The Animal Turn

Gwendolyn Blue and Melanie Rock join Claudia on the show to discuss ‘healthy publics.’ They explore how the idea of ‘public health’ has persistently been conceived of as human and unpack some of the opportunities and challenges with conceiving of multispecies health. From the historical roots of the ‘One Health’ to the modern challenges of public participation and representation, Melanie and Gwendolyn offer thought-provoking perspectives on stretching health frameworks beyond humans. Date Recorded: 2 July 2024. Melanie Rock is a professor at the University of Calgary is in the Department of Community Health Sciences. Since joining the University of Calgary’s medical school in 2003, Melanie has drawn on her training in anthropology, health promotion, and social work in a series of projects centered on multi-species research. These projects have spanned community services, family dynamics, and social policy. The funders have included the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. To date, Melanie has led or co-authored more than 100 scholarly publications. Gwendolyn Blue is a critical interpretive social scientist who conducts research on environmental governance, public science, and participatory practice. Her focus is primarily on symbolic and epistemic politics (e.g. how issues are represented, whose expertise counts, which values matter), and how these politics influence participatory engagement across issues such as climate change, genomics, and zoonotic disease. She is particularly interested in identifying the assumptions, values, and contexts that ‘open up’ and ‘close down’ inclusive engagement. Featured: Animal Publics: Accounting for Heterogeneity in Political Life by Gwendolyn Blue and Melanie RockWhen Species Meet by Donna HarrawayBiosecurity with Steve Hinchliffe on The Animal Turn. The Public and its Problems by John DeweyMaterials and dA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Remaking One Health (ROH) IndiesThis project investigates people-dog interactions, dog ecology, and rabies prevention efforts in urbPhoenix Zones Initiative An organization on a mission to change the policies and practices that drive the exploitation of vulDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showThe Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website. Leave a Review on Podchaser Check out The Animal Turn Merch. Support us on Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, and Buzzsprout.

Guillem Rubio-Ramon and Krithika Srinivasan join Claudia to kick of Season 7 which is focused on “multispecies health.” They discuss human-dog relations and how multispecies health involves components of care, indifference and violence. Date Recorded: 7 June 2024. Guillem Rubio-Ramonis a Research Associate in Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh. His research integrates more-than-human geographies and political ecologies to study the reciprocal influence of animals and humans on each other's socio-cultural, economic and political lives. He is currently involved in the Remaking One Health – Indies project, which explores everyday interactions between people and free-living dogs in India. His PhD research examined how nonhuman animals, particularly those involved in pig farming in Catalonia and salmon aquaculture in Scotland, can be understood as essential actors in the nation-making projects of these regions.Krithika Srinivasan is a Professor of Political Ecology at the University of Edinburgh. Her research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of political ecology, post-development politics, animal studies, and nature geographies. Her work draws on research in South Asia to rethink globally established concepts and practices about nature-society relations and reconfigure approaches to multispecies justice. Krithika is the principal investor of the project Remaking One Health Indies. She has published widely, including in journals such as the Sociological Review, Geoforum, and Environment and Planning. Learn more about the ROHIndies project on their website and connect with Krithika on Twitter (@KritCrit)Featured: Remaking One Health Indies ProjectHybrid Publics of Human and Other-than-Human Life: Free-Living Dogs and the “Green” and “Healthy” City in India by Krithika Srinivasan and Guillem Rubio RamonThank you to A.P.P.L.E for sponsoring this podcast, ROH Indies for sponsoring this season, Gordon Clarke for the bed music, Jeremy John for the logo, Rebecca Shen for design work, Priyanshu Thapliyal for the Animal Highlight, and Christiaan Mentz for audio editing. A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Remaking One Health (ROH) IndiesThis project investigates people-dog interactions, dog ecology, and rabies prevention efforts in urbDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showThe Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website. Leave a Review on Podchaser Check out The Animal Turn Merch. Support us on Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, and Buzzsprout.

Claudia talks to scientist and author, Alexandra Horowitz about dogs’ cognition. They discuss everything from dogs’ sense of smell and capacity to play to how anthropomorphisms sometimes skew human understandings of what dogs are doing.  Date Recorded: 15 August 2024  Alexandra Horowitz heads the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College, where she also teaches seminars in canine cognition, creative nonfiction writing, and audio storytelling. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know and four other books, most recently The Year of the Puppy: How Dogs Become Themselves. She lives with her family of Homo sapiens, Canis familiaris, and Felis catus in New York City.  Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder is an animal studies geographer and podcast producer and host. Claudia has a PhD in Geography from Queen’s University, and her research is focused on the significance of the problematization of urban animals. She is particularly interested in multispecies urban spatial governance. Contact Claudia via email (info@theanimalturnpodcast.com) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne).  Featured: On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz S2E2: Cognitive Ethology with Marc Bekoff on The Animal Turn Bonus: Wonder(dog) with Jules Howard on The Animal Turn. Anthropomorphism and Anthropodenial by Frans de Waal  What is it like to be a bat? By Thomas Nagel The Study That Made Rats Jump for Joy, and Then Killed Them by Christine E Webb, Peter Woodford, and Elise Huchard. Can dogs tell the time? By BBC. Thank you to A.P.P.L.E for sponsoring this podcast; Gordon Clarke for the bed music, Jeremy John for the logo, and Rebecca Shen for her design work. This episode was edited and produced by the host Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder. A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showThe Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website. Leave a Review on Podchaser Check out The Animal Turn Merch. Support us on Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, and Buzzsprout.

Monica Murphy and Bill Wasik join Claudia on the show to talk about their recent book Our Kindred Creatures. They discuss how the late 19th century was a time of immense change for Americans and their relationships with animals became increasingly contradictory.  Date Recorded: 15 July 2024 Bill Wasik is the editorial director of The New York Times Magazine. Monica Murphy is a veterinarian and a writer. Their previous book, Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus, was a Los Angeles Times best seller and a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. They live in Brooklyn, New York. Featured: Our Kindred Creatures by Bill Wasik and Monica MurphyRabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus by Bill Wasik and Monica MurphyNature’s Metropolis by William CrononBonus: Veterinary Ethics and Animal Welfare with Sean WensleyS5E5: Animal Testing and its Alternatives with Thomas Hartung Rate us on Podchaser and check out our Merch Store. Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E) for sponsoring this podcast; Gordon Clarke (Instagram: @_con_sol_) for the bed music, Jeremy John for the logo. This episode was edited and produced by the show host Claudia Hirtenfelder.  A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showThe Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website. Leave a Review on Podchaser Check out The Animal Turn Merch. Support us on Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, and Buzzsprout.

Bonus: Animals in MediaTogether with Arukah Animal International, The Animal Turn co-hosted a panel discussion focused on "Animals in Media". Using a video about animalized hierarchies in contagion films as a prompt, Claire Parkinson, Susan McHugh, and Tobias Linné engaged in an open-ended about media, representation, power, and activism. Date Recorded: 22 May 2024Claire Parkinson is Professor of Culture, Communication and Screen Studies and Co-director of the Centre for Human Animal Studies at Edge Hill University. Her publications include the books Popular Media and Animals (2011), Beyond Human: From Animality to Transhumanism (2012), Animals, Anthropomorphism and Mediated Encounters (2019) and Animal Activism On and Off Screen (2024). Connect with Claire on Twitter (@molloy_claire).Susan McHugh, Professor of English at the University of New England, USA, researches and teaches literary, visual, and scientific narratives of cross-species relations.  She is the author of three monographs, most recently Love in a Time of Slaughters: Human-Animal Stories Against Genocide and Extinction (2019), and coeditor of six edited collections, including Animal Satire (2023). McHugh serves as co-editor of two book series, Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature and Plants and Animals: Interdisciplinary Approaches, as well as Editor-in-Chief of Society & Animals.Tobias Linné is an assistant professor at the Department of Communication and Media. His research explores veganism and how animals are made accessible for human consumption. In 2012, Tobias launched the course Critical Animals Studies. Animals in Society, Culture and the Media and he was later the coordinator for the project “Exploring ‘the Animal Turn’: Changing perspectives on human-animal relations in science, society and culA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Arukah Animal International Arukah Animal International seeks to end animal exploitation through advocacy, awareness, & the artsDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showThe Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website. Leave a Review on Podchaser Check out The Animal Turn Merch. Support us on Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, and Buzzsprout.

Sandra Bartlett, an award-winning journalist and former CBC producer, dives deep into the murky waters of fish farming in British Columbia. She highlights the troubling intersection of wild and farmed salmon, revealing how sea lice have ravaged marine life. Bartlett discusses the resistance from Indigenous communities against industry practices and exposes government collaboration that endangers ecosystems. Her investigative work sheds light on the ethical implications of salmon farming and the urgent need for change.

Using Carol Gigliotti’s book “The Creative Lives of Animals” as a backdrop,  this episode explores animals and the creative process.  From the artistic intricacies of humpback whales' bubble-net feeding to the sophisticated communication skills of prairie dogs, Carol guides us through a world where animals demonstrate remarkable creativity, highlighting how they make meaning for themselves. Date Recorded: 6 March 2024Carol Gigliotti is an author, artist, animal activist, and scholar whose work focuses on the reality of animals’ lives as important contributors to the biodiversity of this planet. She is Professor Emerita of Design and Dynamic Media and Critical and Cultural Studies at the Emily Carr University of Design, Vancouver, BC. Canada. Her book, The Creative Lives of Animals, (NYU Press, 2022) challenges the current assumptions of creativity, offering a more comprehensive understanding through recognizing animal creativity, cognition, consciousness, and agency. She is the editor of the book, Leonardo’s Choice: Genetic Technologies and Animals (Springer, 2009) and the author of numerous book chapters and journal essays on animals. Her work is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, The Sitka Center for the Arts, and Coppermoss, among others. Gigliotti is on several international advisory boards concerned either with media or animal studies and regularly reviews books in critical animal studies. Learn more about Carol on her website. Featured: The Animal Highlight, a sister podcast Animals and Experience, season 2 of The Animal Turn PodcastThe Creative Lives of Animals by Carol GigliottiAnimal Creativity and Innovation by Allison B Kaufman and James C KaufmanAn Immense World by Ed YongAdventures Among Ants by Mark MoffettTypes of Intelligence by Howard GardnerHolekamp research on hyenasThe Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins by Hal Whitehead and Luke RendellThe Case for Animal Rights by Tom ReganA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showThe Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website. Leave a Review on Podchaser Check out The Animal Turn Merch. Support us on Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, and Buzzsprout.

Sean Wensley, Senior Veterinarian for Animal Welfare at the PDSA, shares his insights on veterinary ethics and the challenges of advocating for animals. He discusses the moral dilemmas vets face in slaughterhouses and the complexities of animal welfare within societal norms. Wensley emphasizes the importance of transparency through CCTV in food production and the ethical implications of selective breeding. With a rich background in animal welfare and global contributions, he inspires listeners to reflect on the evolving relationships between humans and animals.

Over the years Claudia has mentioned her PhD research and journey, in this episode Catherine Oliver takes over as host and interviews Claudia about her research. They dwell on the concept of problematization and why it is important for thinking politically about urban animals.  Date Recorded: 3 October 2023  Claudia (Towne) Hirtenfelder is an animal studies geographer and podcast producer and host. Claudia has a PhD in Geography from Queen’s University, and her research is focused on the significance of the problematization of urban animals. She is particularly interested in multispecies urban spatial governance. Claudia is also the founder and host of The Animal Turn and The Animal Highlight podcasts. In 2021, she was awarded the AASA Award for Popular Communication and in 2023 she was nominated for two International Women’s Podcasting Awards for her work with The Animal Turn. Contact Claudia via email (info@theanimalturnpodcast.com) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne). Catherine Oliver is a geographer and lecturer in the Sociology of Climate Change based at Lancaster University. Her research interests are animals, more-than-human theory, and urban studies. Currently, Catherine is researching the avian worlds of Morecambe Bay.  Between 2020 and 2022, Catherine was researching the history and contemporary resurgence of backyard hens and their keepers in gardens and allotments in London, which she is writing about for her forthcoming book, The Chicken City. Previously, she researched veganism in Britain, and her book Veganism, Archives and Animals, was published in 2021 and her second book, What's Veganism For? will be published with Bristol University Press in 2024.  Featured: Cast Out Urbanites: The Historical Problematization of Cows in Kingston by Claudia Towne HirtenfelderAn Analytical Framework to Understand the Problematization of Urban (Historical) Animals by Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder.Finding Traces of Cows in the Archives and Telling Stories Differently by Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder (forthcoming)Milking economies: Multispecies entanglements in the infant formula industry by Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder and Carolyn ProuseWhy Study Problematizations? Making Politics Visible by Carol BacchiA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showThe Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website. Leave a Review on Podchaser Check out The Animal Turn Merch. Support us on Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, and Buzzsprout.

In this ‘Grad Review’ Claudia talks to Virginia Thomas and Darren Chang, two early career researchers interested in animals and politics. Together they unpack synergies, tensions, and omissions that emerged in the 6th Season of The Animal Turn podcast. They discuss the multiple scales at which politics is practiced and can be considered, the crisis of imagination that potentially exists among the animal advocacy movement as well as some of the conceptual development being done by scholars that can create space for more just, multispecies futures. Date Recorded: 15 December 2023.  Darren Chang is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, and a member of the Sydney Environment Institute, at the University of Sydney. His research interests broadly include interspecies relations under colonialism and global capitalism, practices of solidarity, kinship, and mutual aid across species in challenging oppressive powers, social movement theories, and multispecies justice.Through political (and politicised) ethnography at animal sanctuaries, Darren's PhD research project explores potential alignments and tensions between animal and other social and environmental justice movements. The multispecies dimension of this project also considers the place, positions, and subjectivities of nonhuman animals in relation to anthropogenic social movements. Virginia Thomas is an environmental social scientist with a PhD in Sociology. She is interested in people’s interactions with their environment and with other animals. Virginia’s work explores the social and ethical questions in human-animal relationships. She is currently a research fellow on the Wellcome Trust funded project ‘From Feed the Birds to Do Not Feed the Animals’ which examines the drivers and consequences of animal feeding. This leads on from her previous research which examined human-animal relations in the media (as part of zoonotic disease framing) and in rewilding projects (in relation to biopolitics and human-animal coexistence). You can connect with Virginia via Twitter (@ArbitrioHumano).  Featured: The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry BestonAnimals and Capital by Dinesh Wadiwel The Animal Turn is part of the  iROAR, an Animals Podcasting Network and can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, and A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showThe Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website. Leave a Review on Podchaser Check out The Animal Turn Merch. Support us on Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, and Buzzsprout.