College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The history of pets has long been a topic for social and cultural historians, but it has become particularly important for our understanding of societies’ relations with the natural world and with nonhuman animals. In this talk, Professor Howell explores the recent development of ‘animal history’, and what it says about domesticated or ‘companion’ animals. On the one hand, companion animals can be found in almost all societies, going back to ancient times. On the other, pets and petkeeping look like recent developments, a product of modern western societies. Professor Howell considers what we know of this history, and why it is significant, drawing on his own work on dogs in Victorian Britain. But he also emphasizes what we do not know, and how far away we are from a truly ‘global’ history of pets.

Moderator: Sarra Tlili (UF Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures)

Featured Event Speaker: Philip Howell, author of numerous books and articles, is Professor of Historical Geography and Fellow of Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge. His primary research interests are in animal geographies, geographies of gender and sexuality, and colonialism and imperialism. His most recent research has been involved in the growth and promotion of ‘animal history’ or ‘animal-human history,’ themes of which take in the ‘biopolitics’ of life and death in contemporary society.