism and social movements
• Multispecies methodologies
• Multispecies health (psychological well-being; rehabilitation;
one health)
• Animal ethics and public policy
• Political ethology
• Political economy
• Legal frameworks for social change
• Technological developments in human-animal relations (cultured
meat; plant-based protein; animal-computer interaction)
• Artifact developments in human-animal relations and multispecies
design
• Urbanism and human-animal relations
• The future of Human-animal relations: What’s next?

Abstracts for panels and individual presentations of no more than 250 words should be submitted by March 1, 2021, to hasiconference2021@gmail.com
Please include your name, affiliation, 3-5 keywords, a concise description of your work, and a short bio.

All the best,

The conference organizers,
The community for Human-Animal Studies Israel
The Coller-Menmon Animal Rights and Welfare program