“Animals: Past, Present, and Future,” an international conference held last week at MSU, highlighted the university’s strength in the emerging area of animal studies.

Animal studies examines relationships between humans and animals through an interdisciplinary lens. MSU has a graduate specialization in animal studies and “several faculty actively contributing to and shaping the field,” said conference organizer and ESPP affiliate Georgina Montgomery (Lyman Briggs College and History).

At the conference, presenters from three continents described the many interactions between humans and animals. They provided histories of jaguar hunting in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, live cattle markets and animal trafficking. Current issues discussed included contemporary ranching, laboratory animals, and the impact of therapy horses.

ESPP affiliates at the conference included Michael Nelson (Fisheries and Wildlife, Lyman Briggs, Philosophy), on the role of empathy in ethics; Victoria Campbell-Arvai (Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies), on animal domestication; and Jennifer Kelly (Sociology), on the human-animal relationship.

Michael Nelson, along with John Vucetich of Michigan Tech, talks about the tension between protecting individual animals and conserving whole populations.

In her closing remarks Montgomery addressed the future of animal studies, which she said will bring about a better understanding not just of humanity’s relationship with animals, but of humanity itself.

“This is a field full of vitality and growth,” she said, and one whose future will be full of cross-disciplinary collaborations.

Montgomery stressed that the conference couldn’t have happened without its many sponsors, a list of which is available here.

Harriet Ritvo of MIT delivers her keynote address.