Plenary speakers / Conferenciantes plenarias


Margo DeMello

Carroll College, USA

mdemello@carroll.edu 

Margo DeMello received her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from U.C. Davis in 1995, and is an Assistant Professor in the Anthrozoology program at Carroll College. She served as the Program Director for Human-Animal Studies at Animals & Society Institute from 2004-2019, and is the past President of House Rabbit Society. She also volunteers for Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary and works closely with the Kerulos Institute.

Her books include Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community (Duke University Press 2000), Stories Rabbits Tell: A Natural and Cultural History of a Misunderstood Creature (with Susan Davis, Lantern 2003), Low-Carb Vegetarian (Book Publishing Co. 2004), Why Animals Matter: The Case for Animal Protection (with Erin Williams, Prometheus 2007), The Encyclopedia of Body Adornment (Greenwood 2007), Feet and Footwear (ABC-CLIO 2009), Teaching the Animal: Human-Animal Studies Across the Disciplines (Lantern 2010), Faces Around the World (ABC-CLIO 2012), Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies (Columbia University Press 2012), Speaking for Animals: Animal Autobiographical Writing (Routledge 2012), Inked (ABC-CLIO 2014), Body Studies: An Introduction (Routledge 2014), and Mourning Animals: Rituals and Practices Surrounding Animal Death (Michigan State 2016). She has two new books coming out in the next year (On the Job: An Encyclopedia of Unique Occupations around the World, ABC-CLIO 2021, and a second edition of Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies, Columbia University Press 2021). She is now working on a book about cryptids, to be published in 2023.

Margo DeMello will deliver the lecture Bigfoot, Bunyip and the Beast of Exmoor: What cryptids can tell us about human-animal relationships.

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Carmen Flys-Junquera 

University of Alcalá, Spain

carmen.flys@uah.es 

Carmen Flys-Junquera has recently retired as Associate Professor of American Literature and Ecocriticism of the University of Alcalá (Spain). She has co-edited several books devoted to ecocriticism (Cultural Landscapes: Heritage and Conservation  2010; Ecocríticas. Literatura y Medio Ambiente, 2010; Sense of Place: Transatlantic Perspectives 2016; Envisioning Change. Environmental Humanities 2020; Imaginative Ecologies: Inspiring Change through the Humanities 2022) as well as special ecocritical issues of Spanish journals. She served as the President of EASLCE for the 2010-2012 term and in 2006  founded the only ecocritical research group in Spain, GIECO (www.gieco.es). She is founder and Editor in Chief of the journal Ecozon@. European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment (www.ecozona.eu) and directs an ecocritical book series, CLYMA, in the Franklin Collection. Her publications deal with contemporary ethnic American literatures, sense of place, ecocriticism, environmental justice and ecofeminism, as well as ecocritical analyses of contemporary Spanish novels.

Carmen Flys Junquera will be deliver the lecture Interspecies Dialogics in Ecofeminist Science Fiction.

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Florianne Koechlin 

Blauen-Institut, Switzerland

info@floriannekoechlin.ch 

Swiss biologist and chemist Florianne Koechlin (74) is  known as a critic of genetic engineering and for her various books and articles. She is Managing Director of the Blueridge-Institute (http://www.blauen-institut.ch/) and for years has worked on alternatives and options to the current all too one-sided scientific understanding – especially in relation to plants. See also TED talk: Tomatoes talk, birch trees learn – do plants have dignity? | Florianne Koechlin | TEDxZurich

Florianne Koechlin will be delivering her lecture Plant Whispers: How Plants Communicate and How They Build Networks accompanied by saxophonist Noëmi Schwank noemi.schwank@mab-bs.ch. Born in Basel, Noëmi Schwank  moved to Vienna at 17, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Saxophone with Honours in 2010, with professor Lars Mlekush. In 2009 she got a scholarship to study in Stockholm and in 2012 she graduated as Master in Concert with Pierre-Stéphane Meugé in Lausanne. She continued her studies with Marcus Weiss in Basel from 2014 and graduated as Master of Education with honours in 2016. In addition to her career as chamber musician, she is involved in musical work with children and young adults. She currently performs in various groups, projects and musical formations and has won awards in Switzerland and Austria.

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