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

Panel at Historicidagen (The Historians’ Days)

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

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

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

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...

Presentation at Gewina Conference 2024

Presentation at Gewina Conference 2024

In June, Raf De Bont presented a paper at the 10th Gewina Woudschoten Conference 2024. Gewina, is the Belgian-Dutch Society for the History of Science and Universities, and the theme of the conference was "Ecology & Economy: History of Knowledge during the Unequal...

Presentation at Historisches Kolleg Munich

Presentation at Historisches Kolleg Munich

In July, Monica Vasile presented a paper at the "Breedism and Racism: The Ideological Use of the Animal Body since 1800" workshop held at Historisches Kolleg in Munich. The workshop was organized by Moving Animals advisory board member Mieke Roscher, and Monica...

Panel at EASST-4S 2024

Panel at EASST-4S 2024

Raf De Bont, Vanessa Bateman, and Tom Quick co-organized a panel at the quadrennial joint meeting of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), EASST-42 held in Amsterdam. Their panel,...

Presentation at POLLEN24

Presentation at POLLEN24

This week, Monica Vasile presented a paper at POLLEN24, the Political Ecology Network's Biennial Conference. The global conference was held in Lund, Sweden, Dodoma, Tanzania, and Lima, Peru. Vasile's paper, "Przewalski’s Horses: Hoofing the Trail of Wildlife...

Article in Science in Context

Article in Science in Context

Simone Schleper has an article, "Victims and diplomats: European white stork conservation efforts, animal representations, and images of expertise in postwar ornithology," in the latest online issue of Science in Context. Abstract: This article discusses two...

Lecture at University of Cologne

Lecture at University of Cologne

On 7 June, Raf De Bont gave a lecture at the Global South Studies Centre, University of Cologne, entitled ‘Moving Animals and Computerized Arks: Wildlife Logistics in the Anthropocene’. The ensuing discussion showed there were important synergies between the work...