Call for papers for a symposium at the European Systemic Functional Linguistics Conference

Conference Date: Online 15-17 September 2021
Deadline for Submissions: 9 June 2021

Alison Moore and Daniel Lees Fryer

In recent years, the humanities and social sciences have witnessed an “animal turn”, an increasing interest in and centering of the lives of nonhuman animals and human-animal relations (Ritvo 2007, Pedersen 2014, inter alia), more recently situated within the context of social justice (Celermajer et al. 2021). We might expect this animal turn to have been taken up with gusto in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and social semiotics (SFS), given their focus on language, representation, ideology and identity, but although some important work has been produced (e.g. Benson and Greaves 2005, Benson and Thibault 2009, Knight 2006), this has not yet led to a sustained subfield of SFL/SFS such as we see, for example, in educational semiotics. Inspired by the theme of ESFLC 2021 and building on the above work, we want to explore new ways that SFL and SFS can contribute to improving human-animal relations and the actual lives of individuals regardless of species, by critically addressing the statuses, roles and interests of non-human animals in society and the part that semiotic scholarship can play in understanding and acting. Our plan is to bring selected papers from the symposium together with some invited pieces to produce a special issue or edited volume.

Rationale

There is a rich history in systemic functional theory and social semiotics, as well as in related fields such as critical linguistics and critical discourse analysis, of studying language and meaning as social action (e.g. Kress and Hodge 1979, Hodge and Kress 1988, Fairclough 1992, Martin 2004). Indeed a core premise of SFL has been that the study of language, text, and context is never neutral, but rather “a mode of intervention in critical social practices” (Halliday 1993: 223-224). We note that “intervention” here includes practising linguistics or semiotics in a way that maintains the status quo, whether deliberate or not. A related theme that has energised SFL/SFS is the insistence that meaning potential is unevenly distributed across participants in a culture, usually along the lines of class, gender, ethnicity, generation, and capacity (e.g. Martin 1992: 575-576). 

Nonhuman animals are participants in these cultures, too. They are our companions, our protection, our food, our entertainment, our medicine, and our (wild) imagination. Their lives, largely contingent on ours, are precarious and expendable, but their collective and individual interests are not merely subordinate to our own. While animals are probably more affected by material oppression than the symbolic oppression that helps to marginalise certain groups of humans, recent scholarship suggests we underestimate animals’ capacity – and ours – to participate together in the meaning making practices that constitute everyday multispecies life (Plumwood 1993, Celermajer 2021). But either way, our meaning making practices as humans are central to what kind of life the members of other species can live. As Thibault puts it, ”[t]he human semiotic footprint has contributed to the deeply ingrained ideological view that humans are exceptional and that other species exist to be harvested and exploited for our benefit and profit”, going on to call for humans to ‘tidy up their semiotic act’ (2020: 214). In our view, a special responsibility pertains to those who not only participate in semiotic processes but also model and teach them.

In this symposium, we invite papers that respond to the animal turn, to the animal other, or more generally to the lives of nonhuman animals from a social semiotic or systemic functional perspective. We particularly welcome proposals that seek to advance nonhuman animals’ interests (though this may be a longterm goal beyond the specific academic project). Papers can include, but need not be limited to, the following topics:

• Inter- and intraspecies communication
• Animal advocacy and/or animal liberation
• Animals and the media
• Animals and education
• Animals and medicine
• Animals and the climate predicament
• Animal agriculture
• Animal studies or critical animal studies
• Animals and nationalism
• Animals and social justice
• Glottocentrism
• Critical reflection on disciplinary theory and practice

Paper proposals

Abstracts for papers should be sent to both symposium organisers (details below) by 9 JUNE. They should follow the ESFLC 2021 guidelines and contain a short title, name(s) of presenter(s), affiliation(s), a summary of up to 250 words (excluding references), and up to five key words. 

For more information, please contact the symposium organisers, or visit the ESFLC 2021 website: https://www.esflc2021.org.uk  

Contact information

Alison Moore: amoore@uow.edu.au 

Daniel Lees Fryer: daniel.l.fryer@hiof.no 

References

Benson, James D. & William S. Greaves (eds). 2005. Functional Dimensions of Ape-Human Discourse. London: Equinox.  

Benson, James D. & Paul Thibault. 2009. Language and other primate species. In Halliday, M.A.K. and Jonathan Webster (Eds) Continuum companion to Systemic Functional Linguistics, 104-112. London: Continuum.

Celermajer, Danielle, Schlossberg, David, Rickards, Lauren, et al. 2021. “Multispecies justice: theories, challenges, and a research agenda for environmental politics.” Environmental Politics 30: 119-140. 

Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Halliday, M. A. K. 2003 [1993]. “Language in a changing world.” In Volume 3 in the collected works of M. A. K. Halliday. On language and linguistics, edited by Jonathan J. Webster, 213-231. London: Continuum.

Hodge, Robert, and Gunther Kress. 1988. Social semiotics. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Knight, Naomi. 2006. Appraisal in bonobo-human culture: negotiating social behavioural  parameters through evaluation with bonobo apes. Linguistics & the Human Sciences 2:355-376.

Kress, Gunther, and Robert Hodge. 1979. Language as ideology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Martin, J. R. 1992. English text: system and structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Martin, J. R. 2004. “Positive Discourse Analysis: Power, solidarity and change.” Revista canaria de estudios Ingleses 49: 179-202.

Moore, Alison Rotha. 2014. “That could be me: Identity and identification in discourses about food, meat, and animal welfare.” Linguistics & the Human Sciences 9: 59-93. Special Issue on Identity, edited by Alexanne Don. 

Pedersen, Helena. 2014. “Knowledge production in the “animal turn”: multiplying the image of thought, empathy, and justice.” In Exploring the animal turn: human-animal relations in science, society and culture, edited by Erika Andersson Cederholm, Amelie Björck, Kristina Jennbert and Ann-Sofie Lönngren, 13-18. Lund: Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies.

Plumwood, Val. 1993. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1993.

Ritvo, Harriet. 2007. “On the animal turn.” Daedalus 136 (4): 118-122.

Thibault, P. (2020) ”Interspecies relationality in the Animal Rescue genre: Multimodal resources for empathy construction in video texts.” Section E in Baldry, A. & Thibault, P. with Coccetta, F., Kantz, D. & Taibi, D. ”Multimodal Ecological Literacy: Animal and human interactions in the Animal Rescue genre.” In Vasta, A. and Baldry, A. (eds). Multiliteracy advances and multimodal challenges in ELT environments. Udine: Forum.

Whilst the ultimate success of CAS will be measured in terms of material social change in the lived circumstances of nonhuman animals a pathway to this involves cultural and political contestation. An overarching aim of critical animal studies has been to contest the anthropocentrism of academic knowledge. This has taken place across traditional academic disciplines, their sub-disciplines, and broader fields of knowledge under the rubric of the ‘animal turn’ over the last few decades. Yet CAS has always been extra-academic. Consequently, the politicization of human-animal relations has also taken place in the broader culture, including in social movements, NGOs and in the media.In this virtual conference we aim to assess and appraise progress in such spheres contesting hegemonic and normalized anthropocentrism.

We seek papers falling under two broad categories – i) those which either constitute (or examine) examples of this disciplinary contestation, and ii) reflect and review the progress of critical animal studies. Such reflection inevitably entails detailed critical scrutiny of the CAS field and its overlaps with animal studies more generally, as well as the political and cultural constraints on the animalization of academia and culture. It also entails being attentive to where critical perspectives on human / nonhuman animal relations are especially lacking and yet most needed right now, and how CAS and all those working to end animal oppression can progress the movement in a more coherent, consistent, and effective manner.We welcome papers from all disciplines and sub-fields, and from those working independently or as part of advocacy/activist movements.

Areas of focus include, but are not limited to:

Established disciplines – e.g. Sociology, Psychology, Criminology, Philosophy, Literature, Art, Media, Politics, Film, TV, Geography, History, Anthropology and their sub-disciplines.

Established fields – e.g. Cultural Studies, Gender & Women’s Studies, Critical Race Studies, Disability Studies, Childhood Studies, Organisational Studies, Ecofeminism, Ecosocialism.

The media – facilitator or gatekeeper?

Life in the ‘life’ sciences – e.g. Ecology, Animal Welfare science, Ethology, Veterinary science

Animals and/in education (studies)

Substantive areas – e.g. Climate Crisis, Sixth Mass Extinction, Pandemics

Legal rights, laws and regulations

Progress in the animalisation of academia

Critical animal perspectives in social movements

Pathways for animal inclusion – Intersectionality, One Health

Mainstreaming critical perspectives – lessons from other social movements

You can also submit an abstract to a symposium internal to the conference themedaround Heterotopia, radical imagination, and shattering orders:manifesting a future of liberated animals hosted by Dr. Paula Arcari. Please see https://tinyurl.com/y356utrk for more information

Idea for another topic or medium that fits with our theme? We welcome presentations in all formats. Let us know!

Please submit a 250-word abstract and short bio to cfhas@edgehill.ac.uk by 28th February 2021. Include ‘EACAS 2021’ in the subject line.

Abstracts will be assessed by: Claire Parkinson (CfHAS, UK), Paula Arcari (CfHAS, UK), Brett Mills (CfHAS, UK), Richard Twine (CfHAS, UK), Kathryn Gillespie (USA), Nuria Almiron (Spain), Helena Pedersen (Sweden) and Dinesh Wadiwel (Australia).

The Conference on Animal Rights in Europe (CARE) is an international conference aimed at connecting and inspiring animal rights groups across Europe. Through workshops and networking opportunities, all groups can come together and empower each other to establish the best possible directions for the animal rights movement to take.

In 2020 CARE will be organized as an online event due to the health and safety of all participants and staff.

CARE will take place on August 14 to August 16, 2020. During the 3 days many inspiring animal rights groups from across Europe will present their ideas on how to make this world a better place. Let´s get inspired by their stories and solutions and let´s change this world together.

Web: https://www.careconf.eu

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2951573458258994/

PROGRAM AND SPEAKERS

Tickets (€10) here

Call for presentation proposals

Critical animal studies scholars and animal advocacy activists have long argued that human-animal relations are in a profound state of crisis. Humans continue to exploit other animals on a massive scale. This has devastating consequences for nonhuman animals themselves, as well as for human societies and ecosystems. This has become painfully evident with the current pandemic, which is taking a massive toll on individual lives and societies. Many viruses, such as the coronavirus originate from nonhuman animals and are transmitted to humans largely due to the fact that humans continue to use other animals for food, entertainment and other purposes stemming from human interests. Such pandemics are expected to continue, as human exploitation of non-human animals continues. In this predicament, there is an urgent need to develop a more viable and non-exploitative relationship to other species and ecosystems. This conference focuses on imagining futures for human-animal relations, in a world that is rapidly transforming. We invite papers to engage for example, with the following issues, from critical animal studies perspectives:

• What challenges and opportunities do global crises present for theorising and working towards animal liberation?

• What should and could be some new directions in animal advocacy activism?

• How can feminist, queer, disability, postcolonial and other perspectives inform our understanding of other animals and our relations to them?

• Etc.

We are looking forward to contributions from academics and activists.

Please send your abstract (max 300 words) to conference@loomus.ee by September, 30, 2020. 

The conference will also be live streamed. It is possible to deliver a presentation via Skype.  

All the practical information (including speakers, registration, food, accommodation, fees) will be published later in 2020. 

Organized by Loomus, Estonian Vegan Society and Kuulitalu OÜ

Venue: Pärimusmuusika Ait, Viljandi, Estonia

Date: May 8th 2021 – May 9th 2021

https://www.facebook.com/events/916549622101201

Dear all,

We hope all of you are doing well in this particular time we are going through. We are writing to you because some participants at the EACAS Conference in Barcelona (2019) recently informed us about invitations they have received to publish theirconference papers in journals with dubious credibility.

Out of concern for these practices, we wanted to warn you about the reality of predatory journals, of which some of you may be very familiar with, but some may not.  Predatory journals are publications which incurre in deceptive practices, mostly involving charging publication fees to authors without checking articles for quality and legitimacy and without providing the other editorial and publishing services that legitimate academic journals provide, whether open access or not. 
For further information we recommend you check these lists of Predatory Journals and Publishers. Also, Think. Check. Submit helps through the process of choosing a journal to submit your work.

Best wishes,

UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Departament de comunicació
Roc Boronat, 138
Barcelona 08018 (Spain)
Tel: +34 93 542 1237
https://www.upf.edu/cae
cae@upf.edu

Photo by Gerald Schömbs on Unsplash

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS for the volume

Denialism in Environmental and Animal Abuse: Averting Our Gaze

in the Lexington Books series: Environment and Society

(series ed. Douglas Vakoch)

Editors:

Dr. Tomaž Grušovnik (Faculty of Education, University of Primorska, Slovenia)

Dr. Karen Lykke Syse (Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, Norway)

Dr. Reingard Spannring (Institute for Educational Studies, University of Innsbruck, Austria),

Short outline:

Despite readily available facts and figures regarding human-caused natural degradation and often overwhelming scientific consensus on issues related to environmental pollution, we are still faced with the disbelief about the existence and extent of anthropogenic impact on the environment. The failure of the so-called Information Deficit Model, according to which public inaction and apathy are generally attributable to lack of relevant information, prompted natural and socials sciences as well as humanities to look for alternative accounts of passivity and inertia in the field of environmental education and awareness-raising. Thus, in the last two decades researchers increasingly focused on the concept of “denialism” as the more suitable explanation of the lack of significant environmental change. Several fields contributed to our understanding of the phenomenon, including anthropology, social psychology, philosophy, sociology, linguistics, ecocriticism, natural science and science communication. The proposed edited volume thus seeks to provide a clear and comprehensive contribution to our understanding of the “environmental denial” with chapters from researchers in natural and social sciences as well as humanities, disclosing the multifaceted appearance of the concept by approaching it from different perspectives.

In somewhat similar fashion to environmental disciplines, animal ethics, critical animal studies, and related fields also stumbled on an analogous phenomenon when trying to account for our increasing meat consumption and lack of empathy for the animals slaughtered in the industries despite the efforts of educators, activists, and academia to raise the awareness of the harsh realities of “Animal-Industrial Complex.” Indeed, several papers in recent decades have focused on consumers’ cognitive dissonance as the vehicle for ignorance, as well as on the drastic consequences of the denial, including Perpetration-Induced-Traumatic-Stress that occurs in workplaces demanding repeated exposure to violence. As the research shows, more than hundred and fifty billions of animals killed annually by the industries are hardly a consequence of our ignorance and lack of empathy; to the contrary, withdrawal of compassion for the suffering animals can be seen as a product of socialization into carnistic societies. The edited volume thus also aims to present the reader with recent insights into the denial of animal sentience, subjectivity, and agency in range of contexts, providing opportunity of both denialism debates – environmental as well as animal – to mutually shed light onto each other.

Book chapters explicitly addressing at least one of the following issues are welcomed:

– psychological, anthropological, sociological and/or philosophical aspects of environmental denialism;

– cognitive dissonance and denialism in carnistic societies;

– consequences of denialism in Animal-Industrial Complex;

– environmental education and environmental denial;

– animal rights education and denial of animal subjectivity and agency;

– denialism and possible alternative explanations of refusal to acknowledge environmental and animal abuse;

– similar topics that explicitly address denialism in the context of environmental and animal abuse;

Submission procedure:

Chapter proposal submissions are invited from researchers and academics on or before September 30, 2019. Proposals should not exceed 1000 words, presenting main arguments of the chapter and explaining how they fit into the general theme of the volume.

Proposals in Word or PDF formats (Times New Roman, 12, 1.5 spacing) should be sent to

tomaz.grusovnik@pef.upr.si and reingard.spannring@uibk.ac.at

on or before the specified date together with author’s CVs. Authors will be notified about the potential acceptance of their chapters by October 31, 2019. Full chapter submissions will be due by January 31, 2020. Full chapters should be around 6000 words in length, following Lexington “Production Guidelines” (https://rowman.com/Page/PROGUIDE). All chapters will be subject to peer-reviews. Once the chapters have been reviewed, final chapters will have to be submitted within 2 months from the date they are returned to authors. The volume is planned to be published in late 2020 or early 2021. For more information about the project please write to Tomaž Grušovnik and Reingard Spannring to the above addresses.