Some anti-specionist researchers and students have highlighted the desire, the need and the need to research on the release of animals under the motto “The animal”. Therefore, they have received proposals on anti-specionist research and have organized the First Congress of Animal Critical Studies of the UPV/EHU from 20 to 22 March. At the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication, the congress will take place in Leioa (Bizkaia), due to the close relationship of the papers presented with journalism and audiovisual. The congress is organized between the UPV/EHU and the UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics research and the registration period is now open.

Irene Barañano, in organization, says that the goal is to bring antispecialism closer to university and academia: “We want to give visibility to anti-specialism, to offer potential anti-specionists the possibility to militate in the academic world and to motivate students to take into consideration the topic in research”.

The congress arose from the need for Basque anti-specialist scholars and students to become known and integrated. In fact, when the organizers met, they realized that they had similar academic and personal interests and that they were conducting research on non-human animals: “We thought there would probably be more researchers or students similar to us at the university, but we didn’t know them because until now there was no meeting point.”

Euskera as the axis

They will address antispeciism from multiple angles, such as festive models, anti-specialist communication and moral shock. To this end, they have received proposals from both the Basque Country and abroad: “We have carried out the entire organizational process in Euskera, and although not all the congress is in Euskera, our goal is to promote the Basque movement.” Therefore, Mikel Torres, an anti-specialist researcher at the UPV, will begin the congress. We will talk about specialism to put it on the subject.