Glenn Albrecht, Jill Bough and Rod Bennison, Minding Animals conference convenors

A collection of papers from the Hobart conference has been accepted by Ashgate for publication in 2010. Called Considering Animals: Contemporary Studies in Human-Animal Relations, it will be edited by Elizabeth Leane, Yvette Watt and Carol Freeman. It includes contributions by Steve Baker, Philip Armstrong, Kay Milton, Wendy Woodward and Jonathan Balcombe, with a foreword by Marc Bekoff. The editors, aware of the political turn in HAS, asked contributors to encourage readers to consider the ways in which non-human animals are represented to ourselves; to be considerate of animals, recognizing their capacity for pain and pleasure; and to remain aware that animals are themselves considering beings – they think, communicate, and have agency.

Further papers from the Hobart conference have been published in Australian Zoologist. This journal has been consistently supportive of human-animal studies in Australia. The papers address dingoes, rural children’s understanding of animals and newspaper representations of sharks – including the now-famous paper titled “Man grabs shark with bare hands, blames vodka”.

Papers from the third conference of the Australian Animals Studies Group are currently being reviewed by the Newcastle conference committee for possible publication in the following journals: Humanimalia, Society and Animals, and PAN (Philosophy, Activism, Nature).