HumAnimality

The HumAnimality Research Focus Group (RFG) works across disciplinary boundaries and combines diverse perspectives from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, in order to draw upon knowledge collected within the disciplines of philosophy, biology, feminist studies, English, comparative psychology, anthropology, cultural studies, history, comparative literature, black studies, and cognitive ethology.

In this RFG, we challenge epistemological and ontological borders, as we interrogate the boundaries constructed between nature and culture, human and animal, and life and death. As we focus on the ethical concerns raised by HumAnimality, we consider the ways in which ideas about race, gender, class, sexuality, and (dis)ability intersect with, and disrupt, anthropocentric conceptions of subjectivity.

Guiding Questions:
How is the boundary between the human and animal invoked, maintained and disrupted?
How, in an institutional setting marked by disciplinary boundaries, can we speak across disciplines to interrogate the boundary between human and non-human?
What is at stake for disciplines grounded in humanist concerns, such as feminist studies and black studies, in taking on the question of the animal and the posthuman?

We welcome scholars of all disciplines to join us in our discussions, workshops and lectures.