The Department of Sociology will host a conference and book launch this week about our complex and varied relationships with dogs.<\/p>\n
Rethinking Canid-Human Relations is a SSHRC funded conference that will explore several topics related to people and dogs, from work to exploitation to rescue to therapy and beyond.<\/p>\n
The conference will also launch the book, Dog\u2019s Best Friend? Rethinking Canid-Human Relations<\/em><\/a>, co-edited Brock Sociology Professor John Sorenson and York University Professor Atsuko Matsuoka.<\/p>\n \u201cRather than just talking to people about the book ourselves, we thought it would be fun to have different speakers attend to talk about various aspects of our relations with dogs and other canids,\u201d explains Sorenson.<\/p>\n Sorenson, who also teaches a course on the sociology of canid-human relations, started working on the book after he was unable to find \u201ca satisfactory text that took a critical approach to these topics.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs we note in our book, often our ideas about dogs are based on a rather narrow Western perspective in which we claim that these animals are \u2018part of the family\u2019 \u2014 although we still own them as property and can dispose of them at will, so their status as family members is precarious,\u201d Sorenson points out.<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, the vast majority of dogs in the world do not live in such situations but live on the streets alongside human communities. Our book devotes several chapters to these sorts of relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n The conference will welcome some of the book\u2019s contributors for panels and thematic talks, as well as the book launch. The conference will also feature a film screening of the documentary Sled Dogs<\/em><\/a> and keynote addresses from Gregory Castle of the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, where almost 1600 rescued animals make their home, and Peter J. Li of the University of Houston, who will speak on \u201cThe Political Economy of China\u2019s \u2018Civil War\u2019 over Dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n