Conference 2019: Traces of the Animal Past: Methodological Challenges in Animal History

Traces of the Animal Past: Methodological Challenges in Animal History
November 7-8, 2019 | Archives of Ontario. The conference program is accessible here:

http://niche-canada.org/tracesoftheanimalpast/ or below.

Professor George Colpitts (University of Calgary) will give the 2019 annual Avie Bennett Historica Canada public lecture in Canadian History on Thursday, November 7, 2019 at 7 p.m. The title of his public lecture is “Retail Animalia: Consumers, the Animal Anti-Cruelty Movement, and the Canadian Fur Trade, 1920-1940”. You are invited to join us for dinner in the Schulich Executive Dining Room at 5:30 p.m.

PROGRAM

Thursday, November 7, 2019

George Spragge Classroom, Archives of Ontario, 134 Ian MacDonald Blvd, Toronto, ON

Coffee and Snacks (8:30am-9am)

Session 1: Rethinking Animal History (9am-10:30am)

  1.    Harriet Ritvo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology “Looking Backward (and Forward)”
  2.    Sandra Swart, Stellenbosch University, South Africa “Kicking over the Traces? Freeing the Animal from the Archive”
  3.    Margaret Derry, Adjunct Professor, History Department, University of Guelph, and Associated Faculty, Campbell Centre for Animal Welfare, Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Guelph “The Animal Question: Documentation and an Interdisciplinary Search for Information ”
  4.    Susan Nance, University of Guelph “Who is a Greyhound? Reflections on the Nonhuman Digital Archive”

Refreshment break (10:30am-11am)

Session 2: The Stories We Tell About Animals (11am-12:30pm)

  1.    Jay Young, Archives of Ontario “Creatures on Display: Making an Animal Exhibit at the Archives of Ontario”
  2.    Dolly Jørgensen, University of Stavanger, Norway “Portraits of Extinction: Encountering Extinction Narratives in the Natural History Museum
  3.    J. Keri Cronin, Brock University “Hidden in Plain Sight: How Can Art and Visual Culture Help Us Think About Animal Histories?”

Lunch (12:30pm-1:30pm)

Session 3: City Species (1:30pm-3pm)

  1.    Andrew Robichaud, Boston University “Reconstructing the Animal City: Challenges and Discoveries”
  2.    Sean Kheraj, York University “Spatial Analysis and Urban Animal History”
  3.    Lisa Cox, CAV Barker Museum of Canadian Veterinary History “Finding Montreal’s Urban Animals through the Lens of Veterinary Medicine”

Refreshment break (3pm-3:30pm)

Session 4: Science and the Animal (3:30pm-5pm)

  1.    Joanna Dean, Carleton University “Guinea Pig Agnotology”
  2.   Colleen Campbell and Tina Loo, University of British Columbia “The Secret Life of the Bears: Radio-Telemetry Data and Animal History”
  3.    Jody Hodgins, York University “Mediators of Animal Health: Veterinary Science in Rural Southern Ontario, 1871-1933”

Dinner: Schulich Executive Dining Room (5:30pm-7pm)

Avie Bennett Historica Canada Public Lecture in Canadian History (7pm-8:30pm)

“Retail Animalia: Consumers, the Animal Anti-Cruelty Movement, and the Canadian Fur Trade, 1920-1940,” George Colpitts, University of Calgary

Friday, November 8, 2019

George Spragge Classroom, Archives of Ontario,134 Ian MacDonald Blvd, Toronto, ON

Coffee and Snacks (8:30am-8:45am)

Session 5: Knowing Animals, Knowing Humans (8:45am-10:15am)

  1.    Jennifer Bonnell, York University “Sweet Predicaments: Writing a Honey Bee History”
  2.    Emily Wakild, Boise State University “What’s a Guanaco? Tracing the Llama Diaspora through and Beyond South America”
  3.    Catherine McNeur, Portland State University “Vanishing Flies: The Panic of 1837, the Lady Entomologist, and the Cecidomyia Culmicola
  4.    Lindsay Marshall, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “Hearing History Through Hoofbeats: Exploring Equine Volition and Voice in Historical Narrative”

Refreshment break (10:15am-10:30am)

Session 6: Animal Biographies (10:30am-12pm)

  1.    Zach Syme, York University “Thy Good Friend Bonfire: John McCrae and his Animal Companions”
  2.    Jason Colby, University of Victoria “Tuffy’s Cold War: Science, Dolphins, and the US Navy”
  3.    Nigel Rothfels, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee “The Elephant in the Archive”