Dear colleague,
Apologies for cross-posting.
The Biodiversity Institute of the University of Oxford, association with the Farm Animal Care Trust (FACT), and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) will be holding an exciting two-day conference in the Biodiversity Institute, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford on 12-13th March, 2013 to mark 50 years since the publication of highly influential books by Rachel Carson and Ruth Harrison and reflect on current challenges in the fields of environmental sciences, farming and animal welfare.
Registration is now open via the symposium webpage at http://bit.ly/CarsonHarrison Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) was a wake-up call for the environment and helped to turn conservation into the mainstream scientific and public concern it is today. Ruth Harrison's Animal Machines (1964) was a wake-up call for the conditions of farm animals and helped to turn animal welfare into the mainstream scientific and public concern it is today. Rachel Carson wrote the foreword to Ruth Harrison's book, which provides a tangible and personal link between them.
Conservation and animal welfare were, at the time of the publication, not scientific subjects at all. Now they are scientific disciplines in their own right, and even held up as some of the most important kinds of 'impact' that biological research can have.
There are still major issues confronting us today in animal welfare, in conservation, in the use of pesticides and, more pressingly, in resolving the conflicting demands between them. This conference is to celebrate two women whose books had such an immense and lasting influence all over the world and then to look to the future to see how we might take forward the work they inspired but could not finish.
Please do register as soon as possible: places are limited. There is a registration fee of £30/£50 for two days, including lunches and coffee/tea breaks. There will be a wine reception and book launch for the new release, with significant revisions, of Animal Machines at the end of the first day.
For further information, please contact
Dr. Gillian Petrokofsky
Biodiversity Institute
Department of Zoology
The Tinbergen Building
South Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3PS
Tel +44(0)1865 281851
Skype: gillpetro
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