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.
Jennifer Bonnell is the author or co-editor of four books, including Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto’s Don River Valley, released in second edition by the University of Toronto Press in 2024, and Stewards of Splendour: A History of Wildlife and People in British Columbia, published by the Royal BC Museum in 2023. Her current book project explores efforts by nineteenth and early twentieth-century beekeepers to protect pollinator habitats in the Great Lakes Region. Jennifer teaches Canadian and environmental history at York University.
Sean Kheraj is a professor of Canadian and environmental history at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research examines a range of topics in environmental history including the role of non-human animals in nineteenth-century urban environments and the development of long distance oil pipelines in twentieth-century Canada.
Mentioned:
Traces of the Animal Past: Methodological Challenges in Animal History edited by Jennifer Bonnell and Sean Kheraj
Inventing Stanley Park by Sean Kheraj
Reclaiming the Don by Jennifer Bonnell
Kicking over the Traces? Freeing the Animal from the Archive by Sandra Swart
Occupational Hazards: Honeybee Labour as an Interpretive Device in Animal History by Jennifer Bonnell
Hearing History through Hoofbeats: Exploring Equine Volition and Voice in the Archiveby Lindsay Stallones Marshall
Who is a Greyhound? Reflections on the Non-Human Digital Archive by Susan Nance
Accessing Animal Health Knowledge: Popular Educators and Veterinary Science in Rural Ontario by Jody Hodigns
Tuffy's Cold War: Science, Memory, and the US Nay's Dolphin by Jason Colby
The Elephant in the Archive by Nigel Rothfels
Making Tracks: A Grizzly and Entangled History by Colleen Campbell by Tina Loo
Spatial Analysis and Digital Urban Animal History by Sean Kheraj
Epilogue: Combinations and Conjunction by Harriet Ritvo
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Germs, Seeds, and Animals by Alfred Crosby
Entertaining Elephants by Susan Nance
Animal Biographies by Eric Baratay
Cattle's Experiences of Colonialism by Michael Glover
A left-handed blow: Writing the History of Animals by Erica Fudge
The History of Animals in the Present Moment by Erica Fudge
Venus in Two Acts by Saidiya Hartman
Baleen whale cortisol levels reveal a physiological response to 20th century whaling by Stephen J. Trumble
A Biologist Remembers by Karl von Frisch
Insectopedia by Hugh Raffles
“But what can a text like this tell us about this cat? How did it feel about playing such a role in the emergence of the alliance between the French and the Wendat in the early years of the French empire in North America? What was its experience of the environments of New France? How did it adapt to the new setting? Where did it sleep?” – Sean Kheraj and Jennifer Bonnell, Traces of The Animal Past
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. This show is produced and hosted by Claudia Hirtenfelder.