ReadingAnimals

The Columbia University Press blog has a great entry about the books and authors who are influential to Critical Animal Studies and the flood of interest in the discipline. The author, Wendy Lochner, who is herself a journal editor, reflects on the power of books in her intellectual journey:

“I began to read work by Cora Diamond, Cary Wolfe, John Coetzee, Alice Crary, and others, who convinced me of the power of literature to advance the animal issue. Soon I discovered that many ethologists, religion scholars, and sociologists were also committed to showing the scientific, social-scientific, and humanities bases for a loving involvement with animals as part of a worldview in which the “question of the animal” becomes a fundamental concern of critical inquiry, one in which the terms, concepts, and forms of evidence that we use can themselves be questioned in terms of the presuppositions they make about animals and human—and nonhuman—animal relationships.”

I couldn’t agree with Wendy more. For me, the journey from the disciplinary traditions of anthropology to those of ethology represented one major shift - one of thinking about animals in terms of what they mean to human culture and human evolution to thinking about animals in their own right. As an ethologist, though, I was still deeply unsettled by the fact that the individual was often invisible (primatology is sometimes an exception, e.g. Goodall) and that the experiences of any given individual, especially when they were colored by pain and suffering of a human origin, still didn’t “count.” Indeed, I languished in the writing of my dissertation for over a year after returning from the field struggling with the fact that what I was writing did not honor the stories of the individuals and families who I had come to know.

It wasn’t until I realized the need/ability to enjoin perspectives from the sciences and social sciences, and then bumbled my way into the the contributions of the humanities on the “the question of the animal” that I actually found an intellectual space that allowed and encouraged the very thinking that had been so eschewed and constrained in the past. Ten years in university studying and thinking about animals on a daily basis and one never hears of animal studies? Apparently it is possible. It felt like discovering hidden treasure. Admittedly, it was hidden treasure that might have been in plain sight all along if only books (and academics?) were allowed to co-mingle instead of being kept on different floors, or indeed in different buildings, as entities that ought never fraternize.

ReadingAnimals was born of my journey through books about animals as I wandered from one discipline to the next and eventually found myself a resident of the borderlands between them that make up critical animal studies. (see my essay on books as artefacts for more on that) Perhaps, then, it’s no surprise that Wendy’s post struck such a chord. So to Wendy, thank you!

It’s a great post full of wisdom and great suggestions. Please to enjoy
Why Animal Studies Now?: A Short Personal Note from the Editor

Be sure to check out the list of CUP titles on Animal Studies, a few of which appear below.

Plan to add any of the CUP titles to your TBR list? Have you reviewed any of them? If so, please leave a comment or contact me and I’ll be sure to add a link!

P.S. My copy of Zoographies is scheduled to arrive tomorrow!