Australasian Animal Studies Association

Australian Animal Law – Teya Brooks Pribac in conversation with Elizabeth Ellis

‘Courts … are slow to embrace change,’ said a judge who considered (and refused) a proposal to extend legal rights to chimpanzees, but she also added, citing a different judge: ‘times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress.’[1] […]

Member Publication: Dinesh Wadiwel

Wadiwel, Dinesh. (2022). “Le Voreux: Scenes of Animal Labour in Emile Zola’s Germinal.” In Animal Remains. Edited by Sarah Bezan and Robert McKay, Routledge, pp. 158-180. What scholarly disciplines are most relevant to this publication?   My essay examines a novel – Emile Zola’s Germinal – and is published as a chapter in a collection which […]

Member blog: Justine Philip

— Growing up, I always gravitated towards animals – I avoided eating meat, I grieved deeply when my companion animals passed away, and spent every holiday in the company of dogs, cats, horses, chickens and lambs on my grandparents’ farm in Taranaki, Aotearoa-New Zealand.  Decades later, I was listening to an ABC radio interview with […]

Member publication: Michelle Szydlowski

Szydlowski, Michelle (2022) ‘Elephants in Nepal: Correlating Disease, Tourism, and Welfare’, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, https://doi.org/10.1080/10888705.2022.2028628   What scholarly disciplines are most relevant to this publication?   This paper draws upon biology, tourism studies, and the social sciences. Individual elephants are caught between conservation efforts and commodification; their outcomes dependent upon classification by humans […]

Member blog: Rebecca Hendershott

The paths we take are rarely linear. Mine has felt like I keep circling around the same topic – knowing animals – but from different angles. I have explored animal rights, intersubjectivity, and conservation, with various species as my teachers. As a child, family pets taught me to think beyond the human – to recognise […]

Member Blog: Natalie Lis

I work in an avian-centric home and cohabitate with a combination of distinct individuals. Sharing a home and garden with birds is anchored in a relationship of respect. Each bird is an independent adult who has their own ideas of friendship, hobbies and food preferences; and while some birds stand on my head while I […]

Member blog: Siobhan O’Sullivan

I did a traditional politics degree, with little to no nonhuman animal content. When I got to honours level I was told that I could write about ‘anything’. At that time I was very involved in animal protection politics. I decided that anything could stretch to animals. I wrote my honours thesis on nonhuman animals […]

Member publication: Yamini Narayanan

Narayanan, Y. (2021). ‘Animating Caste: Visceral Geographies of Pigs, Caste And Violent Nationalisms in Chennai City.’ Urban Geography.  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02723638.2021.1890954?journalCode=rurb20 What scholarly disciplines are most relevant to this publication?   This paper reflects on how caste and species as identity categories intersect in political life in India, generating possibilities for such intersectional thinking well beyond India as […]

Member publication: Muhammad Kavesh

Kavesh, M. A. (2021). ‘Sensuous entanglements: a critique of cockfighting conceived as a “cultural text.”’ The Senses and Society. 16.2:152-163. https://doi.org/10.1080/17458927.2020.1858653 What scholarly disciplines are most relevant to this publication?   My paper involves a critical re-examination of anthropologist Clifford Geertz’s famous essay on Balinese cockfighting. In addition, scholars interested in the study of hegemonic masculinity […]

Member blog: Roslyn Appleby

I grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, but was lucky to inherit a passionate attachment to rural ‘nature’ through family holidays. Caravanning was a favourite activity, and my father always chose the most remote location he could find to plant our family of six plus the family dog, Sandy. On arrival, Dad’s idea of […]