Monday 12 December 2011

Animal Geography. Status: Endangered?

Location: RGS-IBG, London
Dates: 31 Aug – 2 Sept 2011

Abstract: Since the “animal turn” in the late 1990s, animals have been released from the conceptual black box of nature and put back into human geography. In North America, the AAG Animal Geography Specialty Group is now thriving, as is the interdisciplinary Human-Animal Studies Group (HAS). Jody Emel and Julie Urbanik (2010: 203) underlined the innovative role of Animal Geography in Teaching the Animal: Human-Animal Studies Across the Disciplines: ‘[T]he contribution of geographers are unique precisely because of their emphasis on the historical and spatial contexts of specific lives and relationships: in effect space, place, landscapes are instrumental to furthering the goals of HAS.’

Within the IBG, there have been ongoing developments: ranging from new geographies of human-animal relations (Philo and Wilbert, 2002), spatialities of nature-culture hybrids (Whatmore, 2002), animal landscapes (Matless et al, 2005), dwelt animal geographies (H. Lorimer, 2005; Johnston, 2008), and embodied historical geographies (J. Lorimer and Whatmore, 2009). Despite this, the sub-discipline of Animal Geography has seemingly become endangered, a status which could prevent geographers from shaping broader interdisciplinary research. This session provides a platform for animal geographers to present their work, discuss the status of IBG Animal Geography, and establish its future within the geographical imagination.

For full list of papers click on links: Session 1  Session 2  Session 3

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