Animal Sentience: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Animal Feeling, 2019
Several commentators on Mather's target article discuss the challenges of finding adequate cognit... more Several commentators on Mather's target article discuss the challenges of finding adequate cognitive methods and concepts for accessing the mind and experience of octopuses. Building on Godfrey-Smith's commentary, we propose aesthetics as a way. The arts provide means to perform what Godfrey-Smith calls an "imaginative leap" to access the experience of octopuses, especially mimesis. We are trying to do this in our current project Okto-Lab. Laboratory for Octopus Aesthetics. André Krebber is a Lecturer in Social and Cultural History and Human-Animal Studies at the University of Kassel. His research interests are concepts of nonhuman-agency, the modern intellectual history of nature, and the production of knowledge in arts and sciences. Website
Developing an academic career can be exciting, rewarding and stimulating. It can also be challeng... more Developing an academic career can be exciting, rewarding and stimulating. It can also be challenging, disheartening, and highly insecure. Results from a survey of Animal Studies (AS) scholars identifies reasons why pursuing a career in AS might generate additional challenges, over and above those experienced by academics generally. For example, 44 percent of respondents stated that in their view, undertaking research in AS “creates challenges for an academic career.” This is compared to just 16 percent who thought that it is an advantage. Yet despite the challenges, there is much that is positive about AS. Participants described being in “dialogue with clever colleagues,” viewed their work as “totally engaging,” and reported feeling “morally useful.” This in turn affords AS scholars an authenticity that may be of long-term benefit in the competitive and constantly transforming world of higher education.
ABSTRACT The ‘pussy panic’ of our title is a phrase that belongs to Susan Fraiman. It is a diagno... more ABSTRACT The ‘pussy panic’ of our title is a phrase that belongs to Susan Fraiman. It is a diagnosis, a lament, and a warning about how Animal Studies (AS) is currently torn between rising academic respectability bestowed through the ‘installation of Derrida as founding father’, and the neglect that this entails for AS’s deep roots in feminist scholarship going back decades, and across a number of disciplines. Finding that a ‘proximity to this feminized realm’ of ‘siding with animals’ can bring about a ‘pussy panic’ in male scholars, Fraiman draws a parallel between academic mainstreaming and the suppression of the ‘emotionally and politically engaged’ work of earlier feminist writers (93). Inspired by Fraiman’s reading and her sense of a lingering pussy panic in the field of AS, we were interested to inquire whether or not the academic legitimacy the field deserves has also brought with it a privileging of men’s voices as it has developed over the years. We conducted a large, broad-ranging international survey of AS scholars. From that larger survey, the issue of gender stood out and enabled us to investigate Fraiman’s observations further. Our data lend support to the idea that ‘pussy panic’ has indeed shaped the direction of the field so far.
This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the authors in 20... more This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the authors in 2015. While the survey was broad ranging, this paper focuses on three interconnected elements; the respondents' opinions on what role they think the field should play in regard to animal advocacy, their personal commitment to animal advocacy, and how their attitudes toward advocacy in the field differ depending on their dietary habits. While the vast majority of respondents believe that the field should demonstrate a commitment to animal wellbeing, our findings suggest that respondents' level of commitment to animal advocacy is informed by whether they choose to eat animal products or not. We conclude that this reflects the breadth of the field as well as the fact that it is a relatively new area of study and as such is still evolving. In relation to the question posed in the title of this article-should we eat our research subjects?-it seems that Animal Studies scholars are divided on that issue; some do, some don't, but for those who do eat their research subjects there is a degree of unease about the contradictions that such a choice implies.
This exegesis contains no material that has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the Universi... more This exegesis contains no material that has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution except •by way of background information duly acknowledged in the exegesis. To the best of my knowledge and belief, it incorporates no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the text.
Featuring original artworks and writings of 34 prominent artists and researchers, ‘Eco Noir: A Co... more Featuring original artworks and writings of 34 prominent artists and researchers, ‘Eco Noir: A Companion for Precarious Times’ is a textual and visual collaborative exploration of interspecies relations in time of crisis. In light of the escalating climate emergency we are facing, with its immanent future extinctions, pandemic waves and their vast influence, ‘Eco Noir’ suggests new readings into the fragile and complex ways in which we inhabit and share our environment with other species. This expanded reader offers engaging meeting points formed by the tension and correlation between texts and visual artworks. It acts as a cartography for the cultural and artistic strategies we can suggest for emancipating our perception from viewing other species merely as subjects for politics of consumption or as objects of fascination. ‘Eco Noir’ shows how relations with other species correspond with ancient tales and rumours while offering new ways in which humans and animals can unite to create a contemporary common story
The ANIMALADIES exhibition and postcard project brings together a total of 24 artists, some of wh... more The ANIMALADIES exhibition and postcard project brings together a total of 24 artists, some of whom work collaboratively, including Prince the pony. The exhibition was developed in conjunction with the conference of the same name at the University of Sydney (11-12 July, 2016). The term ANIMALADIES reframes stereotypical cultural connections between madness, species, race and gender. Social marginalisation of animal advocates, animal carers and animal studies scholars is resisted in the works shown in this exhibition. The artists in ANIMALADIES reveal instead how the crazy love of the animal advocate for non-human species can engender forms of courageous wisdom and persistence in the face of impossibilities and improbabilities
This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the authors in 20... more This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the authors in 2015. While the survey was broad ranging, this paper focuses on three interconnected elements; the respondents’ opinions on what role they think the field should play in regard to animal advocacy, their personal commitment to animal advocacy, and how their attitudes toward advocacy in the field differ depending on their dietary habits. While the vast majority of respondents believe that the field should demonstrate a commitment to animal wellbeing, our findings suggest that respondents’ level of commitment to animal advocacy is informed by whether they choose to eat animal products or not. We conclude that this reflects the breadth of the field as well as the fact that it is a relatively new area of study and as such is still evolving. In relation to the question posed in the title of this article – should we eat our research subjects? – it seems that Animal Studies scholars are divided on...
One of the most valuable aspects of collections based on Animal Studies conference papers is the ... more One of the most valuable aspects of collections based on Animal Studies conference papers is the way the essays reflect and display how far the field has developed at a specific time. This is a vibrant, fastgrowing inter-, transand cross-disciplinary area of study and the essays in collections over the last 10 years indicate the enormous range of topics, perspectives and approaches such studies can take. In the case of the five biennial conferences held by the Australasian Animal Studies Association (AASA), formerly the Australian Animal Studies Group, the papers presented indicate not only the evolution and variety of focuses and issues dealt with, but also the development of disciplinary or thematic content, although each conference has been open to papers on just about any topic related to animals. This journal article is available in Animal Studies Journal: https://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol4/iss2/14 REVIEW: ENGAGING WITH ANIMALS 181 Review: Georgette Leah Burns and Mandy Paterson ed...
One of the most valuable aspects of collections based on Animal Studies conference papers is the ... more One of the most valuable aspects of collections based on Animal Studies conference papers is the way the essays reflect and display how far the field has developed at a specific time. This is a vibrant, fastgrowing inter-, transand cross-disciplinary area of study and the essays in collections over the last 10 years indicate the enormous range of topics, perspectives and approaches such studies can take. In the case of the five biennial conferences held by the Australasian Animal Studies Association (AASA), formerly the Australian Animal Studies Group, the papers presented indicate not only the evolution and variety of focuses and issues dealt with, but also the development of disciplinary or thematic content, although each conference has been open to papers on just about any topic related to animals. This journal article is available in Animal Studies Journal: https://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol4/iss2/14 REVIEW: ENGAGING WITH ANIMALS 181 Review: Georgette Leah Burns and Mandy Paterson ed...
Several years ago I visited a farm in southern Australia, near my hometown of Hobart, Tasmania. W... more Several years ago I visited a farm in southern Australia, near my hometown of Hobart, Tasmania. When using the word 'farm' I suspect that the first image your brain might conjure up is one of animals roaming in green fields. However, while this farm was surrounded by green fields, the animals being raised there were not allowed the freedom to roam them. In fact, apart from the day when they would be forced into tightly packed crates to be trucked to slaughter, they would never even see daylight. This was a modern meat chicken farm, with the birds raised for one of Australia's biggest poultry companies. The farm consisted of eight long, windowless sheds, each housing many thousands of birds at various stages of the short 'growth cycle' that ends at a mere six weeks old, well before the birds have reached adulthood. By the time they are sent to slaughter their bodies fill the sheds such that they have almost no room to move. This was not the first time I had been inside a factory farm; my involvement in animal advocacy has exposed me to many of the horrors inflicted on farmed animals, through text, image and first hand experience. But as I walked away that night, I looked back and was struck by just how much those rows of sheds, lit by spotlights, reminded me of images I had seen of concentration camps, though without the need for guard towers. I was also intensely aware that, while I had just seen, and heard, and smelled, and felt the warmth of the bodies of the thousands of sentient creatures captured inside these sheds, there was no sign of them from the outside. This experience was the impetus for a project photographing external views of factory farms at various locations around Australia. Ultimately, M. Boyde (ed.
ABSTRACT The ‘pussy panic’ of our title is a phrase that belongs to Susan Fraiman. It is a diagno... more ABSTRACT The ‘pussy panic’ of our title is a phrase that belongs to Susan Fraiman. It is a diagnosis, a lament, and a warning about how Animal Studies (AS) is currently torn between rising academic respectability bestowed through the ‘installation of Derrida as founding father’, and the neglect that this entails for AS’s deep roots in feminist scholarship going back decades, and across a number of disciplines. Finding that a ‘proximity to this feminized realm’ of ‘siding with animals’ can bring about a ‘pussy panic’ in male scholars, Fraiman draws a parallel between academic mainstreaming and the suppression of the ‘emotionally and politically engaged’ work of earlier feminist writers (93). Inspired by Fraiman’s reading and her sense of a lingering pussy panic in the field of AS, we were interested to inquire whether or not the academic legitimacy the field deserves has also brought with it a privileging of men’s voices as it has developed over the years. We conducted a large, broad-ranging international survey of AS scholars. From that larger survey, the issue of gender stood out and enabled us to investigate Fraiman’s observations further. Our data lend support to the idea that ‘pussy panic’ has indeed shaped the direction of the field so far.
On March 5, 2016, just before sunrise, an event unfolded in a remote location on the east coast o... more On March 5, 2016, just before sunrise, an event unfolded in a remote location on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia. In the planning for nine months, it was something of a mix between Werner Herzog’s Fitzcaraldo in production and Stephan Elliott’s Priscilla Queen of the Desert in form.
Several years ago I visited a farm in southern Australia, near my hometown of Hobart, Tasmania. W... more Several years ago I visited a farm in southern Australia, near my hometown of Hobart, Tasmania. When using the word ‘farm’ I suspect that the first image your brain might conjure up is one of animals roaming in green fields. However, while this farm was surrounded by green fields, the animals being raised there were not allowed the freedom to roam them. In fact, apart from the day when they would be forced into tightly packed crates to be trucked to slaughter, they would never even see daylight. This was a modern meat chicken farm, with the birds raised for one of Australia’s biggest poultry companies.
Animal Sentience: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Animal Feeling, 2019
Several commentators on Mather's target article discuss the challenges of finding adequate cognit... more Several commentators on Mather's target article discuss the challenges of finding adequate cognitive methods and concepts for accessing the mind and experience of octopuses. Building on Godfrey-Smith's commentary, we propose aesthetics as a way. The arts provide means to perform what Godfrey-Smith calls an "imaginative leap" to access the experience of octopuses, especially mimesis. We are trying to do this in our current project Okto-Lab. Laboratory for Octopus Aesthetics. André Krebber is a Lecturer in Social and Cultural History and Human-Animal Studies at the University of Kassel. His research interests are concepts of nonhuman-agency, the modern intellectual history of nature, and the production of knowledge in arts and sciences. Website
Developing an academic career can be exciting, rewarding and stimulating. It can also be challeng... more Developing an academic career can be exciting, rewarding and stimulating. It can also be challenging, disheartening, and highly insecure. Results from a survey of Animal Studies (AS) scholars identifies reasons why pursuing a career in AS might generate additional challenges, over and above those experienced by academics generally. For example, 44 percent of respondents stated that in their view, undertaking research in AS “creates challenges for an academic career.” This is compared to just 16 percent who thought that it is an advantage. Yet despite the challenges, there is much that is positive about AS. Participants described being in “dialogue with clever colleagues,” viewed their work as “totally engaging,” and reported feeling “morally useful.” This in turn affords AS scholars an authenticity that may be of long-term benefit in the competitive and constantly transforming world of higher education.
ABSTRACT The ‘pussy panic’ of our title is a phrase that belongs to Susan Fraiman. It is a diagno... more ABSTRACT The ‘pussy panic’ of our title is a phrase that belongs to Susan Fraiman. It is a diagnosis, a lament, and a warning about how Animal Studies (AS) is currently torn between rising academic respectability bestowed through the ‘installation of Derrida as founding father’, and the neglect that this entails for AS’s deep roots in feminist scholarship going back decades, and across a number of disciplines. Finding that a ‘proximity to this feminized realm’ of ‘siding with animals’ can bring about a ‘pussy panic’ in male scholars, Fraiman draws a parallel between academic mainstreaming and the suppression of the ‘emotionally and politically engaged’ work of earlier feminist writers (93). Inspired by Fraiman’s reading and her sense of a lingering pussy panic in the field of AS, we were interested to inquire whether or not the academic legitimacy the field deserves has also brought with it a privileging of men’s voices as it has developed over the years. We conducted a large, broad-ranging international survey of AS scholars. From that larger survey, the issue of gender stood out and enabled us to investigate Fraiman’s observations further. Our data lend support to the idea that ‘pussy panic’ has indeed shaped the direction of the field so far.
This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the authors in 20... more This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the authors in 2015. While the survey was broad ranging, this paper focuses on three interconnected elements; the respondents' opinions on what role they think the field should play in regard to animal advocacy, their personal commitment to animal advocacy, and how their attitudes toward advocacy in the field differ depending on their dietary habits. While the vast majority of respondents believe that the field should demonstrate a commitment to animal wellbeing, our findings suggest that respondents' level of commitment to animal advocacy is informed by whether they choose to eat animal products or not. We conclude that this reflects the breadth of the field as well as the fact that it is a relatively new area of study and as such is still evolving. In relation to the question posed in the title of this article-should we eat our research subjects?-it seems that Animal Studies scholars are divided on that issue; some do, some don't, but for those who do eat their research subjects there is a degree of unease about the contradictions that such a choice implies.
This exegesis contains no material that has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the Universi... more This exegesis contains no material that has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution except •by way of background information duly acknowledged in the exegesis. To the best of my knowledge and belief, it incorporates no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the text.
Featuring original artworks and writings of 34 prominent artists and researchers, ‘Eco Noir: A Co... more Featuring original artworks and writings of 34 prominent artists and researchers, ‘Eco Noir: A Companion for Precarious Times’ is a textual and visual collaborative exploration of interspecies relations in time of crisis. In light of the escalating climate emergency we are facing, with its immanent future extinctions, pandemic waves and their vast influence, ‘Eco Noir’ suggests new readings into the fragile and complex ways in which we inhabit and share our environment with other species. This expanded reader offers engaging meeting points formed by the tension and correlation between texts and visual artworks. It acts as a cartography for the cultural and artistic strategies we can suggest for emancipating our perception from viewing other species merely as subjects for politics of consumption or as objects of fascination. ‘Eco Noir’ shows how relations with other species correspond with ancient tales and rumours while offering new ways in which humans and animals can unite to create a contemporary common story
The ANIMALADIES exhibition and postcard project brings together a total of 24 artists, some of wh... more The ANIMALADIES exhibition and postcard project brings together a total of 24 artists, some of whom work collaboratively, including Prince the pony. The exhibition was developed in conjunction with the conference of the same name at the University of Sydney (11-12 July, 2016). The term ANIMALADIES reframes stereotypical cultural connections between madness, species, race and gender. Social marginalisation of animal advocates, animal carers and animal studies scholars is resisted in the works shown in this exhibition. The artists in ANIMALADIES reveal instead how the crazy love of the animal advocate for non-human species can engender forms of courageous wisdom and persistence in the face of impossibilities and improbabilities
This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the authors in 20... more This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the authors in 2015. While the survey was broad ranging, this paper focuses on three interconnected elements; the respondents’ opinions on what role they think the field should play in regard to animal advocacy, their personal commitment to animal advocacy, and how their attitudes toward advocacy in the field differ depending on their dietary habits. While the vast majority of respondents believe that the field should demonstrate a commitment to animal wellbeing, our findings suggest that respondents’ level of commitment to animal advocacy is informed by whether they choose to eat animal products or not. We conclude that this reflects the breadth of the field as well as the fact that it is a relatively new area of study and as such is still evolving. In relation to the question posed in the title of this article – should we eat our research subjects? – it seems that Animal Studies scholars are divided on...
One of the most valuable aspects of collections based on Animal Studies conference papers is the ... more One of the most valuable aspects of collections based on Animal Studies conference papers is the way the essays reflect and display how far the field has developed at a specific time. This is a vibrant, fastgrowing inter-, transand cross-disciplinary area of study and the essays in collections over the last 10 years indicate the enormous range of topics, perspectives and approaches such studies can take. In the case of the five biennial conferences held by the Australasian Animal Studies Association (AASA), formerly the Australian Animal Studies Group, the papers presented indicate not only the evolution and variety of focuses and issues dealt with, but also the development of disciplinary or thematic content, although each conference has been open to papers on just about any topic related to animals. This journal article is available in Animal Studies Journal: https://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol4/iss2/14 REVIEW: ENGAGING WITH ANIMALS 181 Review: Georgette Leah Burns and Mandy Paterson ed...
One of the most valuable aspects of collections based on Animal Studies conference papers is the ... more One of the most valuable aspects of collections based on Animal Studies conference papers is the way the essays reflect and display how far the field has developed at a specific time. This is a vibrant, fastgrowing inter-, transand cross-disciplinary area of study and the essays in collections over the last 10 years indicate the enormous range of topics, perspectives and approaches such studies can take. In the case of the five biennial conferences held by the Australasian Animal Studies Association (AASA), formerly the Australian Animal Studies Group, the papers presented indicate not only the evolution and variety of focuses and issues dealt with, but also the development of disciplinary or thematic content, although each conference has been open to papers on just about any topic related to animals. This journal article is available in Animal Studies Journal: https://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol4/iss2/14 REVIEW: ENGAGING WITH ANIMALS 181 Review: Georgette Leah Burns and Mandy Paterson ed...
Several years ago I visited a farm in southern Australia, near my hometown of Hobart, Tasmania. W... more Several years ago I visited a farm in southern Australia, near my hometown of Hobart, Tasmania. When using the word 'farm' I suspect that the first image your brain might conjure up is one of animals roaming in green fields. However, while this farm was surrounded by green fields, the animals being raised there were not allowed the freedom to roam them. In fact, apart from the day when they would be forced into tightly packed crates to be trucked to slaughter, they would never even see daylight. This was a modern meat chicken farm, with the birds raised for one of Australia's biggest poultry companies. The farm consisted of eight long, windowless sheds, each housing many thousands of birds at various stages of the short 'growth cycle' that ends at a mere six weeks old, well before the birds have reached adulthood. By the time they are sent to slaughter their bodies fill the sheds such that they have almost no room to move. This was not the first time I had been inside a factory farm; my involvement in animal advocacy has exposed me to many of the horrors inflicted on farmed animals, through text, image and first hand experience. But as I walked away that night, I looked back and was struck by just how much those rows of sheds, lit by spotlights, reminded me of images I had seen of concentration camps, though without the need for guard towers. I was also intensely aware that, while I had just seen, and heard, and smelled, and felt the warmth of the bodies of the thousands of sentient creatures captured inside these sheds, there was no sign of them from the outside. This experience was the impetus for a project photographing external views of factory farms at various locations around Australia. Ultimately, M. Boyde (ed.
ABSTRACT The ‘pussy panic’ of our title is a phrase that belongs to Susan Fraiman. It is a diagno... more ABSTRACT The ‘pussy panic’ of our title is a phrase that belongs to Susan Fraiman. It is a diagnosis, a lament, and a warning about how Animal Studies (AS) is currently torn between rising academic respectability bestowed through the ‘installation of Derrida as founding father’, and the neglect that this entails for AS’s deep roots in feminist scholarship going back decades, and across a number of disciplines. Finding that a ‘proximity to this feminized realm’ of ‘siding with animals’ can bring about a ‘pussy panic’ in male scholars, Fraiman draws a parallel between academic mainstreaming and the suppression of the ‘emotionally and politically engaged’ work of earlier feminist writers (93). Inspired by Fraiman’s reading and her sense of a lingering pussy panic in the field of AS, we were interested to inquire whether or not the academic legitimacy the field deserves has also brought with it a privileging of men’s voices as it has developed over the years. We conducted a large, broad-ranging international survey of AS scholars. From that larger survey, the issue of gender stood out and enabled us to investigate Fraiman’s observations further. Our data lend support to the idea that ‘pussy panic’ has indeed shaped the direction of the field so far.
On March 5, 2016, just before sunrise, an event unfolded in a remote location on the east coast o... more On March 5, 2016, just before sunrise, an event unfolded in a remote location on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia. In the planning for nine months, it was something of a mix between Werner Herzog’s Fitzcaraldo in production and Stephan Elliott’s Priscilla Queen of the Desert in form.
Several years ago I visited a farm in southern Australia, near my hometown of Hobart, Tasmania. W... more Several years ago I visited a farm in southern Australia, near my hometown of Hobart, Tasmania. When using the word ‘farm’ I suspect that the first image your brain might conjure up is one of animals roaming in green fields. However, while this farm was surrounded by green fields, the animals being raised there were not allowed the freedom to roam them. In fact, apart from the day when they would be forced into tightly packed crates to be trucked to slaughter, they would never even see daylight. This was a modern meat chicken farm, with the birds raised for one of Australia’s biggest poultry companies.
Abstract
This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the auth... more Abstract This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the authors in 2015. While the survey was broad ranging, this paper focuses on three interconnected elements; the respondents’ opinions on what role they think the field should play in regard to animal advocacy, their personal commitment to animal advocacy, and how their attitudes toward advocacy in the field differ depending on their dietary habits. While the vast majority of respondents believe that the field should demonstrate a commitment to animal wellbeing, our findings suggest that respondents’ level of commitment to animal advocacy is informed by whether they choose to eat animal products or not. We conclude that this reflects the breadth of the field as well as the fact that it is a relatively new area of study and as such is still evolving. In relation to the question posed in the title of this article – should we eat our research subjects? – it seems that Animal Studies scholars are divided on that issue; some do, some don’t, but for those who do eat their research subjects there is a degree of unease about the contradictions that such a choice implies.Watt, Yvette M.; O'Sullivan, Siobhan; and Probyn-Rapsey, Fiona, Should We Eat Our Research Subjects? Advocacy and Animal Studies, Animal Studies Journal, 7(1), 2018, 180-205. Available at:http://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol7/iss1/9
This is an expanded version of our commentary on Jennifer Mather's article "Octopus Mind", publi... more This is an expanded version of our commentary on Jennifer Mather's article "Octopus Mind", published online in the journal Animal Sentience.
Jennifer Mather problematizes in her article "Octopus Mind" the imagining of the mind of other animals. Several commentators to her article discuss the challenges (and limitations) of finding adequate cognitive methods and concepts for accessing the mind and experience of octopuses in response to Mather's article. Building on Godfrey-Smith's expansion to Mather's article, our commentary seeks to offer aesthetics as a paradigm for exploring mind and mindfulness in octopuses. We first argue that the arts provide methodologies and approaches to perform what Godfrey-Smith terms an "imaginative leap" to access the experience of octopuses. Secondly, we propose aesthetics as an explanatory paradigm for conceptualizing the mind of an octopus. We finish with a brief overview and introduction of how we are pursuing such a perspective in our current project Okto-Lab. Laboratory for Octopus Aesthetics (www.okto-lab.org.)
Abstract: The ‘pussy panic’ of our title is a phrase that belongs to Susan Fraiman. It is a diagn... more Abstract: The ‘pussy panic’ of our title is a phrase that belongs to Susan Fraiman. It is a diagnosis, a lament, and a warning about how Animal Studies (AS) is currently torn between rising academic respectability bestowed through the “installation of Derrida as founding father” (Fraiman, 93), and the neglect that this entails for AS’s deep roots in feminist scholarship going back decades, and across a number of disciplines (Gruen 2018). Finding that a ‘proximity to this feminized realm’ of ‘siding with animals’ can bring about a ‘pussy panic’ in male scholars, Fraiman draws a parallel between academic mainstreaming and the suppression of the ‘emotionally and politically engaged’ (93) work of earlier feminist writers. Inspired by Fraiman’s reading and her sense of a lingering pussy panic in the field of AS, we were interested to inquire whether or not the academic legitimacy the field deserves has also brought with it a privileging of men’s voices as it has developed over the years. In 2015 we conducted a large, broad-ranging international survey of AS scholars. From that larger survey, the issue of gender stood out and enabled us to investigate Fraiman’s observations further. Our data lends support to the idea that ‘pussy panic’ has indeed shaped the direction of the field so far.
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Papers by Yvette Watt
This paper examines data from a survey of Animal Studies scholars undertaken by the authors in 2015. While the survey was broad ranging, this paper focuses on three interconnected elements; the respondents’ opinions on what role they think the field should play in regard to animal advocacy, their personal commitment to animal advocacy, and how their attitudes toward advocacy in the field differ depending on their dietary habits. While the vast majority of respondents believe that the field should demonstrate a commitment to animal wellbeing, our findings suggest that respondents’ level of commitment to animal advocacy is informed by whether they choose to eat animal products or not. We conclude that this reflects the breadth of the field as well as the fact that it is a relatively new area of study and as such is still evolving. In relation to the question posed in the title of this article – should we eat our research subjects? – it seems that Animal Studies scholars are divided on that issue; some do, some don’t, but for those who do eat their research subjects there is a degree of unease about the contradictions that such a choice implies.Watt, Yvette M.; O'Sullivan, Siobhan; and Probyn-Rapsey, Fiona, Should We Eat Our Research Subjects? Advocacy and Animal Studies, Animal Studies Journal, 7(1), 2018, 180-205.
Available at:http://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol7/iss1/9
Jennifer Mather problematizes in her article "Octopus Mind" the imagining of the mind of other animals. Several commentators to her article discuss the challenges (and limitations) of finding adequate cognitive methods and concepts for accessing the mind and experience of octopuses in response to Mather's article. Building on Godfrey-Smith's expansion to Mather's article, our commentary seeks to offer aesthetics as a paradigm for exploring mind and mindfulness in octopuses. We first argue that the arts provide methodologies and approaches to perform what Godfrey-Smith terms an "imaginative leap" to access the experience of octopuses. Secondly, we propose aesthetics as an explanatory paradigm for conceptualizing the mind of an octopus. We finish with a brief overview and introduction of how we are pursuing such a perspective in our current project Okto-Lab. Laboratory for Octopus Aesthetics (www.okto-lab.org.)