Reading List

• Berger John, Why Look at Animals? (Penguin Books, UK: 2009)
  Berger explores the idea of captivity and spectatorship in regards to animals. The notion of zoological societies is questioned by their purpose. They are not just for scientific research, but also a display of human ego and entertainment. This text asks the reader to think about the spectator relationship they have with animals and whether that’s a good thing.

• Haraway, Donna J., When Species Meet (University of Minnesota Press, USA: 2008)
  Donna J. Haraway provides an eco-feminist outlook on relationships with animals. Haraway argues that the concept of being human is unnatural as it removes us from being an animal species. The ego rises above what is deemed natural and humans assume a god-type role over animal relationships. The writer rebukes the idea of human exceptionalism and states that human-animal relationships are important for growth and companionship. Although she mostly uses dogs as examples of human-animal relationships, she also touches on wilder animals, such as tigers.

• Heise, Ursula K., Imagining Extinction (The University of Chicago Press, USA: 2016)
  This book focuses on the importance of endangered and extinct species and how they are documented. The cultural importance of these species is explored through different mediums and formats, while the question of selective importance is also raised. Why is it that mammals have more importance than fungi? Heise explores the idea of selectivity and speciesism by analysing past forms of literature, artworks and documentation of scientific nature.
• Kaufman, Allison B. et al, Scientific Foundations of Zoos and Aquariums: Their Role in Conservation and Research, (Cambridge University Press, UK: 2019)
  This book includes selected essays by zoologists and biologists, which regard the conservation and research efforts made by trustworthy zoological societies and aquariums. The essays focus on different aspects of zoological conservation, such as methodology, psychology and ethics of conserving species.

• Lorimer, Jamie, Wildlife in the Anthropocene: Conservation after Nature, (University of Minnesota Press, USA: 2015)
  Lorimer discusses the position wildlife has in the current epoch, the Anthropocene, by using selected case studies. All of the case studies are current events and projects, showing contemporary ways of rewilding and conservation.

• Pettorelli, Nathalie et al, Rewilding (Cambridge University Press, UK: 2019)
  This book serves a collection of essays from zoological academics from all over the world, who all write about the critical arguments about ‘rewilding’. Multiple definitions are provided about the newly coined term, which describes the process of recreating past eco-systems for biodiversity to return where it was once lost.

• Cary Wolfe, Zoontologies, (University of Minnesota Press, USA: 2003)
  Clara Wolfe has put together several current theoretical thinkers in a book, who all discuss matters of other species relationships in media and in life.