Animals and Race

This is a collaborative project with Silke Hackenesch (University of Cologne) that tries to critically engage Human-Animal Studies with Critical Race Studies. The empirical basis for the project is our respective research into breeding and employing German Shepherd dogs in the Third Reich as well as their utilization against protesters in the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s in the United States. Opening up a discussion between the two fields of inquiry, the aim of this project is to show how an analysis of racialized practices on both the micro and macro level reveals genealogies of racialization and uncovers what they mean for individuals – human and animal – as well as for society at large. The results of this project will lead to a co-authored article in an edited volume on animals and race.