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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Applications are now open for this year's Summer University at Aarhus University, where my popular course "Animal Matters: Transforming Perspectives Through Human-Animal Studies" is part of the programme. Check it out and SHARE! international.au.dk/education/ad...

international.au.dk

Animals Matter: Transforming Perspectives through Human-Animal Studies

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

For academics, it's arguably good to be well-known and to reach beyond #academia. But then, on the other hand, they're now selling t-shirts with the words "sexy bitch" next to a picture of Albert Einstein. #outreach

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Indeed it is. History is useful here: Those defending bullfights in other countries have in the past tried to get that recognized, and been refused, by UNESCO. The case for bullfighting as "cultural heritage" is bad, but the case for fox hunting is even worse. So thankfully this will not succeed.

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

"Science is a slaughterhouse" is an interesting way to start an argument about reducing nonhuman animal suffering in science. If something is bad enough to be the tenor of such a metaphor, maybe something should be done about that something. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

The Guardian view on animal testing: we can stop sacrificing millions of lives for our own health | Editorial

Editorial: New technologies can reduce our reliance on animal experiments. This isn’t just morally right, it could have scientific and economic benefits too

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

While this focuses mostly on film, and I focus mostly on literary fiction, this makes an argument not unlike (albeit shorter and far more superficial than) the one I make in chapter 7 of my book "Reading Slaughter" (2022). www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-hor...

currentaffairs.org

The Horror of Meat

Americans don’t like to think about the gruesome reality of meat production. But in horror fiction, the suppressed truth returns in strange ways.

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Fun fact: Scherfig's gravesite doesn't have any name or inscription. The tombstone is, however, an animal statue (not an okapi, though). Anyone can go to Assistens Kirkegård in Copenhagen to see if they can find it 🙂🐢

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

And he proposed farther, that by employing Spiders, the Charge of dying Silks would be wholly saved; whereof I was fully convinced when he shewed me a vast Number of Flies most beautifully coloured, wherewith he fed his Spiders; Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (1735)

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

And so f*cking what? When did we decide that having a business model that relies on theft is okay?

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Jeg har spist sojapølser siden 80erne. Dengang var ingen forbrugere i tvivl, og det er de heller ikke nu. Det her er et resultat af lobbyisme, fordi plantebaserede produkter har vind i sejlene og den animalske industri vil lave benspænd for de virksomheder, der laver dem. Klimafodslæb. #suk

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

I suspect a double-edged sword here. At least, I remember when one of the most racist politicians in Danish history cited liking hummus as proof that his political views were not motivated by racism.

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Jane Goodall's work insisting, with evidence from her brilliant and tenacious fieldwork, that we were not so separate from animals, and they were much more like us than the Eurocentric theorists asserted, was so important.

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Jeg havde for et stykke tid siden en god snak om dyr og fortællinger med @sofiegraarup.bsky.social. Det var sjovt, og det er der nu kommet et podcastafsnit ud af, som du kan lytte til når og hvor du vil :-)

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Soon all the pigs were calm and quiet, as they had never been in life. But that did not excuse the crime. Their betrayal. Neil Astley, The End of My Tether (2002) #Animals #Literature #Novels #Slaughterhouse

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

What about the caged half-crazed orang-utan who vomits because he has nothing else to do? Miroslav Holub, From "Collision" #InternationalOrangutanDay #Zoos #Animals #Poetry

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

The collared lizards cry at night because El Paso is too hot for their detachable blue tails. The desert turtle stops and waits as a cartel truck drives by and dark houses illuminate what is hidden there. Ray Gonzales, From "El Paso" (2023) #WorldLizardDay

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

What makes a dog run away, then? The desire to live. You’ve never seen a dog trembling? A dog trembles when he doesn’t know what to do. Like us! No, you tremble when you know what to do as much as when you don’t. Fart off, dog. John Berger, King: A Street Story (1999) #dogs #literature

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Jennifer Schell @jenniferschell16.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

"I refuse to bend the knee to those environmental alarmist Thoreau-lovers—and not just because I’m missing a leg."

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Ah, the simple beauty and truth of an Allingham couplet. #animals #literaryanimalstudies #poetry

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

The way to all modern assembly lines started here, with disassembly lines. Sinclair's novel has its issues, but remains an absolute classic and the first modern #slaughterhouse fiction. #animals #pigs

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Fascinating results here. I wonder what it would look like with a more complex study that holds gendering up against the degree of anthropomorphization. #animalstudies #literature

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Still one of the best animal novels ever written, even though one could argue #animals never take center stage.

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Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

A lovely little bronze #Roman mouse figurine, shown holding a morsel of food in his little front paws (a nut or seed maybe?), perhaps about to take a little nibble from it. It is about 1900-2000 years old 🐭 (📷 Christie's) 🏺 AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

‘Good morning,’ the pig replied. ‘I wasn’t sure if you could see me.’ ‘It’s a new ability.’ ‘Ah,’ said the pig. ‘Tell me, pig, how did you die?’ I asked. ‘That’s a personal question,’ the pig said. Ceridwen Dovey, ‘Hundstage’ (Only the Animals) (2014) #animals #pigs #literature #BookSky

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

The swirl of fur and dust and the smell of cat shit both acrid and sweet—the smell of life, for us. The felines appeal through the bars as I waddle through the caged aisles. @laurajeanmckay.bsky.social, ‘Cats at the Fire Front’ (newsroom.co.nz/2023/02/24/s... )

newsroom.co.nz

Short story: Cats at the Fire Front, by Laura Jean McKay

The first of four consecutive weekly short stories about cats

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

There we no physical barriers to his freedom, but the lions of the plains do not accept into their respected fraternity an individual bearing in his coat the smell of men. Beryl Markham, ‘He Was A Good Lion’ (1942)

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

She could tell him to fetch his toys from the upstairs landing and he would. But he walked on all fours, always grunted before he ate, and idly put his finger in his anus and smelled his finger, sometimes licked it. Colin McAdam, A Beautiful Truth #WorldChimpanzeeDay

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

‘Do you ever see horses walking up and down the sides of rooms in reality – in fact? Do you?’ Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854)

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

“We have a responsibility to think about a future where we’re not centered; there’s an optimism in that. Human beings are irresponsible. If I think about us controlling everything in the future, that feels sad.” —Joyce Hwang IN CONVERSATION w/ @slaydok.bsky.social & @pauldobraszczyk.bsky.social:

placesjournal.org

Animal Architecture: In Conversation

An animal studies scholar talks with an architect and an architecture writer about designing for, and with, nonhuman species.

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

I can assure you that if mankind thinks of you, it thinks you are the missing link. You ought to be shut up and exhibited here in the Zoo … with the gorilla on one side and the chimpanzee on the other. David Garnett, A Man in the Zoo (1924)

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

1) Man skal generelt holde sig fra at give dyr som gave. Af en række grunde. 2) Man kan nok diskutere, hvad en "dyreven" er, og om en forening, hvis formål er at fremme avl, kvalificerer sig til den titel. 3) Videoer med æsler er ofte fantastiske. www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/danmark/det-...

kristeligt-dagblad.dk

”Det er respektløst”, og ”det er jo ikke en sofa”: Mette Frederiksens æsel-gave får hård kritik

Her samler Kristeligt Dagblad nogle af dagens vigtigste historier om tro, etik, eksistens og de værdikampe, der foregår i ind- og udland

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

A good poem, albeit a quite violent one. I've used it in teaching a few times and, if I remember correctly, Aaron Moe uses it as an example in the introduction to his seminal book on zoopoetics. Also, even if #animals is not your thing, Gonzalez is worth reading. #AnimalStudies #poetry

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Literary Animal Quotes @literaryanimals.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Sylvia would have liked him vastly better without his gun; she could not understand why he killed the very birds he seemed to like so much. Sarah Orne Jewett, ‘A White Heron’ (1886)

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Weird. It's almost as if they never cared about #dogs and #cats at all, even though they argued for this by saying immigrants were eating them.

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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Much thanks to everyone who replied! Here's the updated list: OTHER MINDS: A curated list of fiction featuring animal narrators, protagonists, and perspectives

Text reads:
OTHER MINDS: Fiction Featuring Animal Perspectives

Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams
A Mother’s Tale by James Agee
Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
Timbuktu by Paul Aster
The End of My Tether by Neil Astley
The Sheep Who Changed the World by Neil Astley
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker
King: A Street Story by John Berger
Talk to Me by T.C. Boyle
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The Sea Trilogy by Rachel Carson
A Black Fox Running by Brian Carter
Our Memory Like Dust by Gavin Chait
Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley
Mink River by Brian Doyle
Only the Animals: Stories by Ceridwen Dovey
The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers
The Sage of Waterloo by Leona Francombe
Pork by Cris Freddi
The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy
Ape House by Sara Gruen
The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr by E.T.A. Hoffmann
Open Throat by Henry Hoke
The Tusk That Did the Damage by Tania James
Bird Brain by Guy Kennaway
Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile by Veryln Klinkenborg
The Winter of the Fisher by Cameron Langford
Me Cheeta: The Autobiography by James Lever
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
White Fang by Jack London
Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch
North Woods by Daniel Mason
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
A Beautiful Truth by Colin McAdam

Text reads:
Gunflower by Laura Jean McKay
The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury by Sigrid Nunez
The Bees by Laline Paul
Pod by Laline Paul
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Felix Salten
Fox 8 by George Saunders
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
Jeoffry: The Poet’s Cat by Oliver Soden
I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki
Sirius by Olaf Stapledon
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Underjungle by James Sturz
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Strider by Leo Tolstoy
Three Deaths by Leo Tolstoy
The Once and Future King by T. H. White
Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson
Flush by Virginia Woolf
My Stupid Intentions by Bernardo Zannoni

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Tak, jeg vil sådan set hellere have ulve end 250 meter ekstra af en motorvej, der giver øget forurening og begrænser naturens bevægelighed. #ulv #dknatur

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

This thread is worth your time even if you haven't really followed the whole NYT/Mamdani thing. It says a lot about how diasporas work, the legacy of colonialism, and how racism is used strategically to fuel violence and genocide (which understandably cause people to flee if they have the option).

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Altid inspirerende og overordnet bare fedt at høre perspektiver på #dyreforskning på tværs af discipliner. Tak til alle, der talte og alle, der dukkede op og brugte jeres lørdag eftermiddag sammen med os.

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Eimear Mc Loughlin @dreimear.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Just a little over a week to go until the @mindinganimals.dk event on the 14th! If you are interested and/or working in #AnimalStudies, you won’t want to miss it! 👏 Come and join in the conversation… and meet fellow animal studies folk within and beyond your field 🎉

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

En uge fra i dag / One week from today Kom og vær med! / Come join us!

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Maisie Tomlinson @maisie-tom.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Are you curious about expanding your social research practice to include nonhuman species, but don’t know where to start? Come and join this immersive three-day workshop at the University of Manchester, with a mix of indoor seminars and outdoor fieldwork: store.southampton.ac.uk/short-course...

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Jes Lynning Harfeld @harfeld.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Sabrina Brando and I wrote an article 10 y ago about the lack of animal welfare friendly food in zoos. Recently, I was at Aalborg Zoo and was a bit disheartened by the lack of progress there. So, I wrote an opinion piece for the local paper (sorry, in Danish). www.researchgate.net/publication/...

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Lazy, fraudulent idiots cut corners. Always have, always will. And now they have new tools to make it even easier. The results will correspond to this. So maybe don't put the lazy, fraudulent idiots in charge of keeping together and developing the very fabrics of the society we all depend on. 🤦‍♂️

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Sune Borkfelt @suneborkfelt.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Indeed. And the presentations and panel discussion will be in English, so don't be scared to show up just because your Danish may be a bit shaky (or non-existent).

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Minding Animals Danmark @handle.invalid · 20/05/2025

Kom og vær med den 14. juni, hvor vi skal snakke på tværs af discipliner om forskning i forholdet mellem mennesker og andre #dyr. Det er på Aarhus Universitet og det er kl. 13-16. Se detaljerne på vores LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/events/human...

linkedin.com

Human-Animal Studies – Now and in the Future | LinkedIn

Minding Animals Danmark er nu klar med vores første event, som forhåbentlig bliver startskuddet til mange flere. Vi har inviteret en række spændende talere, som vil fortælle om deres forskning i forh...

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