Historian, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
You Must Carry Me Now: The Cultural Lives of Endangered Species Bryndis Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson Arizona State University Art Museum (2015) Over a two year period, artists Bryndis Snaebjornsdottir (Iceland) and Mark Wilson (England) have explored the networks and ripple
Literature and Animal Studies by Mario Orbitz Robles Routledge Why do animals talk in literature? In this provocative book, Mario Ortiz Robles tracks the presence of animals across an expansive literary archive to argue that literature cannot be understood as a human endeavour apart
Dead Animals or The Curious Occurrence of Taxidermy in Contemporary Art Exhibition Catalogue The catalogue accompanying the exhibition of the same name is excitingly rich in both content and visual imagery. It features essays by the curator Jo-Ann Conklin [Dead Animals] as well as Steve
Guinea Pig By Dorothy Yamamoto Reaktion Guinea pigs are one of the world’s most popular pets – small, friendly, easy to care for and unbearably cute. First domesticated in 5000 BCE, guinea pigs have been bred increasingly for their looks, shaped by humans in
Flamingo By Caitlin R. Kight Reaktion With its distinctive pink colouring and one-legged stance, the flamingo is possibly the most easily recognized bird in the world. But what most of us don’t know is that there are actually six different species
Sheep By Philip Armstrong Reaktion The Egyptians worshipped them, the Romans dressed them in fitted coats, early Christians made the shepherd synonymous with their divine saviour. In Sheep, Philip Armstrong traces the natural and cultural history of both the wild and
Creatural Fictions: Human-Animal Relationships in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literature Ed. David Herman Palgrave Examining how ideas about species, sexuality, and gender link to 20th- and 21st-century literary texts, this wideranging collection of essays explores the complicated yet evocative relationship between animals and humans
Nigel Rothfels, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee When SeaWorld announced it would stop breeding orcas and begin to phase out “theatrical performances” using the animals, the news appeared to mark a significant change in ideas about animals and captivity. Wayne Pacelle, president
Beast-People Onscreen and in Your Brain: The Evolution of Animal-Humans from Prehistoric Cave Art to Modern Movies By Mark Pizzato Praeger 2016 A new take on our bio-cultural evolution explores how the “inner theatre” of the brain and its “animal-human stages”
Performing Animality: Animals in Performance Practices Eds. J. Parker-Starbuck and L. Orozco Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 A historical and theoretical exploration of the presence of animals and animality – literal or symbolic – in theatre and performance practices from the eighteenth century to