Valuing Wildness in Animals
This is a Bridging the Gaps-funded project led by Dr Karen Edwards (English) intended to bring together the expertise on animals in the natural and social sciences at Exeter to foster an interdisciplinary investigation of the following question: ‘How is wildness in animals valued?’ As an inherently contested concept, wildness provides a particularly useful basis for considering the biological, topological, spatial, cultural, moral, and economic relationships between human and non-human animals. The project will hold a series of six workshops, each focussing on a different species and raising a range of issues relevant to our general topic. The workshops will take place at roughly six week intervals over the academic year 2011-12.
Seminars
Elephants: 27th October 2011
The first seminar featured a fascinating talk by Dr Jamie Lorimer (Department of Geography, King’s College, London), whose research centres on the Asian elephant, about the conservation and rewilding of a species that has often occupied a place between the wild and the domesticated in human culture. He also considered the place of touch (specifically with regard to human-elephant companionship) in contemporary environmentalism. This was followed by a talk by Dr Karen Edwards (Department of English and project lead), a buffet lunch and interdisciplinary discussion.
Migratory birds: 29th November 2011
Prof. Jane Spencer (Department of English) and Prof. Stephen Hinchliffe (Department of Geography) talked on the issues raised by a consideration of swallows, martins, cranes, and Great Bustards: the necessity for a globalization of conservation methods, especially when such methods are impeded by cultural clashes (such as the shooting and eating of migratory birds passing through Malta); the threat of disease that cannot be controlled (such as avian flu); and the re-introduction of regionally extinct species.
Rats: 10th January 2012
Dr Fiona Mathews (Department of Biosciences) and Dr John Skelhorn (Department of Psychology) explored the role of negative human attitudes in question of ‘value’; the global dimension of animals perceived as ‘pests’; the problem of assigning responsibility (rats’ or humans’?) for rats’ destruction of crops, spread of disease, population explosions; and speciesism in attitudes toward animal suffering.
Otters: 5th March 2012
Featuring talks by Paul Chanin (Mammal Ecologist)and Miriam Darlington (Department of English).
Next workshops
Likely topics for the following three workshops are:
- Salmon: sport; question of sentience; the effect of large numbers (v. the unique individual) on attitudes; commercial, welfare and ecological implications of farming salmon.
- Whales: industrial exploitation; threat of extinction; cultural clashes.
Background reading
Paper on the planet's remaining 'wilderness' areas by Caro et al.
Further information
For more information about this project and to get involved, please contact the project lead, Karen Edwards
