Animal Abuse and Human Violence Conference
One Day International Conference on the Relationship between Animal Abuse and Human Violence
Keble College, Oxford, 18 September, 2007
The League Against Cruel Sports is proud to announce its sponsorship of this conference being organised by the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. The conference will highlight the importance of animal ethics by exploring the following questions:
- Is there empirical evidence of a link between animal abuse and violence to humans or anti-social behaviour?
- How should we interpret the evidence?
- If there is a link, what are the ethical implications?
- What are the implications for social and legal policy?
The purpose of the Conference is to enable people to better understand the nature of animal abuse, the motivation that leads to cruel acts, and the implications for human as well as animal welfare. This understanding is essential to help inform social and legal policy. This will be the first academic conference devoted to this subject in the United Kingdom.
The conference is being arranged by the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, founded in 2006 to enhance the ethical status of animals through academic research, teaching and publication.
At the heart of the Centre's work is an international fellowship of academics drawn from the sciences and the humanities. The Centre is named after the distinguished Spanish philosopher José Ferrater Mora, known for his pioneering opposition to bullfighting. One of the Centre's key research areas is the link between animal abuse and human violence.
The conference is being organised by the Centre as part of its commitment to research and publication in this field. The aim of the Centre is to put the issue of humankind's interactions with animals on the intellectual agenda. During the last 30 years, evidence has been accumulating of a link between animal abuse and violence to humans or anti-social behaviour. This conference will document and explore the meaning of this link, and the implications that should follow for the making of social and legal policy.
Attendance and delegates
The Conference will appeal to academics, representing a range of disciplines, including (but not limited to) ethics, philosophy, theology, psychiatry, law, psychology, criminology, medicine, social sciences, and social policy. We also expect the conference to appeal to a wide range professionals concerned with
- the care of children;
- spousal and elderly abuse;
- cruelty prevention and inspection;
- social work;
- penal policy;
- veterinary services;
- human and animal shelters;
- humane education;
- wildlife protection;
- law enforcement, and
- the implementation of legal and social policy.
We, therefore, particularly welcome attendance from professionals, including anti-cruelty inspectors, teachers, medical personnel, veterinarians, social workers, health care professionals, and law enforcement officials.
Conference Programme
The one day conference includes approximately 17 x 15 minute presentations, keynote presentations, including dinner and overnight accommodation at Keble College. The full academic programme will be published in May 2007.
Venue
Keble College is one of the largest of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1870, its original brick Victorian buildings have now been complemented and supplemented by award winning contemporary developments including a purpose built lecture theatre in the Sloane Robinson Building. Keble's self-contained conference facilities include ensuite bedrooms and one of the largest and most impressive Dining Halls in Oxford.
Registration
If you are interested in attending the conference please register here and we will send further details soon, including conference costs:
Call for papers
Academics worldwide are invited to submit brief abstracts of papers for consideration. From the abstracts submitted, the best will be selected for presentation at the conference. Each presentation will be scheduled for 15 minutes.
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted via email to Professor Andrew Linzey, Director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics to arrive by 1 May, 2007.
Those whose abstracts are selected will be asked to supply a full academic paper of between 3,000-5,000 words by 1 September 2007. All selected papers will be published in book form.
