The Call for Papers has now closed.
The 2023 Conference of the Australasian Animal Studies Association will be held in-person at the University of Sydney on the 27th and 28th of November 2023, as part of the Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
The Conference theme – Animal Cultures – encompasses emerging scientific and philosophical considerations of culture in non-human animal communities, as well as culturally-informed human views of other animals. Cultural transmission has been observed in a wide array of species (Whiten 2021), facilitating the acquisition of social and ecological knowledge and behaviours that influence biological and social wellbeing (Brakes et al. 2019).
Applying a cultural focus can be problematic, as it considers non-human animals through an anthropocentric construct. Animal Cultures will address the affordances and complexities of “culture/s” within animal studies.
In addition to the wide array of topics presented by scholars at AASA’s Conferences, we are interested exploring Animal Cultures from perspectives, including but not limited to:
- New interpretations of non-human animal culture and knowledge
- Indigenous knowledges of animal cultures
- Cross cultural and multicultural approaches to animal life
- Global animal networks
- Non-human animals and environmental protection
- Political organisations
- Transmissions of knowledge through space, time, sound, bodies, and dance
- Symbiotic animal cultures
- Cross-species cultures
- The culture of Animal Studies
Deadlines:
- Submissions open: Friday 26 May 2023
- Submissions close: Friday 21 July 2023
- Notification of results: Friday 4 August 2023
All proposals for papers and panels are welcome where they are aligned with the Vision and Mission of the Association.
Download a social media image pack for the Conference at: https://animalstudies.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AASA23_socials.zip
Brakes, Philippa, et al. 2019. Animal cultures matter for conservation. Science 363(6431), 1032—1034, doi: 10.1126/science.aaw3557
Whiten, Andrew. 2021. The burgeoning reach of animal culture. Science 372(46), doi: 10.1126/science.abe6514