The 2023 Conference of the Australasian Animal Studies Association will be held in-person at the University of Sydney on the 27th and 28th of November 2023, as part of the Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

The Conference theme – Animal Cultures – encompasses emerging scientific and philosophical considerations of culture in non-human animal communities, as well as culturally-informed human views of other animals.  Cultural transmission has been observed in a wide array of species (Whiten 2021), facilitating the acquisition of social and ecological knowledge and behaviours that influence biological and social wellbeing (Brakes et al. 2019).

Applying a cultural focus can be problematic, as it considers non-human animals through an anthropocentric construct. Animal Cultures will address the affordances and complexities of “culture/s” within animal studies.

In addition to the wide array of topics presented by scholars at AASA’s Conferences, we are interested exploring Animal Cultures from perspectives, including but not limited to:

• New interpretations of non-human animal culture and knowledge
• Indigenous knowledges of animal cultures
• Cross cultural and multicultural approaches to animal life
• Global animal networks
• Non-human animals and environmental protection
• Political organisations
• Transmissions of knowledge through space, time, sound, bodies, and dance
• Symbiotic animal cultures
• Cross-species cultures
• The culture of Animal Studies

Submit paper and panel proposals via: https://usygovir.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9uhQJeS4uWbTc3A

• Submissions open: Friday 26 May 2023
• Submissions close: Friday 30 June 2023
• Notification of results:  Friday 28 July 2023

All proposals for papers and panels are welcome where they are aligned with the Vision and Mission of the Association (https://animalstudies.org.au/about).

Questions to: Dr Peter John Chen at peter.chen@sydney.edu.au

Download a poster of the CFP at: http://animalstudies.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AASA23_CFP.pdf