After Speciesism: Animal-Human Relations in Early Modern Europe

In a 1997 article on “Cultural Studies after Speciesism,” John Simons made the controversial proposition that “in twenty years time, speciesism will be as politically, philosophically and socially indefensible as racism and sexism are today.” Fifteen years on, this panel looks at the state of post-speciesist scholarship while also evaluating the origins of the modern animal rights movement in early modern Europe. From Leonardo’s vegetarianism to Hogarth’s satires on cruelty to animals, artists, writers, philosophers, and naturalists were staking out ethical positions on animal-human relations. This was an age of global and scientific exploration that brought new animals before the European public and also of new political and pedagogical philosophies that brought into question the animal-human boundary. (Interesting work in this area has been done, for example, by Erika Fudge, who looks at early modern Britain in her books “Perceiving Animals” and “Brutal Reasoning.”) I especially invite contributions that take seriously what an animal rights theory would look like while also going beyond theoretical positions to provide concrete analyses of a range of early modern visual productions and entertainments, literature, scientific practices, or politics.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 150 words and a one-page CV to sbb6cornell.edu by 15 May.