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The Animal Turn: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Claudia Hirtenfelder
Animals are increasingly at the forefront of research questions – not as shadows to human stories, or as beings we want to understand biologically, or for purely our benefit – but as beings who have histories, stories, and geographies of their own. Each season is set around themes with each episode unpacking a particular animal turn concept and its significance therein. Claudia Hirtenfelder delves into some of the most important ideas emerging out of this recent turn in scholarship, thinking, and being.
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- Yesterday1h 21m
S9E5: Historical Methods with Jennifer Bonnell and Sean Kheraj
In this episode we switch gears toward considering historical methods. Sean Kheraj and Jennifer Bonnell come onto the show to discuss their edited book Traces of The Animal Past and together with Claudia they delve into some of the ways environmental and animal histories differ as well as some of the key methods scholars interested in them can use. Topics Covered: animal history versus environmental historysearching for animals in the archive borrowing tools from natural and socia...
- 1 weeks ago1h 11m
S9E4: Segregation with Jules Skotnes-Brown
Jules Skotnes-Brown joins Claudia on the show to discuss how segregating logics were used to govern humans and animals in South Africa’s history. This includes everything from Addo’s elephants being driven, enclosed, and “tamed”, to Kalahari San people being policed inside a national park and managed through rations and confinement. Topics Covered: The difference between environmental history and animal history Defining segregation as a ideological and material connect...
- 2 weeks ago1h 6m
S9E3: Taxonomies with Harriet Ritvo
Harriet Ritvo discusses animals and taxonomy, unfurling the ways in which animals are categorised scientifically and in everyday vernacular. She unfurls what this might mean for how we know animals and the ways in which we understand and write their histories. Topics Covered: how classification systems expose human values and power why herd books matter for animal history and domesticationscientific taxonomy versus vernacular categories naming rules, authorit...
- 3 weeks ago1h 32m
S9E2: Modernity with Erica Hill and Susan Nance
Erica Hill and Susan Nance join Claudia on the show to discuss “modernity.” They discuss what this relatively messy shorthand means for history and for understanding human–animal relations. They try to unpack what is meant by modernity and touch on everything from industrialisation to concealment and consumption. Topics Covered: Animal History, the journal that tries to understand animals as historical subjects Using animal welfare science to interpret historical animals’ be...
- 4 weeks ago1h 37m
S9E1: Animals' Cultural Histories with Sandra Swart
Claudia speaks with historian Sandra Swart about the importance of recognising animals’ cultural histories. They discuss the maturation of animal history as a field and focus on the cultural histories of baboons and elephants in South Africa. Topics covered: Working definition of animal culture Fuffification and disnification of wildlife The deep and urban history of baboons A lone elephant in the Knysna Forest ‘Rogue’ elephants in the PilanesbergAnimal Highlig...
- Aug 24, 20261h 10m
From the Archive: Extraterritorial Jurisdiction with Charlotte Blattner
Charlotte Blattner discusses how international law, specifically Extraterritorial Jurisdiction, might provide a useful and productive way in which to build legal protections for animals. Date recorded: 10 April 2020 Guest: Charlotte E. Blattner is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Public Law, University of Bern. She earned her PhD in international law and animal law from the University of Basel, Switzerland, as part of the doctoral program Law and Animals. From 2...
- Aug 10, 20261h 7m
From the Archive - S2E8: Shoalmates with Jonathan Balcombe
[From the Archive - Enjoy!] Claudia talks to Jonathan Balcombe about fishes and their varied and incredible experiences. Using the concept of ‘shoalmates’ as a launch pad, they discuss some of the intra- and inter-species relations fishes engage in from work to cuddle and play. Date recorded: 30 November 2020 Jonathan Balcombe is a biologist with a PhD in ethology, the study of animal behavior. His books include Pleasurable Kingdom, Second Nature, The Exultant Ark, and Wha...
- Aug 3, 20261h 27m
Bonus: (Anti)Vivisection with Lauren Stein and Richard Miller
Vivisection is an old word for a practice that still shapes modern medicine: using living bodies as tools for knowledge. Claudia talks with Lauren Stein and Richard Miller from the National Anti-Vivisection Society to unpack some of vivisection’s history, how scientists understand it and think through the ethics of it, as well as the emergence of alternatives to its use. Date Recorded: 22 June 2026 Lauren Stein, Ph.D., is the Director of Science and Research Programs at the Natio...
About The Animal Turn
Animals are increasingly at the forefront of research questions – not as shadows to human stories, or as beings we want to understand biologically, or for purely our benefit – but as beings who have histories, stories, and geographies of their own. Each season is set around themes with each episode unpacking a particular animal turn concept and its significance therein. Claudia Hirtenfelder delves into some of the most important ideas emerging out of this recent turn in scholarship, thinking, and being.
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