Events

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.

We are proud to announce our inaugural Summer Lecture Series including lectures by scholars based in Vienna who are working in the field of animal studies. 12 March 2025, “Envisioning a Better Future for Nonhuman Animals” by Dr Doris Schneeberger (WU, 18:00-20:00). 8 April 2025, “Animals as Urban Problems and Solutions” by Dr Claudia Hirtenfelder (WU, 18:00-20:00). 14 May 2025, “Genetic Pain Surgery with Molecular Scissors?” by Dr Samuel Camenzind (Univeristy of Vienna, 17:00

On the 30th and 31st of January 2025, running in tandem with the " Hello Nature " exhibition in Nuremburg, scholars and activists will come together to ask the question "How do we want to live together?" Among the list of speaker's is VAS member Judith Benz-Schwarzburg, a Senior Researcher at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna who works at the intersection of animal cognition and animal ethics At this all-German-speaking event, Judith will be in the session " Rights in

Join the reading group discussions of Jonathan Birch's The Edge of Sentience which will take place every last Friday of the month from 10:00