The Human-Animal Studies Initiative at Illinois
Jane Desmond, CAS Resident Director
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a premiere public research institution, is rapidly becoming one of the nation’s leading homes to work in Animal Studies or “human-animal” relations––drawing on faculty experts from all across the university, including the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the College of Law; the College of Agriculture, Consumer Economics and Environmental Studies; the College of Fine and Applied Arts; and the College of Veterinary Medicine. With a university-wide Research Cluster, cross-campus Courses, conferences, and a Summer Institute in Human-Animal Studies, the Animal Studies Initiative at Illinois integrates the dynamic complementary realms of teaching, research, and international outreach to address the needs of research faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and the wider public, and expand our understanding of human relations with non-human animals.
NEW INITIATIVE for AY 2025-26
Living in Multi-Species Worlds
HUMAN-ANIMAL STUDIES REPORT
The Human-Animal Studies Report (HAS Report) is the spiritual successor to the Animal and Society Institute’s amazing monthly newsletter that distributes news, publication updates, conference calls, job and fellowship opportunities in the broader field of human-animal studies. Upon ASI’s closure in late 2025, HAS@Illinois took on this vital field-building and connecting publication. The HAS Report is now published throughout the academic year on an approximately monthly basis. Building on the previous successful format, we are also introducing expanded types of coverage.
SUBSCRIBE TO HUMAN-ANIMAL STUDIES REPORT
Current and past editions
Submit an item for inclusion in the Report HERE
HUMANITIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE (HRI) RESEARCH CLUSTER: The Animal Turn, co-directed with Jamie Jones (English)
— Membership of more than 20 faculty and graduate students from 10 disciplines
— Ongoing workshops to develop new scholarship in process
— Campus-wide Symposium of lightning talks, panels, interviews, April 2020
COURSEWORK
From Liberal Arts to Animal Science, and from Law to the Fine Arts, graduate and undergraduate students are able to take a wide range of courses that include:
— “Knowing Animals”
— “Animal Welfare”
— “Animals in Latin American Culture”
— “Humans and Animals: Friends or Food?”
— “Companion Animals and Society”
— “Animal Shelter Management”
— “Anthropologies of a More than Human World”
SUMMER INSTITUTE
ASSI is on hiatus for Summer 2026. Please check this page in the fall for updates.
The Center for Advanced Study sponsors an annual, international, interdisciplinary Animal Studies Summer Institute (ASSI). From its inception in 2017 through 2022, the Institute was hosted in collaboration with the non-profit Animals and Society Institute. In 2023, CAS assumed sole directorship of ASSI with significant funding from the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law & Policy. This program is focused on advanced graduate students and those in the first few years post-Ph.D. or other terminal degrees and enables 20-30 participants to work on their dissertations or publications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for one intensive week.
— Distinguished guest lecturers from across the field
— 20-30 selected participants each year, about half from outside the U.S.
— Daily workshops to develop scholarship projects of the participants
— Seminars, publishing workshops, field trips, and arts events