Made and Tamed
Creato e domato
The Relationship between Humans and Animals in History: from Antiquity to the Present Day
La relazione tra l’uomo e l’animale nella Storia dall’antichità a oggi
Published on Friday, December 20, 2024
Abstract
Made and Tamed is a conference organised by the Doctoral Program in History at the University of Pavia addressed to young researchers, doctoral students and master’s degree students working on thesis or research projects in Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary History and Archaeology. The 2025 edition is structured around the complex relationship between human beings and animals, particularly as the former seek to reshape the latter.
Announcement
Argument
Made and Tamed is a conference organised by the Doctoral Program in History at the University of Pavia addressed to young researchers, doctoral students and master’s degree students working on thesis or research projects in Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary History and Archaeology. The Student Conference aims to encourage the dialogue among scholars from different backgrounds within a stimulating and enriching environment.
The 2025 edition is structured around the complex relationship between human beings and animals, particularly as the former seek to reshape the latter. Throughout history, from antiquity to the present day, human beings have always had a very close - almost symbiotic - relationship with the animal world, from both a concrete and an abstract point of view. On the one hand, humans have developed an increasingly strict control over the animal world, from hunting wild preys to domesticating them through a process of selection that has given rise to new species exploited for various purposes, right up to pets and even cloning. On the other hand, this proximity between humans and animals has inevitably led to a continuous process of abstraction and symbolisation, as seen in some of the earliest artistic representations, such as the cave paintings at Lascaux and Altamira or on the island of Sulawesi.
The aim of the Student Conference is therefore to explore the various ways in which humans have shaped the animal world from a transversal perspective, ranging from ancient and contemporary history to archaeological data. In recent years, historical studies have begun to focus on the animal world and its interaction with humans (e.g. Sarah Cockram and Andrew Wells’ Interspecies Interactions - Animals and Humans between the Middle Ages and Modernity, 2018). While there are many studies of artistic and literary representations, this call aims to emphasize less analysed aspects from an historical perspective.
The Call for Papers therefore intends to stimulate a broad reflection, in a chronological range from ancient to contemporary times, on the different ways in which man “creates” the animal and then interacts with it.
We invite candidates to reflect on several topics listed below, but suggest not to limit their proposals to these:
Animal symbolism
- Fantastic animals: unicorns, centaurs, chimeras, etc.
- Relationship to exotic or unknown animals (e.g. geographical explorations; the snake in Herodotus)
- Heraldry and Bestiaries
- Religious symbolism
- Animal as a product of mass culture
- Artistic representation (paintings, sculptures, coins, mosaics, vases, etc.)
- Animals and astrology (calendars, constellations)
Society, economy, leisure and activities
- Animals domestication and husbandry
- Crossbreeds and how they changed society (in work, as status symbols, etc.)
- Hunting of and with animals
- Recreational and sports activities (horse racing, falconry, bullfighting, etc)
- Tourist resources (safari, zoo, etc.)
Submission guidelines and deadlines
Location: University of Pavia When: May 29th-30th, 2025.
Contact and information: studentconference@unipv.it
Website: https://studentconference.unipv.it
Participants: undergraduate students, master's degree students, postgraduate students, doctoral students (up to and including XXXVI cycle) in Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary History and Archaeology.
Application Deadline:
before February 21st
The Student Conference will be held in-person, but remote participation will be considered in case of special needs indicated at the time of application.
Proposals (15 minutes, in Italian or English) should be sent in the form of an abstract (max. 300-500 words, with 5-10 titles as bibliography). To apply, please fill in the form at the following link: https://forms.gle/swngu1Q ETxbayZs3A
Proposals will be evaluated anonymously; selected applicants will be contacted by e-mail by March 28th. Participants should send a draft of their
intervention by May 16th.
Based on the outcome of the conference, the organising committee will consider publishing part or all of the conference proceedings.
Organising Committee
Mattia Capponi - PhD candidate in Ancient History Giulia Cozzi - PhD candidate in Archaeology
Sofia Degli Esposti - PhD candidate in Early Modern History Martina Derada - PhD candidate in Archaeology
Carolina Domina - PhD candidate in African History Giorgio Garatti - PhD candidate in Archaeology Matteo Ferro - PhD candidate in Ancient History
Federico Meneghini Sassoli - PhD candidate in Contemporary History Silvia Pin - PhD candidate in Contemporary History
Laura Strada - PhD candidate in Ancient History
Matteo Stroppiana - PhD candidate in Early Modern History
Subjects
- History (Main category)
- Society > History > Economic history
- Mind and language > Religion > History of religions
- Society > History > Labour history
- Society > History > Social history
- Society > Geography > Nature, landscape and environment
Places
- Pavia, Italian Republic
Event attendance modalities
Hybrid event (on site and online)
Date(s)
- Friday, February 21, 2025
Keywords
- history, social history, environmental history, economic history, transport history
Contact(s)
- Federico Meneghini Sassoli
courriel : f [dot] meneghinisassoli [at] gmail [dot] com
Reference Urls
Information source
- Federico Meneghini Sassoli
courriel : f [dot] meneghinisassoli [at] gmail [dot] com
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Made and Tamed », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, December 20, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/12yxz
