23-24 September, 2021

University of St. Andrews*

Organisers: Ben Sachs, Mara van der Lugt

Confirmed Speakers

Alasdair Cochrane (University of Sheffield)

Julia Driver (University of Texas-Austin/University of St. Andrews)

Molly Gardner (Bowling Green State University)

Oscar Horta (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)

Joel Joseph (University of St. Andrews/University of Stirling)

Josh Milburn (University of Sheffield)

In the field of animal ethics, domesticated animals receive nearly all the attention.  But the ethical questions about our treatment of non-domesticated animals are probably knottier.  We’re responsible for the existence of domesticated animals and consequently it isn’t too difficult to establish that we bear some degree of moral responsibility for the quality of their lives.  But what do we owe to animals whose procreation is out of our hands?  The majority view is that life in nature is, in Hobbes’s memorable phrase, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”, but there is not yet an emerging consensus as to what, if anything, we should do about that.  And when overpopulation and disease threaten animal populations, can hunting be an ethical answer?  What about the reintroduction of predator species?  The questions become perhaps even more complex when we focus our attention toward those animals who are (to borrow Donaldson and Kymlicka’s expression) liminal—i.e., those who live at the fringes of human civilization but aren’t domesticated: rats, foxes, pigeons, etc.  May we demand certain behaviour from these animals and treat them as pests when they don’t comply?  Do we incur new obligations to animals when we expand our settlements into their territory and thus render them involuntarily liminal?

Call for Papers

We are now inviting paper submissions for the conference; all papers that are relevant to the conference themes as laid out above will be considered.  The word limit for submissions is 3000 (including everything except the works cited list), and papers must be anonymized, as the refereeing process will be blind.  If your submission is successful you will be invited to present your paper at the conference, and (if Covid circumstances allow) a generous contribution to your travel and accommodation expenses made. Your submission should be sent as a Word document to wildanimalethicscon2021@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is 20 June and notification of acceptance will be delivered by 16 July.

Information

Email Ben Sachs at bas7@st-andrews.ac.uk

* This conference will take place at the University of St. Andrews if it is safe to hold it in person.  Otherwise it will be held online on the same dates.

With gratefully acknowledged support from the Leverhulme Trust