Canis Unfamiliaris: Species Stories and Species Categories
| Dates: | 18 April 2024 |
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| Times: | 15:00 - 16:30 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Sustainable Consumption Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Current University students |
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Everywhere dogs are found, they are stitched into human hearts. But are humans stitched into dogs' hearts? Countless celebrations of 'the dog-human bond' suggest that they are. Yet 'the bond' does not always come easily to dogs. This paper seeks to denaturalise dogs' 'species story,’ that is, the scientific story that claims that being-with-humans somehow constitutes dogs' evolutionary destiny. It asks what choices dogs have but to go along with this story, and what expectations, demands, and burdens it places on them, on a daily basis. The paper also seeks to address the broader question of species categories, and their implications for animals. How do species categories operate? What are the implications, for animals, of the historical bifurcation of the categories of species and of ‘race’? Why are species categories so enduringly difficult to politicise?
Mariam Motamedi-Fraser is a Reader in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. She teaches and researches in the field of animal studies, with a particular focus on dogs. Mariam is the author of Dog Politics: Species Stories and the Animal Sciences, published in January 2024 by Manchester University Press.
Register for a place on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/canis-unfamiliaris-species-stories-and-species-categories-tickets-875982937547?aff=oddtdtcreator
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