Month: December 2017

What Difference Does it Make if Gove Recognises Animals as Sentient? by Elliott Woodhouse

The following is a guest post by Elliott Woodhouse, who is an independent researcher, and a member of ShARC. *** Michael Gove’s recent statement confirms that the British Government will continue to legally recognise the sentience (which Gove defines as the ability to feel pain and emotion) of nonhuman animals after withdrawing from the EU.[1] This comes after MPs voted down Green Party MP Caroline Lucas’s proposed amendment to recognise nonhuman animal sentience in the EU Withdrawal Bill. Michael Gove’s decision to keep the UK’s legal attitude towards nonhuman animals in line with…continue reading →

Bearing Witness to a Disappearing World: Poetry in a Time of Mass Extinction, by Dr Michael Malay

The following is a guest post by Dr Michael Malay, who is an Early Career Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Bristol, and a member of ShARC. *** Bearing Witness to a Disappearing World: Poetry in a Time of Mass Extinction In ‘Blacksmith Shop’, Czeslaw Milosz describes a childhood visit to the local smithy. He remembers the blacksmith standing above the anvil, hammering away at a piece of iron, and the incredible heat of the furnace. A group of horses stand outside, ready to be shod, while a collection of tools await repair:…continue reading →

Research Seminar: Dr Jonathan Skinner, ‘Ethno Plunderphonics: On Some Mockingbird Transcriptions’ – 3pm, Tuesday 12th December 2017

We are thoroughly delighted to welcome Dr Jonathan Skinner to our next ShARC research seminar to deliver a talk on 'Ethno Plunderphonics: On Some Mockingbird Transcriptions’. _ Jonathan is Associate Professor at the University of Warwick and teaches on the English and Comparative Literary Studies program. His interests include Contemporary Poetry and Poetics; Ecocriticism and Environmental Studies; Ethnopoetics; Sound Studies; Critical Theory; and Translation. He is founder and editor of ecopoetics, a journal which features creative-critical intersections between writing and ecology. _ The seminar will be held in collaboration with the Centre for Poetry and Poetics…continue reading →