Events

On February 26 th , John Sanbonmatsu, Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, gave an inspiring online talk on his most recent book The Omnivore’s Deception: What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and Ourselves , published in 2025 by NYU Press.   In his book, Sanbonmatsu, draws on a wide range of thinkers to analyze the existential dimensions of speciesism and to deconstruct how the hegemonic system reproduces itself. Borrowing Marx’ conce

On January 27 th , Svea Jörgensen gave an interesting talk at the Messerli Research Institute entitled “ Struggling to Balance the Scales: Empirical Insights from the Ethical Review of Animal Research in Sweden .” Svea outlined details of her PhD project, which investigates the ethical review process of applications for animal research in Sweden. There are six regional Animal Ethics Committees (AECs) in Sweden that are tasked with the transparent ethical reviews of animal res

We are proud to announce the speakers for our 2026 Summer Lecture Series including lectures by scholars based in Vienna who are working in the field of animal studies: 12 March 2026, “ Animal Futures in an Economy of Cultivated Meat ” by Dr. Arianna Ferrari (WU, 18:00-20:00). 9 April 2026, “ From Refugees to Residents and Beyond: The Legal Status of Animals in Sanctuaries ” by Dr. Zipporah Weisberg and Sona Kalafusova (WU, 18:00-20:00). 26 May 2026, “ Do Organoids Matter in T

In late November 2025, the 9th Austrian Animal Rights Congress ( Tierrechtskongress ) convened in Vienna, bringing together activists, scholars, and advocates from across the German-speaking world to share their campaigns, strategies, and theoretical reflections. The congress serves as a vital gathering point for those working daily on behalf of animals - offering a view of the broader movement landscape and fostering connections between diverse projects and initiatives. This

Am Freitag, 12.12.25, haben die drei Autoren Univ.-Prof. Dr. Michael Rosenberger von der Katholischen Privatuniversität Linz sowie Dr. Konstantin Deininger und Univ.-Prof. Dr. Herwig Grimm von der Veterinärmedizinischen Universität Wien ein gemeinsam erarbeitetes Lehr- und Studienbuch zur Tierethik vorgestellt. Das Lehrbuch, das im Nomos-Verlag in Baden-Baden erschienen ist, gibt einen Überblick über wichtige Ansätze der Tierethik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Seine Leitfrage

A few years ago, animals crept into the Nuremberg University of Music, settled in, and became an integral part of the university landscape, as they have elsewhere in international academic life. We owe this to Human-Animal Studies, the scientific field of research that examines animals as subjects, but also as active, feeling, and thinking co-creators of a shared world. A whole range of disciplines, from philosophy and animal ethics to biology, from cultural studies to veteri

Leon Borgdorf at the Messerli Research Institute (Photo Credit: Thomas Kainberger) On December 1st, Leon Borgdorf gave a talk at the Messerli Research Institute on mercy as a fundamental virtue in animal ethics. Leon, a PhD candidate at Utrecht University, works on the ethics of emerging technologies in animal agriculture — especially genome editing — and looks at these issues through the lens of virtue ethics. Instead of focusing only on rules or consequences, virtue ethics

Dr. Zipporah Weisberg gives a lecture on humanism at the University of Vienna  (Photo Credit: Oliver Hirtenfelder) On November 11, 2025, Dr. Zipporah Weisberg – who teaches at the University of Ottawa and is a guest researcher at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna – gave a compelling talk at the University of Vienna’s Department of Philosophy. Her central message was both surprising and refreshing: despite decades of critique, the humanist tradition still contains valu

A poster I designed for the event. On Halloween, I attended the Multi-Species Poetry Event at the Fledermaus Station Österreich (Vienna Bat Station), as part of a larger international public philosophy project organized by Mara-Daria Cojocaru , philosopher and poet. Notes from a Biscuit Tin brings together researchers, philosophers, animal caretakers, and artists from around the world to explore different animal species through research, storytelling, and poetry. While othe

This semester we are proud to announce the launch of the Vienna Animal Studies' Visiting Lecture Series. Unlike the Winter and Summer Lecture Series that aim to highlight the work of scholars based in Vienna and foster networking and collaboration, the Visiting Lecture Series provides opportunities to scholars who are visiting the city to showcase their work. We start off this initiative on the 19th of November with a fascinating talk by Dr Barbara Holthus on the multifacete

Dr. Judith Benz-Schwarzburg gives a lecture on virtual animals at the Immersium in Vienna (Photo Credit: Oliver Hirtenfelder) On the 8th of October 2025 the Vienna Animal Studies group hosted its largest lecture yet. Held within the impressive in Immersium in Vienna Dr. Judith Benz-Schwarzburg, a Senior Researcher in Animal Ethics and Animal Cognition at the Messerli Research Institute, talked to us about the ethics of digitally representing animals. The event started with a

In August 2025, one of the last summer nights before autumn was set to arrive and I find myself standing with my children in front of the Botanical Garden in Vienna, ready to encounter a species most of us rarely pay attention to and often have ambiguous feelings about: the bat.  Rym „Batwoman“ Nouioua, an expert from the University of Vienna, is taking a small group of scholars and their children on a nature walk to listen and learn about bats.

On the 10th of September, Dr Leonie Bossert started the Vienna Animal Studies (VAS) 2025 Winter Lecture Series by asking whether geoengineering has the potential to help animals or if it just presents another “techno-fix” informed by ideas of human domination.

We are proud to announce the speakers for our Winter Lecture Series including lectures by scholars based in Vienna who are working in the field of animal studies. 10 September 2025, “Opium for the Earth at the expense of nonhuman animals? A non-anthropocentric perspective on Geoengineering” by Dr Leonie N. Bossert (University of Vienna, 17:00-19:00). 8 October 2025, “Virtual Animals: An Ethical Discussion” by Dr Judith Benz-Schwarzburg (Immersium,  17:30-19:30) 11 November 20

More than twenty people gathered on the 11th of June 2025 to hear Dr Carlo Salzani talk on the development of the modern zoo. Focusing on Schönbrunn Zoo, Dr Salzani used Foucault's models of power as a theoretical grid to argue that ‘the zoo’ and ‘the prison’ are expressions of the same disciplinary matrix.

Between May 15-16, at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna, an international and interdisciplinary research project named “Contested Moral Framings: Human and Animal Life”, funded by AKTION, hosted a workshop titled “Toward an Understanding of Framing in Animal Ethics.”

On the evening of May 14th, the Vienna Animal Studies (VAS) group hosted a lecture by Dr. Samuel Camenzind of the University of Vienna. His talk, titled “Genetic Pain Surgery with Molecular Scissors,” presented the questions of ethics and science of genetic pain disenhancement in animals.

The 2025 European Society for Critical Animal Studies (EACAS) meeting in Berlin was filled with inspiring, sober, and imaginative interventions into the world of animal studies,

Dr Claudia Hirtenfelder answers some questions about urban animal studies and the connections between animals and cities.

On the 12th of March 2025 Dr Doris Schneeberger discussed her recently published book Envisioning a Better Future for Nonhuman Animals.