We invite you to participate in the sixth edition of the Anthrozoology Symposium, Multispecies Communities and Narratives, organized by “Gh. Zane” Institute for Economic and Social Research of the Romanian Academy (Iași Branch), in association with the Faculty of Biology (“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași), Faculty of Animal Sciences and Biotechnology (University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca), Faculty of Veterinarian Medicine (“Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iași University of Life Sciences), Rural Development Research Platform, and Moldavia’s History Museum (“Moldova” National Museum Complex).

Becoming increasingly aware that we are not alone, we understand that we share the planet with other forms of life that are intelligent and affectionate, shape strong community ties and form families, and develop cultures and complex models of communication. When we really begin to look up from our excessive preoccupation with being human, we discover the myriad forms of non-human life, communities, cultures, relationships or, that is to say, the other-than-human worlds. Suppose we reframe our thinking to acknowledge and recognize the other forms of intelligence, emotion, and language that don’t resemble our own. In that case, we are facing the promise of changing the current state of affairs.

If we take the non-human animals’ matter seriously and look away from our current ideologies, we may discover that we are trapped in our own systems of thinking and judging. We need to break away from anthropocentric thinking. Our economic, political and ecological systems limit the ways we are able to connect with other-than-human animals and the natural world at large. We must seriously question whether and how our own all-too-human limitations tie us into what we can imagine and wish for. We live in a complex and interdependent world. When we take other animals seriously, we discover more than their extraordinary lives and communities, we see their potential to demolish the barriers of our own thinking and change our world. Multispecies communities recognize the multitude of life forms and try to accommodate them. When we create spaces for other beings in our human world, we explore our capacity to relate to others; and this newfound connectedness, openness and vulnerability brings the promise of unforeseen possibilities. Until now, we have nourished the desire to control the larger-than-human world, yet we gradually realize that such control is just an illusion. All the other non-humans around us are as much part of this web of life as we are. To find peace, balance, and prosperity we need to rediscover this sense of connectedness that requires us to make space for all the others beside us.

This year’s edition of the Symposium focuses on exploring the facts, the multispecies collectives that exist, or are being built, and the histories, namely the narratives that support them and teach us how we can or should envisage a multispecies future. Therefore, we would like to invite you to take part in a debate forum focused on the following topics concerning human-animal interactions:

• Ideas, concepts, and beliefs about animals
• Theories about the differences and distances between humans and animals
• Animal rights and human responsibilities
• Species extinction and human responsibility
• Animals in Literature, Mythology, Arts, and Folklore
• Animal Psychology
• Cognitive Ethology
• Mental models and economic value in human-animal interactions from a historical perspective
• Animal protection movement and the laws that support it.

The Anthrozoology Symposium will take place online between the 2nd and 4th of November 2023. Registration is open until May 31^st. The registration form can be found on our website https://anthrozoology.acadiasi.org/.

On behalf of the organizing committee,

I thank you, and I am looking forward to meeting you

Dr. Irina Frasin