
Animals in the Archive, 1400–1850
Friday, 14 June 2024
University of Manchester
Samuel Alexander Building, W2.19
Organising Committee: Dr Leah Astbury, Dr Clara Dawson, & Dr Catherine Evans
Where can we find animals in the archive? Can we use the past to model alternative relationships with animals and the natural world? How can scholars recapture the lives of historical animals through textual documents? How should or could museums represent animals and their bodies?
This interdisciplinary workshop will bring emerging and established scholars across disciplines together to think collectively and creatively about these questions. We will examine agency, cultural priorities and archival practices with regards to non-human subjects, considering how the past shapes our current environmental concerns. Papers will address topics including farmyard health care, animals in astrology, and archival fragments. Attendance is free but limited and includes lunch and refreshments.
Please find the sign up details here: https://forms.gle/9QNi2hzH2N6kuFHN6
This event is funded by the CIDRAL.
Program
Arrival from 9:30
9:45 Introductions
10 – 11:30 Panel 1: Animal Knowledge
Dr Stephanie Howard-Smith – Sick as a Dog: Animal Health and Animal Healers in the Archives
Dr Leah Astbury (University of Manchester) – Animals in Early Modern English Recipe Book Archives
Professor Sarah Kay (New York University) – The Animal Archive in the Sky
11.15-11.30 Coffee Break
11.30 – 12:30 Panel 2: “Exotic” Animals
Dr Sarah Cockram (University of Glasgow) – Animals from Afar: Investigating the Experience of Non-European Animals at the Italian Renaissance Court
Dr Catherine Evans (University of Manchester) – “Eat them alive”: Oysters and early modern English civility
12.30-1.30 Lunch (provided)
1:30 – 2:50 Panel 3: Remains and Fragments
Professor Erica Fudge (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow) – Fed on Scraps
Dr Verity Burke (UCD) – Fossilitating Interpretation: Archives and the Display of Fossil Life
Dr Megan Kuster (University of Manchester) – Avian Extinction Narratives: Colonial Archives and the Recovery of Local Labour
3 – 3.45 Visit to Manchester Museum: Wild
4 – 5 Roundtable Discussion and Creative Responses
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