Between twenty-five and one hundred fifty species of life on earth are lost to extinction every day. As human animals, we are implicated in the lives—and deaths—of many other animals besides members of our own species. Conversations with and about other animals are crucial to our shared planetary future. And animals are also just plain interesting. Many of us have relationships with animals. We rely on them economically, physically, and interpersonally. We may have had profound experiences with (nonhuman) animals. There is no one right way to be in relationship with animals, much less to approach the topic of animals. The goal of this conversation is to spend time together “thinking with animals,” to share ideas, and reflect together on what we can learn from “a bunch of animals.”

Register for this free online conversation.

Facilitator Emily Plec is an animal companion and professor of communication at Western Oregon University. She edited the book Perspectives on Human-Animal Communication (Routledge, 2013), coined the term “internatural communication,” and is currently writing a textbook on the subject. Her scholarly work focuses primarily on canine communication and representation (which her spouse calls “dog talk”) and the role of animals in sport communication. She lives in Dallas, Oregon with her spouse, two cats, one dog, and a bunch of birds, squirrels, raccoons, and opossum.