Session: 3k(9)
Time: 16.00–17.45
Room: JK2–3 2.19
Chair: Trisha Bhaya
Ishaan Selby (Concordia University), “Long Teeth of the Law: A Dialogue Between Animal Studies and Critical Police Studies”
Abstract: A critical study of police places policing at the centre of capitalism and, as Guillermina Seri argues, “exposes the ubiquitous use of force in capitalist societies, which ranges from visibhle interventions to preserve order to minute acts supporting capital accumulation and the routine reproduction of social relations.” Policing here is understood not just as law enforcement but also as social policy and the management over life by the state and civil institutions. My argument is that such work can and ought to take into account the place of animals under capitalism. I further contend that animal studies can and ought to take into account the role of police and policing as key technologies in fabricating and reproducing the species line as well as disciplining animals when they resist infrastructures of exploitation and murder like the slaughterhouse or the zoo. My paper argues that the management of life under capitalism has always been an interspecies affair and zeroes in on the interspecies nature of that management through a critical engagement with the history of policing and the confinement of animals.
A consideration of animal studies and critical police studies together helps us think about the ways in which capital incepts and governs life itself and the politics of resistance that emerge in response to such inception and governance. I follow scholars of animal resistance like Dinesh Wadiwel and Sarat Colling in reading animal resistance into the infrastructures of global capitalism. Jason Hribal historicizes the role of animals as workers and commodities within specific conjunctures as well as subjects who refuse their conditions of exploitation and death. I add to this by historicizing forms of animal control through policing apparatuses and practices. Ultimately, I argue for a police abolition that takes seriously the lives and desires of animals.
Bio: Ishaan Selby (he/they) is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellow at Concordia University in the Department of English. His research explores the intersections of Marxism, animal studies, and critical theories of race, gender, and sexuality. His work has appeared or will appear in Humanimalia, Ecocene, English Studies in Canada, and the edited collection Lost Kingdom: Animal Death in the Anthropocene (Vernon Press, 2024). He divides his time between Montréal and his home city of Toronto.
Mustafa Demir (Pompeu Fabra University), “Caring for ‘Unloved Others’: Media Rhetoric and Street Dogs in Turkey”
Abstract: The new animal protection law came into force in Turkey in 2024. Even before the new regulation, street animals were targets of violence on the streets, and after the new law, street animals, especially street dogs, became targets of catching policies by municipalities. This paper situates these developments within the broader themes of multispecies justice and the construction of “unloved others” in urban ecologies, focusing on the rhetorical strategies used by the media. These days, street dogs are under threat due to the “streets are only for humans” rhetoric. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of mainstream and social media content, this work will focus on how human-dog relationships and coexistence culture change in the process, and how street dogs become ‘unloved others’ in society through media and its rhetoric.
The work will show how pro-government media target street dogs through coordinated narratives, portraying them as ‘terrorists’ via ‘dog terror’ and ‘terror on our streets’ rhetoric, as well as how fake news amplifies hostility. It will also examine how political Islam and Islamist outlets frame street dogs, explaining why dogs, rather than cats, become specific targets. Moreover, the study will consider how applications like Havrita facilitate harm to street dogs.
Lastly, the project will utilize specific examples and stories to understand the situation in Turkey and the polarization between humans and dogs, as well as humans and humans, such as the story of Boji, a street dog in Istanbul, and Necla Ulker, an animal lover in Ankara. By connecting these cases to the conference’s focus on nonhuman resistance and multispecies (in)justice, the paper aims to contribute to understanding how media rhetoric shapes both policy and public sentiment toward marginalized nonhumans.
Bio: Mustafa Demir is a political philosophy MA graduate from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, focusing on political ecology, animal ethics, and multispecies justice. His thesis explored human–dog relations and street dog issues in Turkey. He has presented at international conferences including Animal Liberation (Rennes 2 University, 2025) and the Finnish Society for Human-Animal Studies (2025). A member of University of Gothenburg’s Network for Critical Animal Studies and the Finnish Society for Human-Animal Studies, he actively engages in animal rights initiatives in Turkey and Spain.
Eri Kato (Asia University), “Rethinking Dog Breed Ideology and Multispecies Justice in Japan”
Abstract: This paper examines the cultural politics of dogs in modern Japan, focusing on the intersection of breed ideology and animal welfare. Prior to the modern era, the category of “dog” in Japan was fluid and loosely defined. With the introduction of the Western concept of “dog breeds,” canine identity was reconfigured and soon became tied to projects of cultural nationalism, culminating in the invention of the “Japanese dog.” Over time, purebred ideology came to dominate, reshaping everyday practices of dog keeping, normalizing the purchase of pedigree puppies, and marginalizing mongrels.
In contemporary Japan, breed selection is widely regarded as the natural way to acquire a dog. Yet the realities of unwanted dogs in shelters and the routine commodification of puppies through the pet shop industry remain largely obscured. In response, movements advocating the adoption of shelter dogs have emerged as a counter practice. At the same time, while pet shops continue to promote purebred dogs as the standard, debates within the Japanese dog world persist over what constitutes the “authentic” Japanese dog, with voices challenging the modern categorization of dog breeds.
Situating these cultural and economic dynamics within broader debates on multispecies injustice and resistance, this paper argues that the concept of “breed” continues to shape the contemporary dog industry in Japan and to produce new structural inequalities in welfare outcomes. By revisiting the intertwined histories of breed, nation, and welfare, it underscores how critical reflection on breed ideology can inform contemporary debates on pet shop culture and welfare activism. In doing so, the paper contributes to broader discussions of multispecies justice and seeks to open pathways toward more inclusive multispecies futures.
Bio: Eri Kato is a researcher specializing in Area Studies with a focus on human-animal relationship. Kato holds a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo. Since 2024, Kato joined Asia University as an assistant professor in the Department of Business Administration. She has been teaching “Humans and other animals” course which focuses on the cross-cultural views on animals in human societies. Kato’s scholarly works include research papers such as Diversification of Animal Welfare Initiatives in Asia (2023).
Indrė Liškauskaitė (Vilnius Academy of Arts), “Playing with a Dog as an Artistic Practice”
Abstract: For the “Join the Orca Uprising!” I would like to propose a presentation of my current doctoral research project Human Behavour. It is a research that investigates the complexity of dog-human companionship through the inter-species encounters while playing. The play in this research ranges from tugging with the toys, training and sport games, to attempts to play with/within art and its contexts. The dog-human play shows the joy and the labor, the love and the discipline, the dedication and obedience, which comes along in the dog-human history.
The research applies playing with a dog as a method and seeks to draw the insights about the collaborative art practises within the dog-human companionship and rethink the ethical ways of the animal involvement in the creative practises and processes. It also underlines the misunderstandings in the language, the human desire of control, animal images and representation problematics.
How playing with a dog can become a method of artistic research? How can it produce new knowledge about inter-species coexistence? How to play with a dog, in order to analyze social, cultural and philosophical influences that shape our relation and understanding of each other? How can the games, the sports and the sounds we play can be directed, in order to open up new contexts and create new meanings?
Bio: Indrė Liškauskaitė is an interdisciplinary artist and PhD researcher based in Vilnius, Lithuania. With her non-human collaborators and companions, poodle Delta and border collie Delfina, she is researching how playing with a dog(s) can become an artistic practice as well as a method to create collaborative art pieces. Liškauskaitė has a background in painting and textile studies. Her works include drawings, mapping, writing, textile, sound and video pieces, also sculptural installations made of the artifacts of the companionship – dog toys, leashes, sticks, chewed sketches and other findings. She became an agility athlete with her two dogs after reading Donna Haraway’s When Species Meet. Liškauskaitė ironically portrays human and human behavior in order to take a deeper look into social, cultural and philosophical constructions that shape the inter-spieces encounters.