We invite you to take part to the Anthrozoology Symposium, Ninth Edition, Reframing Research: lntegrating Animal Voices and Perspectives, organized by the Gheorghe Zone Institute for Economic and Social Research (Romanian Academy, laşi Branch), in association with the Faculty of Animal Sciences and Biotechnology (University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca), the Faculty of Veterinarian Medicine (,,Ion Ionescu de la Brad” University of Life Sciences of laşi), AEDC Anthrozoology Education Dogs Canines, TIES lnterspecies Hub and Moldavia’s History Museum (“Moldova” National Museum Complex).

Animal-focused research is both complex and fascinating, but also complicated and challenging as its long, intricate history may testify. Ever since people began to observe, investigate, and classify other living beings in an attempt to understand them and make sense of the natural world, these searches were as much influenced by what existed in the wild, as by the human mind, psyche, and culture. The way the other species were studied and represented was as much a sign of what could be seen, known, and understood at the time, but also a reflection of the human construction of animality. ln fact, scientific knowledge is not only dependent on the accuracy of observations and measuring devices, but also on the cultural premises that inform the questions considered legitimate to ask. Being inherently anthropocentric, science reflects only human perspectives, with the risk of heading toward (the ideology of) human supremacy and exceptionalism.

ln this year’s edition of the Symposium, we invite you to explore and critically examine the multiple forms of knowledge and investigate their potential to better reveal the complex minds and worlds of the other species, and also to better understand our own mind, history and culture in relation to/with them.

Within the Anthrozoology Symposium, we would like to invite you to take part in a debate forum focused on the following topics concerning the human-animal interactions:

• ldeas, concepts, and beliefs about animals
• Theories about the differences and distance between humans and animals
• Animal rights and human responsibilities
• Species extinction and human responsibility
• Animals in literature, mythology, art and folklore
• Animal psychology
• Cognitive ethology
• Mental models and economic value in human-animal interactions from a historic perspective
• Animal protection movement and the laws that support it
• Animality in all of its conjugations

The Anthrozoology Symposium will take place online between the 5th and 7th of November 2026. Registration is open until May 30^th. The registration can be done by completing the form that may be found on our website www.anthrozoology.acadiasi.org or by sending an e-mail to irina.anthrozoology@gmail.com.

On behalf of the organizing committee, Dr. Irina Frasin