# Australasian Animal Studies Association

The Australasian Animal Studies Association (AASA) is an Australian association of animal studies scholars, scientists, creative artists, and animal advocates. The association was founded by Siobhan O’Sullivan, a professor from the School of Social Sciences of the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
The association started publishing in 2008 the AASA News Bulletin as a quarterly electronic publication. The publication is presently the publication Animail. The online scholarly publication for human-animal studies for the association is the Animal Studies Journal.
The association also hosts a variety of conferences on animal studies. The 2023 conference was titled Animal Cultures and discussed the "emerging scientific and philosophical considerations of culture in non-human animal communities". As part of its efforts to support creative artists in the realm of animal studies, the association maintains an online art gallery. The association also hosts the Val Plumwood Lecture Series. Starting in 2021, the association began awarding the AASA Animal Studies Awards.

## Animal Studies Journal

The Animal Studies Journal works closely with the AASA. The journal is published twice a year and is a forum for research in topic of human-animal studies. The journal is cross-disciplinary in the content that it publishes. It has a particular, but not exclusive, interest in Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific scholarship. The chief editor for the journal is Dr. Melissa Boyde of the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia.

## Val Plumwood Lecture Series

The AASA hosts the Val Plumwood Lecture Series. Val Plumwood was an Australian environmental philosopher. The 2024 lecture was titled "Social Lives of Animals: Domination, Intersectionality, and Heterotopia".

## AASA Animal Studies Awards

The following awards are awarded by the association:
* The AASA Journal Article Prize: A prize for excellence in the work of early-career researchers. The inaugural prize in 2021 was awarded to Dr. Brodie Evans, a visiting fellow at the Centre of Justice at Queensland University of Technology. His article was Contesting and reinforcing the future of ‘meat’ through problematization: Analyzing the discourses in regulatory debates around animal cell-cultured meat, which was co-authored with Dr. Hope Johnson. It was published in 2021 in the journal Geoforum.
* The AASA Popular Communication of Animal Studies Prize: A prize for "increasing public awareness of the field and its value to human-animal relations". The inaugural prize in 2021 was awarded to Claudia Hirtenfelder, who hosts The Animal Turn Podcast. The podcast addresses the new focus on animals in modern times.

## Conferences

The theme of the 2023 conference was 'Animal Cultures'. The keynote speaker for the conference was U.S. author Carol Gigliotti with Why knowledge of animal cultures is critical.

## Gallery

The gallery features the following artists:
* Evelyn Kolijn: A printmaker and installation artist from Calgary, Canada.
* Dr. Debbie Symons: A multi-disciplinary artist who uses drawing, video, and installation to communicate central themes.
* Sue Kalab: An artist known for her depictions of the fauna, flora, and landscapes of Western Australia.
* Linda Brant: A visual artist and clinical psychologist based in Orlando, Florida with a private practice and a part-time teaching position at Ringling College of Art and Design and Saybrook University.
* Claude Jones: An Australian artist and ceramicist.
* Bonita Alice: An artist from South Africa, with a focus with psychological matters and our relationship with other animals.
* Iris Bergmann: Originally from Iceland, an artist inspired by nature's untamed beauty.
* Trace Johansson: Trace Johansson is an artist who has created works in animal-human art.