Interdisciplinary conference at the University of Münster
12-14 March 2025
The biblical vision of peace between humans and animals (Isaiah 11:6-9) offers an inspiring starting point for thinking about the relationship between humans and animals. It contrasts the status quo, which is characterised by violence, with an idea of comprehensive non-violence and peaceful community. In this sense, it can be interpreted as a utopia about how humans and animals could live together in the best possible way.
But can a utopia initiate real change - is it not too unrealistic for that?
Theologically, human-animal peace is often interpreted as an eschatological vision, as a hope for a better place that can only be realised through God's action. Nevertheless, this vision, like other utopias, can provide important impulses for thinking about a better human-animal relationship.
The conference will examine the opportunities and challenges of human-animal utopias from historical, sociological, artistic, philosophical and not least theological perspectives. The interdisciplinary dialogue will examine what utopias can do for animal ethics and human-animal studies.
Organiser:
Dr Cornelia Mügge
Venue:
Institute of Ethics and Related Social Sciences, University of Münster
Universitätsstr. 13-17, 48143 Münster
Room: ETH 306
Registration is requested to:
c.muegge@uni-muenster.de
The conference is funded by the German Research Foundation and is part of the project ‘Utopia and Responsibility. A contribution to a fundamental question of Protestant ethics using the example of animal ethics’.
Further information on the project can be found here...
Program
Wednesday, 12 March 2025
14:30 Arrival with coffee and snacks
15:00-15:30 Welcome and introduction to the topic
Dr Cornelia Mügge, Münster 15:30-17:00 Human-nature and human-animal relationships in utopias of the past and present‘The end of utopia?' Socio-ecological utopias in the past and present’
Dr Björn Wendt, Münster‘Young, vegetarian, searching: Paradise between primeval times and the future, between religion and colonialism’
Simon Kleinert, M.A., Kassel17:30-18:30 ‘Pigeons and Architecture’
Film and discussion
Anne Linke, MFA, artist, Hamburg
Room: H2 lecture theatre building (Schlossplatz 46)19:00 Dinner
Thursday, 13 March 2025
9:00-10:30 Religious-utopian ideas in ecological approaches and their significance for human-animal relations
‘The ecofeminism of Emilie Hache: Human-animal relationships in resonance theory?’
Dr Julia Blanc, Passau‘Regressive utopias. On the theological reception of the New Ecologies’
Dr Simone Horstmann, Unna11:00-12:30 Utopian thinking and eschatological hope. A tense relationship.
‘The soul, this animal in you - and the resurrection of the flesh’
PD Dr Gregor Taxacher, Dortmund‘Animal stories as a necessary element of eschatological reality. The tension between now and then’
Prof Dr Markus Mühling, WuppertalLunch
13:30-15:30 City walk to utopian and dystopian ‘places’ of the human-animal relationship
Dr Claudia Grünewald, Mainz16:00-17:30 Discussions of human-animal utopias in ethics and politics
‘Come on, let's build a city - zoopolitical heterotopias as catalysts for improved human-animal relationships’
Dr Maria Daria Cojocaru, London/Munich‘Utopia without a goal. On discomfort with utopian thinking and its meaning at the limits of the possible’
Philipp Räubig, M.A., Bochum18:30 Dinner
Friday, 14 March 2025
9:00-10:30 Human-animal utopias in bioethics and technology ethics
‘‘Riding the CRISPR Wave’. With biotechnology to the ethical utopia of a world free of suffering?’
Dr Samuel Camenzid, Vienna‘Artificial intelligence and its effects on human-animal relationships - an ethical consideration’
Dr Leonie Bossert, Vienna11:00-12:00 Conference review & closing round
Prof. Dr Arnulf von Scheliha, MünsterBrown bag lunch
The programme of the conference can also be found here in the flyer.
Conference report
Conference report
Dr Cornelia Mügge
From 12 to 14 March 2025, the Institute for Ethics and Related Social Sciences hosted the interdisciplinary conference ‘Human-Animal Peace – a (realistic) utopia?’. Scientists and interested parties discussed the possibilities and challenges of utopian thinking in animal ethics.
Lectures and discussions highlighted various aspects of the topic, including the role of utopias in the vegetarian movement, the significance of eschatological narratives for human-animal relations, the ambivalence of utopias, and concrete utopian visions in bioethics and technology ethics.
In addition, there was a film discussion with artist Anne Linke about her short film ‘Pigeons and Architecture,’ and a city walk with ecologist Claudia Grünewald offered an opportunity to explore places of human-animal encounters in Münster.
Overall, the conference succeeded in bringing together different disciplinary perspectives on the topic of utopia and human-animal relationships and working together on a field of study that has hardly been researched to date.The results of the conference will be published in a conference proceedings volume, which will be released in the coming months.
You can find the detailed conference report here...
