Sona Kalafusova and Zipporah Weisberg present a lecture as part of the 2026 VAS Summer Lecture Series. On the 9th of April 2026, Zipporah Weisberg and Sona Kalafusova presented a lecture as part of the Vienna Animal Studies summer lecture series, with the aim to explore how animals in sanctuaries are legally defined and what opportunities exist for enhancing their status and protections. They started with a provocative story, a story about pigs at the Progetto Cuori Liberi (

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

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

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