The Animal Turn

Claudia chats with Kathryn Gillespie about the ways in which the geography in general and the concept of intimate geography in particular aid in generating knowledge about animals’ experiences.  The concept is both theoretically and methodologically rich allowing for focus not only on animals’ experiences but how researchers’ relations with, proximity to, and understanding of animals’ bodies and lives alters the way we come to know said experience.   Date recorded: 29 September 2020 Kathryn Gillespie is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Kentucky in Geography and the Applied Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program. Her work explores the everyday geographies of violence in which humans and other species are entangled. She is the author of The Cow with Ear Tag #1389 (University of Chicago Press, 2018) and co-editor of Vulnerable Witness (University of California Press, 2019), Critical Animal Geographies (Routledge, 2015), and Economies of Death (Routledge, 2015). She has also published her work in such journals as Hypatia, Gender, Place, and Culture, Animal Studies Journal, Politics and Animals, and Environment and Planning A. Connect with her on her website (http://kathrynagillespie.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 historical relationships between animals (specifically cows) and cities. Contact Claudia via email (towne@live.co.za) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne). Featured:  The Cow with Ear Tag #1389, Intimacy, animal emotion, and empathy: Multispecies intimacy as slow research practice, and Sexualized violence and the gendered commodification of the animal body in Pacific Northwest US dairy production by Kathryn Gillespie; Apologiaby Barry Lopez; At Rest by Emma Kisiel; Pigs Peace Sanctuary;  Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, LaA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. 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 Jeffrey Bussolini, a phenomenologist with a keen interest in feline experiences, about how art and aesthetics can provide a novel way of exploring and reconceptualising animals’ experiences.   Date recorded: 16 September 2020 Jeffrey Bussolini is Co-Director of the Center for Feline Studies and the Avenue B Multi-Studies Center, and associate professor at the City University of New York.  He studied at Georgetown University, CUNY, the Sorbonne (Paris 1), and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Since 1995 he and colleagues have researched the phenomenological dimensions of feline and human interaction, focusing especially on the spatial, ethological, and social dimensions of feline-feline and feline-human relationships.  Among the topics they have pursued are dualist versus monist conceptual foundations for phenomenological accounts, the surprising practice of cats eating chile peppers, and cats as artists and artmakers.  In 2016 he and others curated the first exhibition of cat produced artworks at New York City gallery Adjacent to Life. Connect with Jeffrey via Twitter (@jefribussolini)  or email (bussolini@gmail.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 historical relationships between animals (specifically cows) and cities. Contact Claudia via email (towne@live.co.za) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne). Feautured:  The Phenomenology of Animal Life by Dominique Lestel, Jeffrey Bussolini, and Matthew Chrulew; Congo the Chimpanzee by the Mayor Gallery; The Different Modes of Existence by Étienne Souriau; The Philosophical Ethology of Roberto Marchesini by Jeffrey Bussolini; Over the Human: Post-humanism and the Concept of Animal Epiphany by Roberto Marchesini; A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. 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 well-known author Carl Safina about ‘animal culture’ and how culture is a crucial part of how some animals come to understand and experience the world. They chat about the incredible ways culture manifests in animals’ experiences and touch on what a serious consideration of animal culture could mean for conservation efforts.  Date recorded: 25 August 2020 Carl Safina grew up raising pigeons, training hawks and owls, and spending as many days and nights in the woods and on the water as he could. He is known for hislyrical non-fiction writing which fuses scientific understanding, emotional connection, and a moral call to action noting how humans are changing the living world, and what the changes mean for non-human beings and for us all. Safina is the author of ten books including his classic Song for the Blue Ocean, the New York Times Bestseller Beyond Words; What Animals Think and Feel and his most recent title, Becoming Wild; How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, TIME, The Guardian, and the National Geographic, amongst others. He has won numerous literary prizes including the MacArthur “genius” prize and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals. In addition to his writing Safina was the host of the PBS series Saving the Ocean, he is the first Endowed Professor for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University, and he is the founding president of the not-for-profit Safina Center. Connect with Carl Safina on his website (www.carlsafina.org), through his non-for-profit (www.safinacenter.org) or on Twitter (@Carl Safina). 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 historical relationships between animals (specifically cows) and cities. Contact Claudia via email (towne@live.co.za) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne). Featured:  Chimp Vs Human: Memory Test by the BBC; Crowboarding: Russian roof-surfin' bird caught on tape by Aleksey Vnukov; Black Swans Surfing at the Gold Coast, Australia;  S4:E19 – A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. 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 Marc Bekoff about the field of ‘cognitive ethology’ and how researchers can better learn about animals through attentively watching them and taking seriously their personal experiences. They touch on some of the tensions of how you can ‘know’ other animals’ experiences through and why taking the time to understand their worlds is so important.  Date recorded: 14 August 2020Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has published 31 books, won many awards for his research on animal behaviour, animal emotions, compassionate conservation, and animal protection, and is a former Guggenheim Fellow. Marc's latest books are Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do and Unleashing Your Dog: A Field Guide to Giving Your Canine Companion the Best Life Possible (with Jessica Pierce) and he also publishes regularly for Psychology Today. Marc and Jessica have recently written a book about what the world will be like for dogs as and when humans disappear (Dogs Gone Wild: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World Without Humans, forthcoming). In 1986 Marc won the Master's age-graded Tour de France. Connect with mark on his website (A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. 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.

S2E1: Phenomenology with Zipporah WeisbergIn the first episode of Season 2, which is focusing on ‘Animals and Experience’, Claudia speaks to independent scholar Zipporah Weisberg about the concept ‘Phenomenology’. They touch on the potential of phenomenology as a concept and a practice for better understanding the lives and experiences of animals, also contemplating some of the tensions that are embedded therein.  Date recorded: 12 August 2020 Zipporah Weisberg is an Independent Scholar, animal activist, and contemporary dancer currently living in Granada, Spain. Her areas of specialization include: Critical Animal Studies, the Critical Theory of the Early Frankfurt School, and Existentialism and Phenomenology. In 2013 Zipporah completed her PhD in Social and Political Thought at York University, and was awarded the APPLE postdoc fellowship, which was renewed for a second year. During the tenure of the fellowship, Zipporah's research focused especially on the ethics of biotechnology and the phenomenology of animal life, and led to the publications of "Biotechnology as End Game: Ontological and Ethical Collapse in the 'Biotech Century'" (NanoEthics, 2015) and "The Simple Magic of Life: Phenomenology and Re-enchantment" (Humanimalia, 2015). Zipporah is currently working on a paper about interspecies friendship and the politics of Eros. Connect with Zipporah on Academia.edu or via email (zipporah.weisberg@gmail.com). Host: Claudia Hirtenfelder is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University and is currently undertaking her own research project looking at the historical relationships between animals and cities. Contact Claudia via email (17ch38@queensu.ca) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne). Featured readings:  A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans with A Theory of Meaning by Jacob von Uexküll; Phenomenology of Perceptionby Maurice Merleau-Ponty; The Simple Magic of Life: Phenomenology and Re-enchantment by Zipporah Weisberg; A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. 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.

Hira Jaleel, a lawyer from Pakistan passionate about animal rights, joins Paulina Siemieniec, a PhD student exploring animal ethics and politics. They reflect on crucial themes from the season, tackling the legal classifications of animals as property versus sentient beings. The duo discusses global disparities in animal rights, particularly the contrasting approaches of Western nations and the Global South. Their conversation emphasizes the interconnected nature of human and animal oppression, advocating for a more nuanced legal framework that enhances animal welfare.

Valéry Giroux, a coordinator at the Center for research in ethics and law expert, discusses the intricate link between liberty and animal rights. She explores the philosophical implications of animal freedom and critiques traditional autonomy, pushing for legal personhood for animals. Valéry emphasizes recognizing sentience as a moral consideration, promoting strong protections for sentient beings. The conversation also delves into how advocating for animal rights intersects with broader social causes, revealing the need for structural legal changes.

Frédéric Côté-Boudreau, a philosophy scholar from Montréal, dives deep into the concept of animal autonomy. He discusses the ethical dilemmas of recognizing choices animals might want to make, challenging traditional views on freedom and law. The conversation highlights the intersection of speciesism and ableism, advocating for more inclusive definitions of autonomy. They also examine practical implications in legal frameworks, emphasizing the need for society to acknowledge animal rights and individuality, inspiring rethinking of human-animal relationships.

Claudia speaks to Saskia Stucki, who sees overlaps between International Humanitarian Law and Animal Welfare Law as providing fertile ground for legal conceptual development. Saskia Stucki believes ‘Animal Warfare Law’ offers a way forward for considering how animal welfare and animal rights could better complement one another. Date recorded: 6 May 2020Guest: Saskia Stucki is Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany. In 2018/2019, she was a visiting researcher at the Harvard Law School Animal Law & Policy Program, where she worked on her two-year postdoctoral research project “Trilogy on a Legal Theory of Animal Rights” (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation). She studied law at the University of Basel, Switzerland, where she also obtained her doctoral degree in 2015. The resulting book on “Fundamental Rights for Animals” (2016) won four awards, among other the biennial award of the Swiss Association for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Her research interests include animal law and ethics, animal personhood and rights, legal animal studies and comparative animal welfare law, legal theory, human rights philosophy, international humanitarian law, and environmental law. You can find out more about Saskia and her work here. Host: Claudia Hirtenfelder is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University and is currently undertaking her own research project that looks at the historical relationships between animals and cities. Contact Claudia via email (17ch38@queensu.ca) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne).Featured readings:  The Humanization of Humanitarian Law by Theodor Meron; The War Against Animals by Dinesh Wadiwel; and Beyond Animal Welfare/Warfare Law: Humanizing the war on animals and the need for complementary animal rights by Saskia Stucki (forthcoming)Bed Music created by Gordon Clarke (Instagram: @_con_sol_)Podcast Logo created by Jeremy John (Website)Sponsored by Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics – A.P.P.L.E (Website) Part of iROAR, an Animals Podcasting Network and theA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. 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 insightful discussion, Siobhan O’Sullivan, a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and animal welfare advocate, unpacks the controversial Ag-Gag laws and their emergence in Australia. She shares her journey in animal studies and the creation of the iROAR podcast network to promote animal issues. The conversation highlights the challenges activists face in exposing factory farming practices and the critical need for visibility in animal welfare advocacy. O’Sullivan emphasizes the tension between community values and political structures, urging for greater accountability in confronting these laws.