The Animal Turn

In this final episode of Season 4 two graduate students, Hannah Hunter and Bailey Hilgren, chat with Claudia about some of the core themes and tensions to emerge from the season. This includes a focus on sound methodologies, such as issues with how we collect animal sounds to how (or even indeed whether) there is something special about sound in trying to understand the lives of animals.    Date Recorded: 2 May 2022 Bailey Hilgren is a musicologist and sound studies scholar about to begin a PhD in ethnomusicology at New York University. Her most recent research project traced environmentalists’ construction of a wilderness area in northern Minnesota as a primarily silent place, an idea and legal practice that has undermined non-human animal agency and limited Ojibwe sovereignty in related but distinct ways. She holds master’s degrees in Environmental Studies from the University of Oregon and Historical Musicology from Florida State University, and she completed undergraduate studies in biology and music performance from Gustavus Adolphus College.  Hannah Hunter is a PhD Candidate at the Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory at Queen's University. Her research explores the intersections of animals, sounds, and extinction through the case study of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Hannah is particularly interested in how we can build relationships with distant and lost beings through sound, and how sound may be a potent force for representing and challenging the sixth mass extinction. Connect with Hannah via email (hannah.hunter@queensu.ca) or on Twitter (@HannahfHunter)  Featured: Animal Musicalities: Birds, Beasts, and Evolutionary Listening by Rachel Mundy; Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies by Dylan Robinson; A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. Sonic Arts StudioThe Queen’s Sonic Arts Studio (formerly Electroacoustic Music Studio) was founded in 1970.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.

Claudia talks to conservationist and ecologist Gloriana Chaverri about the numerous and diverse ways in which bats communicate. This bonus episode deviates from the usual focus on concepts to a more sustained focus on this large order of animals  Date Recorded: 29 March 2022 Gloriana Chaverri is an Associate Professor at the Golfito campus of the University of Costa Rica. She is also a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Her research with bats first focused on the topic of mating systems and social organization, and her past and current projects have a broad focus on the ecology, behavior and conservation of bats. However, Gloriana’s main interests is currently on bat vocal communication, a topic that she has been developing since 2009. Connect with Gloriana on Twitter (@morceglo) and learn more about her work on her website (www.batcr.com).  Claudia (Towne) Hirtenfelder is the founder and host of The Animal Turn. She is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University and is currently undertaking her own research project looking at the geographical and historical relationships between animals (specifically cows) and cities. She was recently awarded the AASA Award for Popular Communication for her work on the podcast. Contact Claudia via email (info@theanimalturnpodcast.com) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne). Featured: Social communication in bats by Gloriana Chaverri, Leonardo Ancillotto, and Danilo Russo; Social calls used by a leaf-roosting bat to signal location by Gloriana Chaverri, Erin H. Gillam and Maarten J. Vonhof; A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson; bat sound recordings made by Richard Ranft from the British Library’s Wildlife & Environmental Sounds. The Animal Turn is part of the  iROARA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. Sonic Arts StudioThe Queen’s Sonic Arts Studio (formerly Electroacoustic Music Studio) was founded in 1970.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.

Claudia talks to Denise Herzing about her decades of fieldwork with Atlantic Spotted Dolphins in the Bahamas. They touch on some of what she has learnt about dolphins in the wild and the ways in which they communicate using sound. They also talk about the significance and challenges of doing extended field studies.  Date Recorded: 23 March 2022 Denise Herzing is the Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project. Denise has spent decades working with Atlantic spotted dolphins in Bahamian waters. She has a B.S. in Marine Zoology, an M.A. in Behavioral Biology and a Ph.D. in Behavioral Biology/Environmental Studies. Denise is an Affiliate Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. In addition to becoming a Guggenheim Fellow in 2008, Denise is a fellow with the Explorers Club, a scientific advisor for the Lifeboat Foundation and the American Cetacean Society, and on the board of Schoolyard Films. Over and above her numerous academic articles, Denise is the author of Dolphin Diaries: My 25 years with Spotted Dolphins in the Bahamas and The Wild Dolphin Project as well as the co-editor of Dolphin Communication and Cognition. You can learn more about Denise and her on the Wild Dolphin Project Website.  Claudia (Towne) Hirtenfelder is the founder and host of The Animal Turn. She is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University and is currently undertaking her own research project looking at the geographical and historical relationships between animals (specifically cows) and cities. She was recently awarded the AASA Award for Popular Communication for her work on the podcast. Contact Claudia via email (info@theanimalturnpodcast.com) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne). Featured: A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Sonic Arts StudioThe Queen’s Sonic Arts Studio (formerly Electroacoustic Music Studio) was founded in 1970.Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. 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 episode Claudia chats to Rachel Mundy about the concept “Sonic Specimen” they talk about the historical categorisation of sound illustrates some of the ways in which humans and animals have been hierarchically thought of. They touch on how this has shaped and is shaped by the institutional production of knowledge also hinting at the usefulness of related concepts like “animanities” and “translation”.  Date Recorded: 10 March 2022 Rachel Mundy is an Associate Professor of Music in the Arts, Culture and Media Program at Rutgers University. She is primarily concerned with the way animal musicality has defined modern notions of life and rights in a post-climate change world. For Rachel, this is an interdisciplinary question that brings musical science into conversation with Western beliefs about race, gender, nation, and other forms of difference. In a series of nationally-recognized books, articles, and public lectures, Rachel has explored these questions through cases that connect human rights to animal voices.  Find out more about Rachel on her university website or email her questions directly (rmm290@newark.rutgers.edu).  Claudia (Towne) Hirtenfelder is the founder and host of The Animal Turn. She is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University and is currently undertaking her own research project looking at the geographical and historical relationships between animals (specifically cows) and cities. She was recently awarded the AASA Award for Popular Communication for her work on the podcast. Contact Claudia via email (info@theanimalturnpodcast.com) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne). Featured: Animal Musicalities: Birds, Beasts, and Evolutionary Listening by Rachel Mundy; Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science by Donna Haraway; A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. 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.

Claudia talks to Jeremy Gordon about the concept “Republic of Noise”. They discuss the relationship between noise and politics and think through how noise might be used as a tool that enables listening and democracy. They “riff” with each other trying to think through the tensions between noise and harmony as well as whose sounds are considered pleasant or not and how that shapes how one belongs to place.   Date Recorded: 9 February 2022 Jeremy Gordon is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Gonzaga University who studies and teaches where environmental communication, environmental studies, and critical animal studies get entangled. He is obsessed with questions of how ecological relations are “rhetorically” animated – by human and more-than-human messmates. Specifically, how urban ecologies and feral spaces are, and should be, shaped by everyday creaturely encounters. Jeremy has co-edited a special volume on “animal rhetoric” for Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and is currently enchanted by, and kinning with, the feral chickens of Tampa, Florida’s Ybor City. Those chickens have scratched and strutted their way into The Journal of Urban Affairs and Dr. Laura Reese’s edited book on Animals in the City. Find out more about Jeremy on his University website. Featured: A fowl politics of urban dwelling. Or, Ybor City’s republic of noise; Of fowl feet, beaks, and streets: eyes on the ground in Ybor City by Jeremy G. Gordon; Ybor Chicken Society ; The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening by Jennifer Lynn Stoever; Practices of Space and A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Sonic Arts StudioThe Queen’s Sonic Arts Studio (formerly Electroacoustic Music Studio) was founded in 1970.Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. 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.

Claudia talks to Eva Meijer about voice as a concept that helps us to think about animal sounds and practices in a more politicised way. Eva touches on how a broader conception of politics and voice allows for a more nuanced actions in response to animals and the lives they are trying to lead. They also touch on the usefulness of a variety of languages, mediums, and disciplines in becoming proficient in listening to animals. Date Recorded: 25 January 2022Eva Meijer is a philosopher and writer. Meijer works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam (NL), on the four-year research project The politics of (not) eating animals, supported by a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council. She is the chair of the Dutch study group for Animal Philosophy. Recent publications include Animal Languages (John Murray 2019) and When animals speak. Toward an Interspecies Democracy (New York University Press 2019). Meijer wrote eleven books, fiction and non-fiction, that have been translated into eighteen languages. More information: www.evameijer.nlFeatured:  When Animals Speak: Toward an Interspecies Democracy and Zwaan Eva Meijer; Phenomenology of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty; Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights  by Will Kymlicka and Sue Donaldson; Inclusion and Democracy  by Iris Marion Young; Deep Listening: A Composer's Sound Practice by Pauline Oliveros; Living with Birds  by Len Howard; Canada Goose calls March 1966A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Sonic Arts StudioThe Queen’s Sonic Arts Studio (formerly Electroacoustic Music Studio) was founded in 1970.Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. 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 episode Claudia talks to musicologist Martin Ullrich about animals and music. Together they touch on the multiple ways in which music and animals intersect from how animals inspire human music, to how animals make and listen to music, and the ethics of more-than-human musical encounters. They find that the focus on animals and music destabilizes anthropocentric understandings of both culture and aesthetics. Date Recorded: 15 December 2021 Martin Ullrich studied piano in Frankfurt and Berlin as well as music theory in Berlin too. He received his PhD in musicology in 2005. His main research area is sound and music in the context of more-than-human aesthetics (nonhuman animals and music, artificial intelligence and music), with an emphasis on human-animal studies. He has presented and chaired at international conferences and has published on animal music and the relationship between animal sounds and human music. Martin was a professor for music theory at Berlin University of the Arts from 2005 to 2009 and the president of Nuremberg University of Music from 2009 to 2017. Since 2017, he has worked as a professor for interdisciplinary musicology and human-animal studies at Nuremberg University of Music. Find Martin on Facebook and Twitter (@MResearchHAS).   Featured: Human-Elephant Encounters in Music by Martin Ullrich; Animal Music: David Rothenberg, Dario Martinelli, and Martin Ullrich Exchange Their Views on the Topic Minding Animals: Studies and Research Contributions  by Jessica Ullrich;  The Critical Posthumanities; Or, Is Medianatures to Naturecultures as Zoe Is to Bios?  by Rosi Braidotti; Piano for Elephants by Paul Barton on Youtube; A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. Sonic Arts StudioThe Queen’s Sonic Arts Studio (formerly Electroacoustic Music Studio) was founded in 1970.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 episode Claudia talks to Cheryl Tipp about sound archives, how they are managed and the ways in which animal studies scholars might use them in trying to research animals. Together they think about why some sounds are included in national archives more than others as well as how recordings of nature and animal voices are valued. Date Recorded: 1 December 2021 Cheryl Tipp is the British Library’s Curator of Wildlife & Environmental Sounds. With a background in zoology and library services, Cheryl has spent the past 16 years looking after the Library’s world-renowned collection of 300,000 species and habitat recordings. She has worked extensively on projects that encourage the creative reuse of archival content, from student videogames to short films from emerging filmmakers, and has written widely on the history of wildlife sound recording. Connect with Cheryl on Twitter (@CherylTipp). Featured: Environment and Sound Archiveat the British Library; Grey Wolfby Tom Cosburn; Haddock by A.D. Hawkins;  Animal Language: How Animals Communicate by Julian Huxley, The Sound and Vision Blog, The Zooniverse Project; Wildlife Sound Recording Society; Seaspiracy; What a Fish Knows by Jonathan Balcombe; A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Sonic Arts StudioThe Queen’s Sonic Arts Studio (formerly Electroacoustic Music Studio) was founded in 1970.Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. 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 episode Claudia continues the focus on methodology as it relates to animals and sound. This time Mickey Vallee joins The Animal Turn to talk about the concept of bioacoustics and how using bioacoustics methods alters the ways researchers relate to their research subjects – who are often animals. They discuss some of the theory and ideas circulating bioacoustics generally and Mickey’s experiences more specifically.  Date Recorded: 26 October 2021 Mickey Vallee is an associate professor of interdisciplinary studies at Athabasca University in Alberta, where he also holds the Canada Research Chair in Community, Identity and Digital Media. His work focuses on developing interdisciplinary sonic methodologies to develop new insights on human/animal relations. He has been working on a theory of critical bioacoustics, which grows out of his empirical research with bioacoustics researchers across Canada and the United States. Against a mechanistic ideology of bioacoustics sciences, critical bioacoustics, by contrast, builds a new ethical system that is less focused on the atomistic constitution of the organism than it is on the primacy of relations in sonic communication. Read more about Mickey here or connect with him on Twitter (@mickeyvallee).  Featured: Keynote Lecture by Prof Rosi Braidotti  at the Posthumanism and Society Conference; Wikipedia page about Little Nipper; A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Gilles Delueze and Flex; What would animals say if we asked the right questions by Vinciane Despret; Listening by Jean-Luc Nancy and Charlotte Mandell; A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. Sonic Arts StudioThe Queen’s Sonic Arts Studio (formerly Electroacoustic Music Studio) was founded in 1970.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 episode Claudia talks to Jonathan Prior about sonic methods and together they try to explore the ways in which methods such as recording, sound walking, and listening could help animal studies scholars better understand and appreciate the animals and worlds they are most concerned with.  Date Recorded: 12 October 2021 Dr Jonathan Prior is a lecturer in Human Geography at Cardiff University, Wales. His research and publications take an interdisciplinary approach, spanning environmental philosophy, sound studies, and landscape research. His first book, Between Nature and Culture: The Aesthetics of Modified Environments, co-authored with Emily Brady and Isis Brook, was published in 2018 by Rowman & Littlefield. You can access some of Jonathan’s recordings on his audio project website (12 Gates to the City) or archived on the Internet Archive. You can also learn more about Jonathan;s work on his university’s website or connect with him on Twitter (@jd_prior).   Claudia (Towne) Hirtenfelder is the founder and host of The Animal Turn. She is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University and is currently undertaking her own research project looking at the geographical and historical relationships between animals (specifically cows) and cities. Contact Claudia via email (info@theanimalturnpodcast.com) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne). Featured: Sonic Geographies, exploring phonographic methods by Michael Gallagher and Jonathan Prior; The reintroduction of beavers to Scotland by Kim Ward and Jonathan Prior; Making Noise in the Roaring twenties: Sound and Aural History on the Web by Emily Thompson; Acoustic Ecology and the World SounA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab)The SAP Lab provides workspace and equipment for students engaged in sound related activities. Sonic Arts StudioThe Queen’s Sonic Arts Studio (formerly Electroacoustic Music Studio) was founded in 1970.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.