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

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.

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

Konstantin Deininger, Katharina Leibezeder, and I were recently interviewed by Mara-Daria Cojocaru about our contribution to the project "Philosophy in the Wild. Finding Hope in Mixed Communities," a project that between April 2025 and April 2026 will collect fieldnotes and multispecies poetry in an anthrozoological vasculum that represents Mary Midgley’s biscuit tin

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.