Animal Studies: Our Ruling Classes: Culture, Power, Conflict (PAMLA (Pacific and Ancient Modern Language Association))
Hyatt Regency Seattle, Washington
Organization: PAMLA
Event: PAMLA (Pacific and Ancient Modern Language Association)
The Animal Studies standing session seeks papers broadly related to the intersection of literature or media and animal studies, across genres and national literatures, with a special—but not exclusive —interest in proposals that engage with the 2026 PAMLA conference theme, "Our Ruling Classes: Culture, Power, Conflict." As such, it aims to enliven the conversation surrounding the conference theme through animal studies and literature, while making cross-disciplinary pathways with science, conservation, and public policy.
As the series preface of Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature states, various academic disciplines, including literary studies, can be found in the process of taking an “animal turn,” questioning the ethical and philosophical grounds of human exceptionalism by engaging seriously with nonhuman animal presences. This line of inquiry has become increasingly more important today.
If the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed anything, it is the limits of human-centered thinking: our society exists in a delicate balance with the nonhuman world, where an encroachment into the wild can unleash infectious diseases into the human population and companion animals can offer comfort and healing to people in times of need. Consequently, as evidenced by the cultural impact of documentaries, animated films, and other media, stories have the potential to impact attitudes, behaviors, and motives of reader-audiences with regard to conservation ethics.
Below are a few sample questions that can potentially be asked in this session; other relevant inquiries will be welcomed. How have literature and artistic practices functioned as an enterprise to imagine and understand nonhuman animals? How has the literary imagination contributed to the changes in our perspectives on the responsible and constructive ways of dialoguing with nonhuman animals? As examples such as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” and Haruki Murakami’s “Abandoning a Cat” suggest, our sense of ethics surrounding the treatment of animals is in some ways transhistorical and in other ways unsettled. How critical have literary representations of animals been in translating their interiority to us, especially if we regard literature as one of the critical components in how people learn moral sentiments? How do we write and speak about animal welfare without vilifying underprivileged minorities, who are often forced to depend upon non-human exploitation for their livelihood? How do the ways that we depict non-human animals impact their lived experiences amidst the ongoing climate crisis?
Areas of inquiry may encompass, but are not limited to, the following:
- theories and practices relevant to animal studies and literature: e.g., animal ethics, animal rights, animal psychology, environmental humanities, cultural studies, law and literature, posthumanism, etc.
- any topics related to the PAMLA 2026 theme (https://www.pamla.org/conference/2026-conference-theme/ )
- translation theories
- empathy studies
- human-animal relationship
- ethics of representation
- moral philosophy and literature
- comparative literature – comparison across time periods, genres, cultures, etc.
- racialized and gendered animals
- animal conservation and welfare
- how stories featuring animals impact real animals
- animal studies and ecocriticism in the Global South
- conservation bias, charismatic species, urban wildlife, etc.
More information about the conference can be found at PAMLA's conference website:
https://www.pamla.org/pamla2026/
Paper proposals can be submitted via PAMLA's online website at https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/20005
From the list of sessions, choose session number 20005, "Animal Studies".
The initial abstract proposal deadline is set for May 25, 2026.
Contact Sutirtho Roy at s8roy@ucsd.edu for any questions.
Sutirtho Roy