Symposium: Seeing Our Relationships to Animals in a New Light

The HSU community is invited to explore human’s relationship to animals in a social and humanitarian context at the Critical Animal Studies symposium from Monday, April 25 through Friday, April 29. The events are free and open to the public and take place across the HSU campus.

“Critical Animal Studies is about questioning our relationship with animals as a culture and throughout history,” says Rachelle L. Dé Coud, a senior in Environmental Studies who is the main organizer of the symposium. “For example, why do we care so much about bears, but not other megafauna? The symposium will help parse these values.”

“It’s really quite an exciting discipline, and really impressive that an undergraduate is doing this level of work in organizing the symposium,” says Sarah Jaquette Ray, professor of Environmental Studies. “HSU is an ideal school to host this event based on the strength of our Wildlife, Fisheries, and Biology programs. This symposium takes a different tact, by approaching our relationship with animals from a humanities and social sciences perspective.”

The symposium combines talks from HSU students and faculty along with leading scholars in the Critical Animal Studies field.

Carol J. Adams delivers the keynote address on Tuesday at 5:30 in the Kate Buchanan Room (KBR). Adams is the author of “The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory.” With more than 100 articles, journal entries, and books, Adams is an expert on vegetarianism, animal rights, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. She was inducted into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame in 2011.

Full Schedule:
Monday
Ashley Perez (HSU student)
DOGS: Man’s Best Friend?
4:30-5 p.m.
Founds Hall 232

Madi Whaley (HSU student)
Patriarchy and Animal Exploitation: An Ecofeminist Understanding of Animal Rights
5:30-6 p.m.
Founds Hall 232

Tafya Nailatika (HSU student)
Animal Narratives: The Use of Animal Bodies to Further Racial Division
6-6:30 p.m.
Founders Hall 232

M.E.C.H.A (HSU Club)
Re-indigenize Your Diet
7-8 p.m.
Founders Hall 232

Tuesday
Carol J. Adams (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)
On “The Sexual Politics of Meat”
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Kate Buchanan Room

Wednesday
STUDENT / FACULTY PANEL
1. Kylie Mosbacher (HSU student)
Problems with Portrayal: The Intricacies of Children’s Media Production

2. Loren Cannon (HSU Philosophy & CRGS Professor)
Challenges of Narrative Construction in Non-anthropocentric Environmental Ethics, or Should I Become a Druid?

3. Sarah Ray (HSU Environmental Studies & Geography Professor)
Rub Trees, Webcams, and GIS: The Hybrid Geography of Leanne Allison and Jeremy Mendes’ Bear 71
2-4 p.m.
Green & Gold Room

Kevin Matlock (HSU Psychology Professor)
The Ethics and Limitations of Animal Research in Psychology
5-5:30 p.m.
Founders Hall 232

Religious Studies Club Presentations:

Victoria Rodriguez (HSU student)
Exploring the Role of Animals in the World’s Religions

Lilly Patino (HSU student)
Ritual Animal Sacrifice from a Cross-Cultural Perspective
6 – 7 p.m. FH 232

Thursday
Rachelle DeCoud (HSU student)
Workshop – Building Bridges: Addressing the Lack of Intersectionality in the Animal Rights Movement
5-5:30 p.m.
Sci A 564

Vegan Club
Film & Discussion: Cowspiracy
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Sci A 564

Friday
University of Oregon PhD Candidates:
Eva Hoffmann (Department of German & Scandinavian)
Zoopoetics: Animals and Animality in Literary Texts

David Alexander Craig ( Department of Philosophy)
Human Animality in the History of Philosophy

Elizabeth Curry (Department of English)
Animal Narratives: Cultural (re)Productions of Individuality and Speciesism
5-7 p.m.
Gist Hall 124

Dr. Breeze Harper (Special Guest Speaker)
Recipes for Racial Tension
7:30-9:30 p.m.