Professor Jennifer Wolch of the University of Southern California will be in Boulder to speak on "Race, Place, and Attitudes Toward Animals," on Feb. 11 at 4 p.m. in Guggenheim Geography, Room 205.
Wolch, invited by CU-Boulder聮s geography department, is a professor of geography at USC and has been teaching and writing about how people and animals interact since the 1980s.
Much of her research is on "animal geography," which she describes as the study of how relations between people and animals vary geographically and how they shape and are shaped by human identities, culture and political economy, and how they influence the development and character of specific places.
Her upcoming lecture focuses on different cultures聮 views of animals and how attitudes vary, and why and what people think of the animal practices of other people.
"I hope to show people that our attitudes toward animals and how we relate to nonhumans are not 聭natural聮 or given in some way, but vary for some specific reasons," Wolch said. "Practices white Americans consider 聭cruel聮 are seen as 聭normal聮 by others, and similarly, many people raised with different attitudes toward animals see practices such as factory farming as unfathomably cruel."
Wolch also will discuss her interest in how and why peoples聮 attitudes toward animals vary, and what different people think of the animal practices of other people.
The lecture is free and open to the public.