ABSTRACT
In January 2012 The New York Times published an article titled “Animal Studies Cross Campus to Lecture Hall, ” documenting the expanding number of animal studies programs and courses in North America and Europe (Gorman, 2012). Gorman notes that a growing number of universities are embracing scholarship in the area of interspecies relations as a new emergent area of inquiry and study. Research in what is now referred to as animal studies was, until recently, primarily a minor and marginal area of scholarship. Attention to theoretical concerns that move beyond humanism combined with a greater ecological awareness of the interconnection between species is bringing studies of animals and interspecies relations more into the forefront of research and critical inquiry. In a recent issue of the journal Society and Animals, O'Sullivan and Bennison (2012, p. 333) write about “riding the crest of a human animal studies wave, ” expressing fascination about the rapid growth of the field and encouraging scholars to reflect on the implications of this trend for research and teaching in universities.
