UW Madison South Asia Conference 2024: "Multispecies South Asia" Panel
Multispecies South Asia
A wide range of other-than-human subjects—animals, plants, microbes, among others—animate contemporary South Asian lived experiences. Relationships formed across species boundaries— whether brief or long-lasting, utilitarian or altruistic— are imbricated in the intersectional operations of race, caste, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and indigeneity. From quotidian instances of touching, witnessing, and other forms of interacting with other-than-human subjects to exceptional, contextually specific use of them to bolster anthropocentric concerns, the ubiquity of multispecies coexistence is uncontested.