Previously, due to their prevailing anthropocentrism, the radical rejection of all kinds of anthropomorphism and biological essentialism, non-human animals have rarely been considered in the humanities and social sciences. The forms of relationships between non-human animals and humans very heterogeneous across historical and cultural settings, but also within individual societies; their reciprocal relationships are multidimensional. In light of this, the contributions in this volume pose the question of what the consideration of non-human animals and human-animal relations means for the different academic disciplines, and which challenges arise for these fields of research, their theories and methodologies. With forewords from the ethnologists Marc Bekoff and Kurt Kotrschal.
Reingard Spannring (Univ.-Ass. Mag. Dr.) lehrt im Bereich Bildung-Generation-Lebenslauf an der bildungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Innsbruck. Karin Schachinger (BA), Germanistin, unterrichtet Deutsch als Zweitsprache und absolviert Masterstudien in »Gender, Culture and Social Change« und Sprachwissenschaft. Gabriela Kompatscher (Ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. phil.) lehrt Latinistik und Human-Animal Studies an der Universität Innsbruck. Alejandro Boucabeille (Mag., BA) absolviert ein PhD-Studium in Geschichte und ein Masterstudium in Soziologie sowie in Friedensstudien (Peace Studies).
