Virtual seminar with Dr. Catriona Paul and Dr. Łucja Lange on Nonhuman Animals in Human Wars

This free virtual seminar will take place on Wednesday 5 February 2025, from 3–4:30 PM Irish Standard Time. This seminar is part of a series that runs in the academic year 2024-2025, organised by the Animal Studies Research Network UCD, as part of its Environmental Humanities strand.

Catriona Paul will join us to explore equine-human relationships in the colonial and revolutionary world of the American backcountry at the end of the eighteenth century. In this period, Kentucky was riven by conflict between Indigenous Americans and settler-colonists, and by the violence that played out between Loyalist and Patriot. Presenting evidence of the co-dependency of humans and horses in this war-torn era, the paper will argue that horses and humans were shaped by their interactions with each other, and that these relationships informed the history and identity of the state of Kentucky through the nineteenth century and beyond. Drawing on extensive archival work, the paper will also examine the intersections of non-human animality with race and gender in a period of colonization and resistance.

Łucja Lange will base her talk on the impact of armed conflicts on non-human animals, focusing on the differing treatments of various animal categories, particularly at the Ukrainian border, and exploring the creation of special procedures for zoo and companion animals during wars. In times of severe social crises, particularly those caused by humans, the most vulnerable beings suffer the most, i.e., those categories of entities with the least resources to ensure their well-being in a difficult situation. This applies to the same extent to human and non-human entities. The non-human victims of armed conflicts and wars are primarily animals because their functioning in a world dominated and defined by man is fully dependent on humans. Various categories of non-human animals should be mentioned here: companion animals (usually living with people in their homes), wild animals kept in captivity (e.g., in zoos and sanctuaries), wild animals, and farm animals. Each of these categories experiences war in its way. The focus of the speech is to show the still recent events at the Ukrainian border and the situation of non-human animals. It highlights the lack of assistance for wildlife and farm animals, as well as the creation of special procedures for zoo animals and companion animals, who are recognized as war victims and refugees. It's important to explore why there is a difference in how we treat non-human animals based on the category they belong to, and how this relates to the issue of extinction and what specific special procedures could be created for zoo animals and companion animals in times of armed conflicts and wars?

About the speakers:

Dr. Catriona Paul completed an MA (History) at the University of Edinburgh, M.Phil. (American Studies) at the University of Glasgow and my Ph.D. in American History at the University of Dundee (2012). Since relocating to Ireland in 2019, she has been employed as a part-time lecturer at Mary Immaculate College and the University of Limerick where she is now based as an Associate Member of the School of History and Geography. Paul's current book project, Relating to Horses in early Kentucky, examines the importance of human-equine relationships in understanding the history of the trans-Appalachian West in the period 1770-1830. It is to be published by University Press of Kentucky. Paul's work is concerned with the way that settler-colonists, Indigenous Americans, and Black Americans, (free and enslaved), relied on and interacted with horses; and how these human-equine relationships informed the foundation of the state and the shape of society. Initial research was funded by an AHRC-studentship at Dundee and a fellowship at the Kluge Center, Library of Congress, and also incorporates work completed at the Animal Studies Summer Institute at the University of Illinois in 2023.

Dr. Łucja Lange is an Assistant Professor at the University of Lodz in Poland. She holds a doctorate in sociology and a master's degree in cultural anthropology and theatre studies. Her research explores the experiences of diversity, disease, death, mourning, and homelessness, both in humans and animals. Dr. Lange is particularly interested in the therapeutic use of photography, both as a therapist and a researcher. She provides commemorative photo sessions for animals and their guardians and offers assistance in preparing farewells for animal funerals. Additionally, she facilitates animal and ecological grief circles. Dr. Lange is an active member of the Polish collective "Institute of the Good Death" and the International Society of Vegan Sociologists. You can find more information on her private website: https://www.langelucja.pl/

The Animal Studies Research Network at UCD is organised by Deborah Schrijvers and Poulomi Choudhury.

Thanks to @British Library via Unsplash