Call for Papers: Working Across Disciplines on Animal History

Animal History Group Conference in partnership with the FIELD Project

Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 September 2023
University of Lincoln and Online

The Animal History Group is an international network for postgraduates, academics, archive and museum workers and other professionals whose work engages with animals in history. We are delighted to announce that, on 11 and 12 September 2023, we will be holding our seventh annual conference. As a hybrid event, we’re also delighted that this will be our first opportunity to host an in-person conference since 2019.

This year, our conference is a special partnership event with the FIELD team, celebrating the conclusion of their five-year research project. FIELD is a Wellcome Trust funded project which has brought together historians, social scientists, economists and epidemiologists to investigate persisting endemic livestock disease.

Taking the interdisciplinary approach of the FIELD project as inspiration, the theme for this year’s conference is ‘Working Across Disciplines on Animal History’. We therefore welcome papers which bring any interdisciplinary insights into historical animal subjects, for example (but not limited to): historical geography, social sciences, archaeology, the history of art, the history of science and medicine, oral history, and creative artistic practice. We set no limitations on species or period, and welcome papers exploring any aspect of human-animal relationships, whether concerning companion animals, livestock, wild animals, animal health and disease, or animal afterlives as museum specimens or artefacts. Submissions from graduate students are especially encouraged.

Speakers will be convened into panels of related 15-20 minute papers by the conference organisers, with a shared session for questions at the end of each panel. The event will be hosted at the University of Lincoln, with live-streaming enabling participation online for attendees who cannot or do not wish to travel to the event in person. Speakers will be requested to attend in-person, and we are able to offer some financial support towards travel and accommodation for those who do not have access to institutional funds. Please do get in touch with any questions you may have regarding in-person attendance.

Paper proposals should be submitted to animalhistorygroup@gmail.com. Please include a title, an abstract (up to 250 words) and a speaker biography (up to 100 words).

The deadline for submissions is 16 June.

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