OCTOBER 22-23, 2015 - SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE - WINFIELD, KS
The American philosopher William James writes that the most important aspect of the moral life is learning to “listen to the cries of the wounded” (“On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings”). For this conference, we invite presentations reflecting on how to best listen for and listen to the cries of non-human animals and what it means to serve as witnesses to their suffering. This conference in animal studies is intended as inter-disciplinary in the sense that we seek paper presentations from a plurality of academic disciplines as well as a diversity of methodological approaches to the question of animal suffering. Animal Studies is an emerging field of research that relies on such an interdisciplinary approach and builds on scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences to investigate and question past and present relations between human and non-human animals, thus obliging us to consider the ethical, political, social, and ecological implications of such relations.
CFP - Submissions by June 30, 2015 (CFP closed - thank you for all the submissions)
We are seeking proposals (individual presentations or panels) for a conference on the question of animal suffering. Presentations and panels might examine (but are not limited to):
- Representations of Animals and animal suffering in Literature, Philosophy, and Religion
- Animals in Disability, Gender, and Postcolonial studies
- Animal Rights and/or Virtues
- Animals as Wildlife and Household Pets
- Farming, Fishing, and Hunting Practices
- Treatment of Animals in the Mid-West
- Animals and Theories of Environmental Justice
- Companionship, Cooperation, and/or Friendship with Animals
- Animal-Human Relationship or Non-human/Human Animals
Proposals not exceeding 350 words and a short bio to be sent to alice.bendinelli@sckans.edu and jacob.goodson@sckans.edu by June 30, 2015 (CFP closed).
Some of the presentations will receive invitations to be published in a book, edited by the conference organizers, entitled Animal Cries.
All the events on campus will be free and open to the public.
Southwestern College is AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education), ACUPCC (American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment), KACEE (Kansas Association for Conservation & Environmental Education), and the Kansas Green Schools Network.
