ASI-University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Third Annual Human-Animal Studies Institute
Call for Applications – Application Deadline: February 28, 2019

The Animals & Society Institute and the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign invite applications for the third annual Human-Animal Studies Summer Institute program for advanced graduate students and early career scholars pursuing research in Human-Animal Studies.

This interdisciplinary program, inaugurated in 2017, is focused on graduate students and those in the first few years post-Ph.D. or other terminal degrees like M.F.A., M.S.W., D.V.M., or J.D., and will enable 20-30 participants to work on their dissertations or publications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosted by the Center for Advanced Study, for one intensive week. The 2019 Institute will take place from July 14-21, 2019, inclusive.

The Institute is designed to support participants’ individual research in Human-Animal Studies as well as to promote interdisciplinary exchange. The program will offer a shared space of critical inquiry that brings the participants’ work-in-progress to the attention of a network of influential HAS scholars, and provides the participants with the guidance and feedback to develop their work. At the heart of the program are daily morning seminars devoted to discussion of participants’ work, followed by afternoon plenary lectures by distinguished speakers.  These will be complemented by special workshops and field trips to on- and off-campus locations which highlight different aspects of the human-animal relationship. Participants should expect a stimulating intellectual environment reflecting a diversity of approaches, projects, disciplinary backgrounds, and ethical positions on animal issues. All fellows must be in continuous residence for the duration of the program.

Summer Institute Directors

The Institute is directed by Jane Desmond (Resident Director), Kim Marra, Margo DeMello, and Kenneth Shapiro.

Jane Desmond is Professor of Anthropology and of Gender/Women’s Studies at Illinois, where she also holds affiliate faculty appointments in the Unit for Critical Theory and Interpretation and the College of Veterinary Medicine.  She has published widely in the fields of performance studies, transnational American Studies, and on human-animal relations, and recently inaugurated the Animal Lives Book Series at the University of Chicago Press. Desmond is the author of two solo-authored books (Staging Tourism:  Bodies on Display from Waikiki to Sea World, U of Chicago Press, 1999) and Displaying Death and Animating Life:  Human-Animal Relations in Art, Science and Everyday Life, U of Chicago Press, 2016), two edited books on performance, a third co-edited book on globalization, and several special issues of journals in multiple countries, in addition to numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.  Her work has appeared in Hungary, South Korea (in translation and in English), in China (in translation), and in the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, and Brazil, as well as the United States.  In addition, she is the co-founder and Executive Director of the International Forum for US Studies:  A Center for the Transnational Study of the United States,” and is past President of the International American Studies Association (2008-2012).

Kim Marra is Professor of Theatre Arts and American Studies, Director of Graduate Studies in Theatre Arts, and affiliate faculty in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies at the University of Iowa. Her books include Strange Duets: Impresarios and Actresses in the American Theatre, 1865-1914 (University of Iowa Press, 2006, winner of the Joe A. Callaway Prize) and the co-edited volumes Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History (1998) and Staging Desire: Queer Readings of American Theater History (2002), The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy (2005), and Showing Off, Showing Up: Studies of Hype, Heightened Performance, and Cultural Power (2017), all for the University of Michigan Press. She performed an original autobiographical solo piece Horseback Views (published in Animal Acts), which inspired her prize-winning essay “Riding, Scarring, Knowing: A Queerly Embodied Performance Historiography” (Theatre Journal, 2012). She has also published essays on War Horse, Theatre Equestre Zingaro, Equus, and equestrian sculptures on the Parthenon Frieze. She is currently an associate editor of the Animal Lives Series of the University of Chicago Press.

Margo DeMello is Program Director of the Human-Animal Studies Program at the Animals and Society Institute, and is an Adjunct Professor at Canisius College’s Anthrozoology program. She also is the President of House Rabbit Society, an international rabbit advocacy organization. She has published a dozen books, and two dozen articles, in the fields of Human-Animal Studies and body studies, including two textbooks. Her most recent books include Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies (Columbia, 2012), Speaking for Animals: Animal Autobiographical Writing (Routledge, 2012), and Mourning Animals: Rituals and Practices Surrounding Animal Death (Michigan State, 2016).

Kenneth Shapiro is cofounder and President of the board of the Animals and Society Institute. He is founding editor of Society and Animals: Journal of Human-Animal Studies, and coeditor and cofounder of Journal for Applied Animal Welfare Science and the editor of the Human-Animal Studies book series. His most recent book is The Assessment and Treatment of Children who Abuse Animals: The AniCare Approach.

Guest Faculty: 

In addition to invited speakers from around the world and ASI faculty, the Institute will be supported by Illinois faculty affiliated with the Institute from many different disciplines.  We will also be posting a full list of speakers on our website and social media as soon as invitations are confirmed over the winter.

Tuition and Other Fees

The tuition fee for the Institute (which covers registration, housing, library access, special events, receptions, and seminars) is $800.  In addition, participants may choose to buy meals through the dining, with vegan and vegetarian options available. Students may also choose to eat at on- or off-campus restaurants.  We encourage applicants to seek funding from their Universities to cover expenses, and once accepted can supply documentation of acceptance to assist them in doing so.

Scholarships

We are offering a handful of scholarships to students at the advanced stages of their degree training who lack any summer support from their home institution or any external fellowship.  If you are interested in being considered for one of these scholarships, which covers the $800 tuition (and includes housing), please include a separate note along with our application stating your interest in the scholarship, and whether you also need help with travel.  In this request, please include the following information:

1. Are you applying for financial aid from the Summer Institute?
2. Are you currently employed? Full time? Part time?
3. Do you have any summer support from your department or home institution, etc.?
4. What are your estimated travel expenses?
5. Without a scholarship, will you not be able to attend the Institute?

Eligibility

Applicants must (1) be a doctoral student at the dissertation stage or early career scholars no more than four years past the Ph.D. or other terminal degree, or be a MSW, DVM, or JD student in the advanced stages of their degree; (2) have a commitment to advancing research in Human-Animal Studies; and (3), submit a follow-up report six months after the program’s completion. Applications are encouraged from the social sciences, humanities, arts, and natural sciences, as long as a part of the project is explicitly dealing with the human-animal relationship.

Application

Applicants should email electronic copies of the following items to fellowshipapplication@animalsandsociety.org.  Please name all of your documents in the following manner: Smith_Proposal; Smith_Abstract; Smith_CV, etc.

1. Cover sheet with the applicant’s name, mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address, institution name, date Ph.D. expected or received, citizenship/nationality, and title of project.
2. One paragraph abstract
3. One-page (single spaced) project proposal that describes the project and indicates work completed on the project to date.
   1. Since the description will be considered by a panel of scholars from a variety of disciplines, it should be written for non-specialists.
   2. Project proposal should include clear details about what draws the candidate to Human-Animal Studies, how far the applicant is along in the dissertation or planned publication, and what part of the project the applicant expects to accomplish during the course of the program.
   3. Proposals should also indicate how your work deepens an understanding of human-animal relations and, if appropriate to the project, how it might have long-term impacts or practical implications that may help improve human-animal relations.
4. Curriculum vitae of no more than 4 pages.
5. Short writing sample of no more than 20 pages.
6. Two letters of recommendation (pdfs of original letters recommended). These should be emailed by the referees themselves.

Applicants are responsible for contacting referees and supplying them with a description of the project, and making sure letters arrive on time. Incomplete applications cannot be considered.

Selection Process

The selection committee includes members from a range of disciplines connected to Human-Animal Studies.

Applications are evaluated on the basis of the contribution of the completed project to Human-Animal Studies, the qualifications of the applicant to complete the research, and how well the applicant’s project complements the other accepted projects. The Institute is dedicated to an inclusive vision of human-animal studies, and encourages applications from around the world and from scholars who are affiliated with communities traditionally under-represented in the academy and professions.  Limited financial assistance may be available to those with financial need. Applicants from UIUC may be eligible for UIUC scholarships.

Applicants will be notified by e-mail March 2019.

Please address all correspondence to us at: fellowshipapplication@animalsandsociety.org