Centre for Human Animal Studies opens
The new research centre explores the relationship between humans and animals.
A pioneering research centre which examines the various relationships between humans and animals has now opened.
Based at Edge Hill University in Lancashire, The Centre for Human Animal Studies (CfHAS) is the first of its kind in the UK and held its inaugural conference at Edge Hill University on Saturday, October 25.
The CfHAS is an interdisciplinary forum for research and activities that engage with the various relationships between humans and other animals. It brings together scholars from various disciplines including the arts and humanities, social sciences and natural sciences and examines how rethinking human-animal interaction can create meaningful social, policy, environmental, ethics and cultural change.
The launch of the centre and the in augural conference reflects the recent expansion in the fields of animals studies, critical animal studies, human-animal studies and the science of animal emotion and cognition.
The conference had three broad but intersecting thematic strands - ethics, sustainability and sentience.
Keynote speakers included Professor Elisa Asltola (University of Eastern Finland; University of Turku), Professor Jonathan Balcombe (Human Society Institute for Science and Policy) and Dr Richard Twine (Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at Edge Hill University/CfHAS and previously Institute of Education, University of London).
Dr Richard Twine said: "The new centre and its inaugural conference are landmark moments for the interdisciplinary study of the social cultural, and ethnical dimensions of human/animal relations. Such scholarship underlines that human and animal flourishing are inextricably linked and that critical reflection upon how and why we value other animals are part of a required broader project to rethink our economy and society in ways that better respect the environment and other species."
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