Humanimal Studies Research Group

Drawing on a range of approaches from different disciplines, Animal Studies recognises the significance of animals in human lives. It highlights how “the human” and the “non-human” have always been in “interimplication” with each other (Butler 2004), and articulates how species intersect with other power relations including (but not limited to) gender, class, race, ability, and sexuality.

In contrast to work that examines the oppositional role of animals in the construction of the human, recent research has also demonstrated the interdependencies between human and non-human life and emphasises the “more-than-human” aspects to our social worlds (e.g. Whatmore 2002, Haraway 2008). Pig valves in human hearts, the development and production of vaccines or hormone treatments. Food. Clothing. Cosmetics. Animals and their body parts circulate through our social worlds. Zoos, museums, homes, wilderness: animals populate our worlds and give them meaning. Recognising this point is important for gender studies as it examines gendered spaces and structures. Equally, recognising the gendered aspects of humanimal encounters is important for animal studies.

Despite the significance of animals in human lives, the study of human-animal relations is still a relatively unexplored research area beyond the natural sciences. In part this is due to disciplinary heritages with the humanities and the social sciences attending to the “human” and “society”. This historical manifestation of the nature-culture divide creates a space for transdiciplinary research to occupy. Methods and approaches developed in the humanities and social sciences are helping to develop new understandings of human-animal relationships as we are increasingly made aware of the complex ways that humans and other animals are tied together. 

Members of the group have published a number of books and articles on the subject of Animal Studies. For more information about publications, follow the above links to each researcher. 

• Petitt, A. & Brandt, K. (2022). Zoocialization: learning together, becoming together in a multi-species triad. Society & Animals.
• Hirtenfelder, C.T. & Prouse, C. (2021) Milking Economies: Multispecies Entanglements in the Infant formula Industry, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
• Petitt, A. (2021). Cow paths and Horse trails: in Academia and around the world. In: Birke, Lynda and Harry Wels. (Eds.) Dreaming of Pegasus: Equine imaginings. Uttoxeter: Victorina Press Ltd.
• Eriksson, C. & Petitt, A. (2020) Designing Cattle: The Social Practice of Constructing Breeds, Anthrozoös, 33(2):175-190
• Petitt, A. and Hovorka, A.J. (2020). Women and Cattle ‘Becoming-With’ in Botswana. Humanimalia. 12(1).
• Petitt, A. and Eriksson, C. (2019). Breeding Beyond Bodies: making and "doing" cattle. Society and Animals. Pp. 1-19
• Petitt, A. (2019). “Working cowhorses in multispecies encounters”. In: J. Bornebark, U. Ekström von Essen and P. Anderson (Eds.). Equine Cultures in Transition: Ethical Questions. London: Routledge.
• ​Petitt, A. (2019). Rapstract: genus i jordbruk på tre kontinenter. Frispel. Tidskrift för Genusvetenskap. 39(4): 97–102.
• Petitt, A. and Bull, J. (2018). Imag(in)ing ‘good’ Swedish meat: gender, sexuality, race and nation in the sale of higher welfare chicken. Gender, Place and Culture. 25(11): 1622-1645.
• Lönngren, A-S. (2015) Following the Animal
• Holmberg, T. (2015) Urban Animals
• Andersson Cederholm, E; Björck, A; Jennbert, K; Lönngren, A-S. (2014) Exploring the Animal Turn
• Flodin, C. (2009) Att uttrycka det undanträngda