New UC centre focuses on human-animal studies

New UC centre focuses on human-animal studies

14 March 2007

New Zealand's first research centre dedicated to the study of human-animal relationships has opened at the University of Canterbury.

The New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies (NZCHAS) brings together scholars from the humanities and social sciences whose research focuses on the conceptual and material treatment of non-human animals in culture, society and history.

Hosted by UC's School of Culture , Literature and Society, the centre includes members from throughout New Zealand who have expertise in cultural studies, literary studies, political science, sociology, architecture, the visual arts and Māori studies.

Heading the centre are co-directors Dr Annie Potts and Dr Philip Armstrong (Culture, Literature and Society). Founding members also include UC academics Professor Henrietta Mondry (Languages and Cultures), Dr Alison Loveridge (Sociology and Anthropology) and Drs Jed Mayer and Julie Wuthnow (Culture, Literature and Society).

As one of the first centres of its kind in the world, NZCHAS is already attracting positive attention from international scholars, said Dr Potts. It has established affiliations with overseas institutions including the Jane Goodall Institute (USA), Oxford Centre for Human Ethics (UK), the British Animal Studies Network, and Society and Animals Forum (USA).

Dr Potts said human-animal studies developed overseas as a distinct interdisciplinary field in the 1980s and 1990s. The field had developed exponentially in the USA , UK and Australia but there had been no co-ordinated approach to the issues in New Zealand.

“It is an area that has been neglected to date and marginalised. It is about disrupting anthropocentrism, deconstructing and challenging our assumptions about non-human animals — similar to how feminist studies and postcolonial studies have focused on challenging the marginalization of certain humans.

“Most of the research coming out of human-animal studies is groundbreaking because it is a new interdisciplinary field that is fast gaining recognition,” Dr Potts said.

Dr Armstrong said human-animal studies provided a new lens through which to examine wide-ranging aspects of society.

“It is a new paradigm which shifts perceptions we take for granted,” he said.

“NZCHAS is motivated by the desire to increase knowledge about how our society understands and deals with animals. This is particularly important for a country like New Zealand which has so heavily invested in animals.”

A website, www.nzchas.canterbury.ac.nz, promoting the work of the centre has also been launched.

ENDS

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