S3E8: Urban Animal History with Philip Howell
In this episode Claudia speaks to Philip Howell about urban animal history. Together they discuss the significance of geography in prying apart the many histories of animals, how attention to animal stories gives one a better appreciation for ‘the urban’ and challenges humanist ideas of history. They also touch on the stimulating experience of searching for, finding, and trying to understand animals in the archives.
Philip Howell is a lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge, UK. He is an historical and cultural geographer, and has written about the regulation of sexuality in Victorian Britain, and on the relations between literature and geography. But for 20 years he has been researching “animal geography,” focusing on the place of the dog in Victorian society, but also taking in the politics of animals in contemporary society. Find out more about Philip here and you can reach him via email (pmh1000@cam.ac.uk)
Mentioned:
Flush and the Banditti: Dog-stealing in Victorian London by Philip Howell
At Home and Astray; Animal History in the Modern City by Philip Howell
The curious case of the Croydon cat-killer: producing predators in the multi-species metropolis by Philip Howell and Ilanah Taves;
Black Protest and the Man on Horseback: Race, Animality, and Equestrian Counter-Conduct by Philip Howell and Ilanah Taves;
Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-animal Relations edited by Chris Philo and Chris Wilbert;
The Urbanization of the Eastern Grey Squirrel in the United States by Etienne Benson;
About Looking John Berger;
Foucault and Animals by Dinesh Wadiwel and Matthew Chrulew
La Vie Des Hommes Infämes by Michael Foucault
"these small lives reduced to ashes in the few phrases that have destroyed them … I undertook to know why it had been suddenly so important in a society like ours to ‘suppress’ (as one stifles a cry, smothers a fire or suffocates an animal) a scandalous monk or a fantastic and inconsequential usurer …" - Robert Hurley's Translation of Michael Foucault's Power (2000)
Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E) for sponsoring this podcast; the Sonic Arts Studio and the Sonic Arts of Place Laboratory (SAPLab) for sponsoring this season; Gordon Clarke (Instagram: @_con_sol_) for the bed music, Jeremy John (Website) for the logo, and Hannah Hunter for the Animal Highlight