CfP: Animal Studies Panel at the upcoming EACS (Venice, 21-25 July 2026, Deadline Nov. 16, 2025)

Samira Müller (Heidelberg UNiversity) and Anna Lisa Beck (University of Zürich) call for papers in terms of a panel dedicated to Animal Studies, which is planned in the context of the EACS (East Asian Cultural Studies) Conference. The conference will take place 21-25 July 2026 in Venice.

The panel addresses the importance of focusing on animals in Chinese studies. Animals, both wild and domesticated, define worldviews and shape experiences whilst interacting with their
environments. All too long, they have been disregarded or, if studied, treated as mere passive elements in history, philosophical thought, and literature. However, as humans domesticated
beasts, beasts also domesticated humans, making them accustomed to consuming milk, dependent on the warmth of their wool and hide, and repeatedly testing humans’ tenacity
through the spread of pathogens and other challenges of animal husbandry. As in other parts of the world, the Chinese worldview has been entrenched by the presence (or absence) of nonhuman
species which roam(ed) East Asia or were presented as gifts and tributes from far-away lands. This panel sets out to disentangle some of the intricate processes which define(d) animalhuman relations in China from the past until today, and thereby reflects on the importance of animal studies.

The organizers are still looking for speakers who are interested in joining their panel in Venice. Your talk can focus on a specific animal, a particular phenomenon in human-animal interaction in China, or address a more theoretical topic of animal studies, e.g. classification and taxonomy. If you are interested, please send a paper proposal of max. 250
words to Samira Müller (samira.mueller@zo.uni-heidelberg.de) with the header “EACS 2026 animal” until November 16, 2025.

Depending on the number of applications, the organizers will either organise a panel (3-4 individual abstracts) or a double panel (6-8 individual abstracts).

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