Call for Papers for Organized Session - AAG 2018, New Orleans, April
10-14:  Human Wildlife Encounters in Urban Regions: Crossing Boundaries
and Coexistences

We live in a biosphere impacted by dense urban settlements and human  
activities with repercussions far beyond city boundaries coupled with  
growing societal concerns about loss of biodiversity. As cities  
encroach on rural or forested areas we increasingly find ourselves  
cohabiting with urban wildlife who live in our midst or migrate  
through our regions. Beginning with Jennifer Wolch's Zoopolis, there  
has been a growing interest in geography about wildlife in cities and,  
in particular, ways to manage human wildlife encounter and to coexist  
with non-human others. Urban areas exhibit a proliferation of contact  
zones and hotspots, sites of encounter between humans and wildlife  
that manifest at a variety of scales. In spite of this, habitat  
fragmentation is one of the leading factors leading to extirpation and  
extinction of species.
Against the backdrop of growing awareness of the impacts of climate  
change, and the imperatives of the 6th extinction, urban residents are  
increasingly aware of the contradictory role cities play in enhancing  
and destroying the biodiversity in our midst. As a result, a complex  
assemblage of institutions, government, NGO, and volunteer  
organizations have emerged to manage the relationship between urban  
wildlife and urban citizens.

We invite papers addressing the theme of human wildlife encounters in  
urban regions across the globe and welcome a wide range of papers from  
the more conceptual to case-specific empirical studies. Topics might  
include: a focus on a particular species within an urban location;  
reactions to wildlife encounters from urban residents; critical and  
de-colonial perspectives on our relation to urban wildlife; policies,  
regulation and management, and/or policing of urban wildlife; politics  
of care in urban wildlife protection; mapping and spotting urban  
wildlife; everyday practices of urban wildlife care; planning and  
design for urban wildlife, such as the creation of wildlife corridors;  
biophysical wildlife routes; urban indigenous communities and  
interactions with wildlife.

To participate in the session, please send an abstract (up to 200  
words) by  to the session organizers by Sept 30th:

Susan Ruddick: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Susannah Bunce: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Leesa Fawcett: [log in to unmask]