Representing Animals at the End of the Century
April 13-15, 2000
A Conference at the Center for Twentieth Century Studies
University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee
By tracing how animals have been represented in different context, in
different practices, and by different disciplines over the course of the last
hundred years, this conference will explore the connections between our
understandings of animals and the historical and cultural conditions in which
those understandings have been formed. The conference will move from
discussions of the materials presence of animals - studies, for example, of
the changing place of animals in urban spaces and modern sensibilities - to
explorations of how contemporary media culture is shaping our fundamental
cultural expectations of animals, of ourselves, and of our environments.
Papers might consider any aspect of the representation of animals in late
nineteenth - and twentieth- century cultures, including the exhibition of
animals in circuses, rodeos, zoos, and county fairs, and in artifactual
displays in museums, bars, living rooms, and grocery stores; the portrayal of
animals in natural history documentaries and television programs; the
masquerading of humans as animals in performance art; and the use of animals
in the creation of various semiotic systems. Literary and film genres might
include the bestiary, fables, allegories, the fairy tale, children's
literature, nature movies, and science fiction. Other visual domains might
include nature photography, cartoons, and advertising. The discourses, tropes,
and iconography of popular art as well as the meanings of animals in such
diverse cultural activities as sport hunting and pest control would also be
relevant. Other issues might include pet keeping; the projection of complex
emotional and ethical lives onto animals; the very idea of endangered species;
and the movable boundary between domestic and wild. While the core
disciplinary perspective of the conference will be historical and the
geopolitical focus Euro-American, scholars from the full range of humanities
disciplines, with interests far beyond the traditionally conceived "West,"
will participate.
Selected papers from the conference will be included in a book planned for
publication in the Center series, Theories of Contemporary Culture with
Indiana University Press.
Special Guest Speaker: Jane Goodall
Other Speakers include: Marcus Bullock (English, U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee),
Katherine Grier (History, U. of South Carolina, Columbia), Kathleen Kete
(History , Trinity College), Masumi Iriye (Graduate College Scholar, U. of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Andrew Isenberg (History, Princeton Univ.),
Alphonso Lingis (Philosophy, Pennsylvania State Univ.), Arthur McEvoy (Law, U.
of Wisconsin-Madison), Clay McShane (History, Northeastern Univ.), Lisa
Naughton (Geography, U. of Wisconsin-Madison), Jennifer Price (Writer,
Independent Scholar), Karen Rader (Science, Technology, and Society, Sarah
Lawrence College), Sheila Roberts (english, U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Nigel
Rothfels (History, U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Joel Snyder (Art History, U. of
Chicago), and Karen Warren (Philosophy, Macalester College).
Deadline for Submissions: October 22, 1999
Please send proposals (no more than three pages) and vita to :
Nigel Rothfels and Andrew Isenberg, Conference Organizers
Center for Twentieth Century Studies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
P.O. Box 413
Milwaukee, WI 53201 USA
tel: 414-229-4141; fax: 414-229-5964; email: [log in to unmask] (email submission
cannot be accepted)
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Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu
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