CALL FOR PAPERS

Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Deadline: December 30, 2011
Redefining Social Welfare: Connections across Species

A growing body of research supports the notion that human well-being is inextricably connected to the welfare of other animals. Social scientists are exploring these connections in research in social work and various subfields of sociology, including those focusing on the environment, deviance, the family, health, social inequality, and religion, as well as the emerging field of animals and society. This special issue will tap researchers and theorists in a wide range of subfields in order to capture the breadth of the connections among species that affect all aspects of human well-being.
We want articles that address every aspect of the ways that animals' well-being intersects with human well-being. These could include many subfields of sociology, such as environmental sociology, sociology of health and medicine, deviance and violence, sociology of sports, sociology of religion, and so forth. What we envision is to having articles on any of the following:
1. socio-emotional connections between species, e.g., the role of companion animals across the life course and other related topics
2. the connection of animal agriculture to climate change and environmental destruction, which of course is inextricably connected to human welfare
3. health issues--the impact of consumption of animal products on health--cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc.--directly plus the impact of antibiotics and hormones fed to animals plus pesticides and poisons and contaminants--a big topic
4. animals and science ranging from the impact of dissection on young people to genetic engineering and cloning of animals (and of course, the impact on human welfare)
5. animal abuse and interpersonal violence
6. contributions of companion animals across the life course from children to older adults (of course!)
7. animals in sports and entertainment (hunting, zoos, circuses)
8. animals and religion (ranging from symbolism and its meaning--or lost meaning--in some traditions to animal sacrifices continuing within some groups)
All these issues are inextricably linked to human well-being. This is an opportunity to articulate the idea that animal welfare is inextricably connected to human welfare through all the ways that human and animal lives intersect.

Manuscripts can be submitted directly to special editor Dr. Christina Risley-Curtiss at risley.curtiss@asu.edu as email attachments, preferably in MS WORD 2003-2007 by December 30, 2011.

Bibliographical Sketch
Dr. Christina Risley-Curtiss is an associate professor of Social Work at Arizona State University where her primary areas of research are in the other animal-human bond and child welfare. She advocates for the inclusion of our relationships with other animals in social work research, education and practice. She is a Fellow and faculty advisor with the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, a member of the Human-Animal Studies Executive Committee with Animals and Society Institute and of the National Link Coalition as well as past Chair for 8 years of The Humane LINK, a local coalition of animal welfare and human service agencies. She has recently received funding for a diversion intervention program for children and youth who have abused animals, teaches a course on the other animal-human bond as well as directs an online professional development program to educate advanced practitioners in treating animal abuse. Dr. Risley-Curtiss has published many articles and book chapters, and has presented nationally as well as internationally on the animal-human bond.  She currently lives on ‘horse property’ outside Phoenix, AZ  and  does hands-on rescue work including having volunteered at Best Friends Katrina and being a founding member of a TNR feral cat program at ASU. She lives in a trans-species cultural home with 20 other animals.