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Welcome to the Australian Animal Studies Group website.
Animal Studies, alternatively known as Human-Animal Studies (HAS), is an emerging field of cross-disciplinary scholarship devoted to the investigation of the relationships between human and nonhuman animals and their environments.
The field has been active in educational institutions in the USA and UK for over two decades, but only achieved a unified presence within the Australian academy with the inaugural conference of the Animals & Society (Australia) Study Group (now the Australian Animal Studies Group), held at the University of Western Australia in 2005.
The Australian Animal Studies Group, together with the projects and programmes that it promotes, reflect a growing awareness in the wider community about the benefits of human-animal relations education and research. This appreciation is embedded in a broad range of government, non-government and community interest groups encompassing animal rights and welfare workers, animal industry representatives, conservation, tourism, sport and leisure organizations, government authorities and animal rights activists in the philanthropic sector. Similarly, the Group’s academic participants represent a diverse set of interests.
This website is a meeting point for all, providing information about animal studies scholarship and networks, and a forum for identifying themes of discussion, coursework and research practice.
