Saturday, November 2, 2024

Nonhuman Kinship

Loneliness and connection are often thought about in strictly human terms, but these states can go on to impact the larger ecologies we inhabit. Loneliness may also be more universal than we realize–aiding in the reconceptualization of human-animal-environmental relationships, and reinventing the future of human-nonhuman kinship. This track of the program explores these various dimensions, and asks specifically how loneliness may be experienced in animals, with animals, and beyond animals.

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Decolonizing Extinction

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6.5 minutes with banner

6.5 Minutes With… Barbara J. King

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Anthropologist Barbara J. King talks about how nonhuman animals experience loneliness, and how we might reconsider our relationships with them as we try to...

Better Off Alone

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Creator Kite Description Better Off Alone is an installation work and permanent chatroom which uses Blu Mar Ten's sample pack ``jungle jungle`` to sonify a chatroom. Displayed...

Robot Dogs Can Help Seniors Cope—Especially During Covid

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Download the WIRED article here!Download Author Sassafras Lowery Description They're not about to replace real-life therapy dogs, but research shows that motorized mutts can benefit people struggling with...

People

Barbara J. King

College of William & Mary

Kite aka Suzanne Kite

Concordia University

Sonia Zhang

New School

Juno Salazar Parreñas

Cornell University

Discussion Questions

  • How does the natural world materialize loneliness, with and without human contact?
  • How might nonhuman animals experience isolation, grief, among other possible feelings related to loneliness?
  • What of the non-animal animals, such as robotic pets, that are pitched as solutions for loneliness in long-term care settings?
  • How do loneliness, extinction, and re-wilding processes intersect?