A day-old Holstein calf stood alone in the auction pen. Tish and I sat in the bleachers waiting for the auction to begin. The auction ring was clean — this was the first auction of the day and the wood shavings lining the floor of the pen had not yet been soiled by animals passing […]
Category Archives: Animal Studies
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2013 ICAS Conference “(De)Colonized Bodies, (De)Colonized Lives” Talk
The Institute for Critical Animal Studies Conference this year was wonderful — I met and reconnected with so many great people and saw some really interesting talks. The ICAS organizers live-streamed all the talks so that people who could not attend the conference in person could still participate (both as speakers and audience members). Dylan […]
Why Geography?
Earlier this week, Melissa (of the lovely blog, Mending Creation) responded to the Academic Writing and Scholar-Activism post with a question about why I chose Geography as my field/discipline. I’ve been feeling particularly positive about Geography lately, so this is a good time to reflect on the choice to do work in this discipline. Bear with me; this is going to be […]
Academic Writing and Scholar-Activism
Posts have been a bit more infrequent than usual here on the blog because I’ve been writing up a storm in the world of academics and, quite frankly, I’m pooped! Last week I spent intensively working on getting a draft of the paper for my talk this year at the annual geographer’s conference (AAG). Another project I’m […]
Geography, Decolonization and Inspiration
I imagine I’ll come up for air sometime soon. It is week nine of eleven of the quarter, which means that the pressure is on…Grading, squeezing in student meetings, reading and planning for class, trying to fit everything in before the end of the quarter, and so on. This quarter, things are intensified by the […]
Thinking Animal Emotion in the Midst of Teaching
The quarter is in full swing, which means that teaching has completely absorbed my time and energy. Amazingly, the class has remained full and the students for the most part all seem engaged. It is so exciting to hear their ideas about the readings and watch as their thoughts shift and evolve with the material […]
Our Hen House Workshop at the UW
Today we have the pleasure of having Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan from Our Hen House here in Seattle to do a workshop at the University of Washington. It should be a fun and productive conversation! If you’re around and would like to join us, please do! Details here: When: Friday October 12, 2012; 12:00-2:00pm Where: […]
Thoughts on Tradition
Yesterday, in class, I asked the students to shout out responses and we brainstormed on the board. First was…What constitutes home? comfort family love safety security bed food Next was… What constitutes food? taste nutrition comfort community satisfaction access Then I asked the class to think about familiar traditions that are centered on food: Barbeque […]
Teaching in Fall (and More Generally)
For as long as I can remember, my dad (a university English professor) has said that faculty in the English department stumble around in shock at the beginning of fall term — shock that (suddenly!) the school year has begun and shock that (suddenly!) the summer is over and there is a whole different set of responsibilities. When I was […]
Book Reviews Galore!
Today, our dear friend Karen has her first book review over at Our Hen House. She reviewed What the Animals Taught Me: Stories of Love and Healing from a Farm Animal Sanctuary by Stephanie Marohn. I haven’t read the book, but I’m interested in doing so after reading Karen’s review. On a similar topic, I […]