Summer Hiatus: flying the coop!
As Conversations With Animals flies the coop for a summer hiatus, Dr. Thomas Aiello and Dr. Kris Hill discuss the iconography of Black Cowboys and the ethics of using creatures in protest movements.
Conversations With Animals is readying for a summer hiatus, starting with the release today of a conversation with Dr. Thomas Aiello and Dr. Kris Hill, two authors of “Nonhuman Animals as Symbols in the #BlackLivesMatter Protests of 2020.” In this episode, we discuss racialized animals, the ethics of using animals in protest, and the interspecies dynamics of police brutality.
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While the newsletter goes on a rest, there will new podcast episodes released over the next few weeks as spring blooms into summer. You can expect conversations with a lawyer collaborating with NYC to make infrastructure more creature-friendly, a sociologist examining the true impact of meat-free menus, a pet psychic, and more!
Listen to “Multi-species liberation movements with Dr. Kris Hill & Dr. Thomas Aiello” here!
Please make sure you subscribe and rate CWA on Spotify or Apple (or wherever you like to get your podcasts) to get notified when a new episode is out!
For today, this conversation is an invitation to consider the means and methods of protest movements, the reclamation of animal imagery, the entwinement of how racialized thinking and animal lives, and the radical idea that collective liberation necessitates a multi-species imagination.
Dr. Kris Hill holds a PhD in Anthrozoology. Since 2019, she authored or co-authored 15 peer-reviewed papers that are accepted or in print, have a further three under review, and two more in preparation. Amongst others, she has published in Society & Animals (SOAN), Anthrozoös, and Animal Studies Journal (ASJ). In 2023 she established the Cat Academic Think Tank (e-CATT), a cross-disciplinary group of academics whose interests are related to domestic cats (Felis catus) or small wild cat species.
Dr. Thomas Aiello is a professor of history, Africana studies, and anthrozoology. He received his first PhD from the University of Arkansas in 2007 and his second from the University of Exeter in 2021. The bulk of his courses relate to all measures of African American history, from early slavery to Black Power, and all aspects of animal studies. His research interests are broader, covering twentieth century United States cultural and intellectual history, twentieth century African American cultural and intellectual history in a variety of different settings, and animal studies, critical animal studies, and anthrozoology.
Have a wonderful summer all and I’ll see you on the other side :).
Much love,
Juliana