Moving Animals
A History of Science, Media and Policy in the Twentieth Century
In the twentieth century, processes of globalization and increasing pressure on uncultivated areas have transformed humans’ relations with undomesticated non-human animals. Because human and animal territorialities intersected in novel ways, life scientists and policymakers were increasingly spurred to study and manage animal mobility across the globe. Simultaneously, media representations of animals circulated at an unparalleled scale.
The ‘Moving Animals’ project – sponsored by an NWO Vici grant – will study changing human-nature relations by focusing on human involvement with ‘wild’ animals that move (or are being moved) over great distances. More in particular, it will analyze how the long-distance movement of these animals has been studied, represented, managed and policed throughout twentieth century. Four main categories of animal mobility take center stage: (1) biological invasions, (2) reintroductions of locally extinct species, (3) seasonal migrations and (4) the trading of zoo animals. By probing how these various forms of animal movement have been made knowable, visible and controllable, the project will cast a light on the changing place and space of animals in today’s globalizing world.
Latest News
Monica Vasile and Raf De Bont at ‘Rewilding in Europe’ Conference
From 19-21 March, 2025, the conference Rewilding in Europe: Genealogies, Imaginaries and Practices of Conservation in the Anthropocene took place at Museum Koenig, Bonn. It offered interdisciplinary discussions between conservationists, geneticists, historians and...
Article in Journal of Global History
Raf De Bont has a new article out in the Journal of Global History discussing how the advent of computers changed zoos - touching upon databases, ' infrastructural globalism' and transcontinental flows of Siberian tigers. Abstract: In 1974, the International Species...
Article in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Vincent Bijman has an article out in the latest issue of the Journal of Medicine and Allied Sciences, which discusses the changing ways in which fishermen and biologists framed the Sea Lamprey as a problematic species. Abstract: During the late 1930s, Great Lakes...
Upcoming Moving Animals Conference
On January 31, 2025 the Moving Animals: Wanderings in the Anthropocene conference will be held at Maastricht University. This conference is an opportunity to both reflect on the research conducted over the past five years by the Moving Animals project, as well as hear...
Paper at the Natuurfocus Symposium in Brussels
In December, Raf De Bont presented on the cultural ideals and scientific traditions in the history of modern conservation at the Natuurfocus Symposium in Brussels.
Radio interview on the history of dolphinariums
Raf De Bont recently gave an interview on the history of dolphinariums with Belgium's Radio 1 on "De wereld van Sofie." Listen here! A (translated) synopsis: When did dolphinariums come into existence? And how can the success of all those dolphin shows be explained?...
Panel at Historicidagen (The Historians’ Days)
The Historians’ Days (in Dutch: Historicidagen) was held at Maastricht University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the end of August and featured a Moving Animal's panel, "The Unruly Animal: Engaging with Animals in the Past." Vincent Bijman, Raf De Bont,and...
Monica Vasile at the World Congress of Environmental History
This August, Monica Vasile co-organized a panel, and presented a paper and session at the 4th World Congress of Environmental History (WCEH) held at Oulu University in Finland, where she was a Visiting Fellow this year in the interdisciplinary programme Biodiverse...
Fellowship awarded from ESEH
Vanessa Bateman was awarded an ESEH-Gale Fellowship in Digital Environmental History from the European Society for Environmental History. She will be using the Gale digital archives and the Gale Digital Humanities Lab to work on her project "Screening Wildlife: A...
Participation in ESEH NEXTGATe Writing Programme
This year's 6-month ESEH NEXTGATe (European Society for Environmental History, Next Generation Action Team) Writing Support Programme wrapped up in June. The programme is a works-in-progress monthly seminar for ERC's in Environmental History with pre-circulated papers...