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UID:564@1718.ucla.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270219T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270219T170000
DTSTAMP:20261027T154915Z
URL:https://1718.ucla.edu/events/human-animal/
SUMMARY:Human/Being\, 1400-1800\, Conference 2: Human/Animal
DESCRIPTION:\n\nOrganized by Javier Patiño Loira (University of California
 \, Los Angeles) and David P. Bardeen (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)\n\
 nThis conference is part of the 2026-27 Core Program\, a year-long series 
 of three conferences – Human/Plant\, Human/Animal\, and Human/Machine 
 – that invite participants from across the humanistic disciplines (inclu
 ding history\, art history\, history of science\, literature\, philosophy\
 , religious history\, and ecocriticism) to explore how early moderns (1400
 -1800) sought to define and understand themselves through their relationsh
 ips with non-human life forms\, entities and systems. The rise of generat
 ive models and autonomous systems has provoked intense anxieties about hum
 an exceptionalism\, posing the deceptively simple question: What does it m
 ean to be human? But “the human" has never been a stable category\, part
 icularly during the early modern period\, when artists\, writers and think
 ers grappled with the slippery boundaries between human and non-human agen
 cies.\n\nThe second conference\, Human/Animal\, shifts focus to the relati
 onship between human and animal life. In the early modern imagination\, an
 imals served both as mirrors for human social hierarchies and as test case
 s for the supposed uniqueness of the human capacity for rational thought. 
 Developments in anatomical practice and theology encouraged scholars and w
 riters to consider the moral status of animals\, their communicative poten
 tial\, and their capacity for suffering. Simultaneously\, new technologies
  (such as taxidermy)\, practices (hunting\, selective breeding\, and domes
 tication)\, and disciplines (comparative physiology and natural history il
 lustration) generated radical insights into animal behavior\, anatomy\, an
 d cognitive life. Contributors will consider how these shifting perception
 s challenged human exceptionalism\, blurred the boundaries between the "ci
 vilized" and the "savage\," and paved the way for modern understandings of
  biological kinship\, as well as the role animals played in systems of col
 onialism\, slavery and resource extraction. For this session\, "animal lif
 e" is defined broadly to include beings that occupy ambiguous spaces in th
 e historical imagination—including "monstrous" births\, mythical beasts\
 , microscopic organisms\, and social insects—as well as the porous bound
 ary between the tame and the wild.\n\n\n\nSpeakers\n\nDavid P. Bardeen\, L
 os Angeles County Museum of Art\nDiogo Cabral\, Trinity College Dublin\nMa
 ckenzie Cooley\, Hamilton College\nTomasz Grusiecki\, Queen’s University
 \nElena Janney\, Los Angeles County Museum of Art\; Harvard University Gra
 duate School of Arts and Sciences\nMarcy Norton\, University of Pennsylvan
 ia\nMaurice Saß\, Alanus University\nGavin Steingo\, Princeton University
 \nMolly Warsh\, University of Pittsburgh\n\n\n\nThis event is free to atte
 nd with advance registration and will be held in-person at the Clark Libra
 ry. Seating is limited. Walk-in registrants are welcome as space permits. 
 The registration form will be posted here approximately one month in advan
 ce of the program.\n\n\n\nImage credit: Tacuinum sanitatis\, Österreiche 
 Nationalbibliothek\, call number Cod. Ser. n. 2644\, (fol. 40r).
CATEGORIES:Conferences,Core Program
LOCATION:UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library\, 2520 Cimarron Street
 \, Los Angeles\, California\, 90018\, United States
GEO:34.033012;-118.314487
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=2520 Cimarron Street\, Los 
 Angeles\, California\, 90018\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=UC
 LA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library:geo:34.033012,-118.314487
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