Motlatsi Khosi, Kala Bopape, and Rainer Ebert
South African philosophers Motlatsi Khosi (left), Kala Bopape (center) and Rainer Ebert (right) were awarded a CAF grant for an inclusive online conference for students and early career practitioners to explore the complex relationship between humans and other animals. Following an online call for papers, the trio received 78 abstracts, from which they chose nine, most from the Global South, for the conference, which was called “Humans and Other Animals: Rattling the Paradigm.” Each presenter was paired with a mentor to help them prepare their presentation.
The conference took place from December 17 to 19, and almost one hundred people from all corners of the globe attended. Three papers were selected to be published in the Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics, which will take place either in 2025 or 2026.
Motlatsi, Kala, and Rainer report that many of the online participants had never attended such a conference before, and the CAF grant enabled those attendees with unstable Internet connections to experience the entire event. Fundamentally, the success of the conference lay in giving voice and presence to under-represented scholars working in the field of ethics and animals, and to create a space for further knowledge exchange, collaboration, and inspiration for others. As a result, the trio have created a Facebook group so that all speakers and participants can stay in touch.
This grant was made possible with the support of the Animals & Society Institute.
