S9E7: Fieldwork and Affect with Michael Glover
Historian Michael Glover talks about what it takes to write animal history that treats cows as sentient subjects while still meeting the standards of rigorous scholarship. He unpacks how fieldwork with cows in the Karoo affected his writing.
Michael Glover is a postdoctoral fellow at the International Studies Group, University of the Free State. He is an associate fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and a member of the Australisian Animal Studies Association. He has co-edited an anthology, Animals as Experiencing Entities: Theories and Historical Narratives (2024), and published a monograph, Cattle's Experiences of Colonialism: An Animal History of Southern Africa (2026).
Mentioned:
Animals as Experiencing Entities: Theories and Historical Narratives by Michael Glover
Cattle's Experiences of Colonialism: An Animal History of Southern Africa by Michael Glover
What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions? by Vinciane Despret
Animal Oppression and Human Violence by David Nibert
Elephants on the Edge by G.A Bradshaw
News with Shatabdi Chakrabarti, Jessica Scott-Reid, and Jan Dutkiewicz on The Animal Turn
Valued Beavers on Stones
"At moments when stuck or struggling over a passage or concept, I would stop and ask: 'What would you say if an elephant were standing right in front of you listening? What would you say that is honest and would not make you feel ashamed?'" – G.A Bradshaw, Elephants on the Edge
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.