Rethinking Fables in the Age of Global Environmental Crisis
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF KENT
Department Name: School of English
Abstract
The fable is a literary genre characterised by its unique focus on nonhumans: in a fable, animals, other organisms, and even non-living forms take centre stage to tell their stories. It has a long global history and has played a significant role in shaping human cultures and ways of thinking; we live with a multitude of talking and humanised creatures, which have inhabited and enriched our languages and cultural imagination. Despite, and because of, this, fables have been controversial and often highly criticised as a mode of representing nonhuman worlds. They have been seen as false representations of nature, or even as the embodiment of our anthropocentric attitude, which leads us to use nonhumans to tell human stories. Recently, however, there has been an increased appreciation of the fable as an important cultural form to re-evaluate our relations with nonhumans. Fables crucially offer a unique means of addressing current challenges to human-centred ways of thinking, while being knowledgeable about the risks of anthropomorphising nonhumans. Moreover, Aesop's fable, 'The Crow and the Pitcher,' has been used by scientists as a framework for their experiments. This use of a fable as a scientific paradigm is not without its critics, but it supports the idea that the fable is a biocultural form, shaped by our observations of, and interactions with, other species.
'Rethinking Fables in the Age of Global Environmental Crisis' aims to bring together scholars, animal experts, artists, theorists, and practitioners of the fable, to examine the importance of animal (and other nonhuman) fables. The team includes leading scholars of the fable, and collaboratively we will work towards developing new theories and practices of the genre. The project will adopt innovative and critical approaches to the subject to foster lively discussions and interdisciplinary collaborations, not only within the arts and humanities but also with social and natural sciences. It will engage with a wide range of texts (literary works, scientific discourses, archival materials) and cultural practices (art, theatre, media, anthropology, etc) as 'fables'. We will also collaborate to produce new fables, befitting to tell stories of our times, in collaboration with artists, creative writers and animal experts. At the same time, we will celebrate the richness of the fable tradition as world literature by drawing on fables of different cultural and linguistic traditions, including non-European and indigenous fables, alongside new and innovative fables. At the heart of this project is the appreciation of the fable as an art of multispecies storytelling, associated with political, moral, and educational values: the fable typically comes with a moral of the story, which teaches us to be better humans. We will draw on the power of the fable as a versatile tool and important resource, which can help us to think differently about pressing global issues and the environmental, political, and technological challenges we face. By engaging critically and creatively with the fable, we seek to evaluate the nature of our relationship with other species, including exploitation, domestication, and cooperation, and to learn to be a better fellow species.
This project will develop an interdisciplinary network through a series of workshops and a conference. Our discussions, key findings, and experimental 'fables' will provide the basis for a multimedia interactive online exhibition about the fable genre, which will be richly illustrated with images of fable manuscripts, visual arts, museum objects, animal photos, etc. Some of the pages will be dedicated to addressing the global environmental crisis and other contemporary challenges, explored through multispecies engagements with fables. This project will generate a series of fable-themed podcasts and a co-edited essay collection. The concluding conference will be accompanied by a public storytelling event in Canterbury.
'Rethinking Fables in the Age of Global Environmental Crisis' aims to bring together scholars, animal experts, artists, theorists, and practitioners of the fable, to examine the importance of animal (and other nonhuman) fables. The team includes leading scholars of the fable, and collaboratively we will work towards developing new theories and practices of the genre. The project will adopt innovative and critical approaches to the subject to foster lively discussions and interdisciplinary collaborations, not only within the arts and humanities but also with social and natural sciences. It will engage with a wide range of texts (literary works, scientific discourses, archival materials) and cultural practices (art, theatre, media, anthropology, etc) as 'fables'. We will also collaborate to produce new fables, befitting to tell stories of our times, in collaboration with artists, creative writers and animal experts. At the same time, we will celebrate the richness of the fable tradition as world literature by drawing on fables of different cultural and linguistic traditions, including non-European and indigenous fables, alongside new and innovative fables. At the heart of this project is the appreciation of the fable as an art of multispecies storytelling, associated with political, moral, and educational values: the fable typically comes with a moral of the story, which teaches us to be better humans. We will draw on the power of the fable as a versatile tool and important resource, which can help us to think differently about pressing global issues and the environmental, political, and technological challenges we face. By engaging critically and creatively with the fable, we seek to evaluate the nature of our relationship with other species, including exploitation, domestication, and cooperation, and to learn to be a better fellow species.
This project will develop an interdisciplinary network through a series of workshops and a conference. Our discussions, key findings, and experimental 'fables' will provide the basis for a multimedia interactive online exhibition about the fable genre, which will be richly illustrated with images of fable manuscripts, visual arts, museum objects, animal photos, etc. Some of the pages will be dedicated to addressing the global environmental crisis and other contemporary challenges, explored through multispecies engagements with fables. This project will generate a series of fable-themed podcasts and a co-edited essay collection. The concluding conference will be accompanied by a public storytelling event in Canterbury.
Publications
Guest K
(2025)
Breed Stories
Landry D
(2024)
The Gift Horse Who Refuses to Be Gifted
Nagai, K
(2024)
Beast Literature
Namjoshi, S
(2025)
BIRDS TALK BACK: Kaori and Suniti in Conversation March 2025
| Title | Cass Lynch, How to read a poem to a spider |
| Description | 'How to read a Poem to a spider' is a poem written by the Australian writer Cass Lynch, as a response to the spider fable 'How to read a poem to a spider' by the Australian indigenous poet Cass Lynch was written as 'a spider fable' for the 'Rethinking Fables' project. It is a fruit of art-science conversation, initiated by the spider fable workshop and subsequent meeting between Kaori Nagai, Cass Lynch, the scientist Nathan Morehouse, and sociologist Lisa Jean Moore. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | This poem led to the development of the spider sculpture by British multimedia artist Josie Rae Turnbull (please see the entry for the 'spider sculpture'). |
| URL | https://www.rethinking-fables.org.uk/how-to-read-a-poem-to-a-spider/ |
| Title | Cass Lynch, Silken Cities (After Italo Calvino) |
| Description | 'Silken Cities (After Italo Calvino) is a short story written for the 'Rethinking Fables' project by the Australian indigenous writer, Cass Lynch, which she describes as a spidery version of Italo Calvino's 'Invisible Cities'. To quote from the author's description: 'The story is set on the Silken Continent, where the spidery cities are experiencing a change in climate as well as the invasion of a conquering foreign empire. Each of the cities are named after a species of spider, and the citizens are emblems of what makes that spider distinct. The spiders that inspire the cities are the Porongurup Trapdoor Spider, the Armoured Trapdoor Spider, the Garden Orb Weaver, the Cellar Spider, the Sydney Funnel Web and the Peacock Jumping Spider. There is also a bonus spider, Rosamygale, who is an extinct spider from the fossil record.' (https://casslynch.com.au/silken-cities/) https://www.rethinking-fables.org.uk/silken-cities/ |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | Cass Lynch, the author put the link to Silken Cities up on her instagram and a teacher from a local high school got in touch to get permission to reproduce it for their literature students. They were currently studying it in a module about myths and fairytales and Lynch was invited to visit the classes to chat to them about it and about Rethinking Fables project. Lynch's visit took place on Tuesday 22nd July 2025, Shenton College, Perth, Year 10 Gifted and Talented Program. Students read Calvino's Invisible Cities and her story Silken Cities and their assessment involves comparing the two in the context of Indigenous reimagining. |
| URL | https://www.instagram.com/p/DKH5pyfzlKY/ |
| Title | Changing Fables |
| Description | It is a record of creative workshop, led by Prof Vinciane Despret, titled 'Changing Fables' (May 24, 2025), the purpose of which was to experiment with creative thinking and writing fables collaboratively. The workshop group included eminent animal scholars such as Susan McHugh, Erica Fudge, Boria Sax, and Chris Danta, several creative writers including the fabulist Suniti Namjoshi, and research students who brough to the session fresh ideas and perspectives. We decided to work on an old Sumerian fable ('The fox, having urinated into the sea, said "The whole sea is my urine) and we worked in groups and filmed our rersult. For further details, please see https://www.rethinking-fables.org.uk/changing-fables/ |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | Not yet - but it was hugely successful, and this is a format which I am planning to try in the future for more environmental fables. |
| URL | https://youtu.be/6Oikh4qN3cE |
| Title | Emily Doolittle, Alex South, Lesley Harrison. 'The Gannet and the Whale' |
| Description | 'The Gannet and the Whale' is a three-way collaboration between composer Emily Doolittle, musician and researcher Alex South, and poet Lesley Harrison. It tells of the encounter between diving seabirds and pilot whales surfacing from the ocean through mimetic music of seabirds and improvisations based on whale recordings - the sounds filled the entire theatre, bringing the ocean with them. Harrison's poem, 'The Middle Deep', which accompanied the music, alerts us to the rapid changes in the ocean affecting this encounter. It was a powerful and fitting conclusion to this project, which uses the fable to address environmental crisis. The performance was shown in the Rethinking Fables storytelling event, and the performers were introduced by the Indian fabulist Suniti Namjoshi. The duration of the performance is 24min. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | The audience commented the piece to be one of the most powerful of the storytelling event. To quote from the feedback, 'The musical piece was a very profound aural space in which to meditate. It was great to have thought inspired without talking for once, and added much to the event.' and made another audience 'think about how animal voices might combine with human ones.' |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r55dQJPMgQo |
| Title | Josie Rae Turnbull, 'Spider sculpture' |
| Description | A spider sculpture, made of found objects, was commissioned by Nagai and was created by British artist Josie Rae Turnbull to accompany Cass Lynch's poem 'How to read a poem to a spider'. Turnbull also made a short installation to go together with it. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | n/a |
| URL | https://www.rethinking-fables.org.uk/spider-poem-annotated/ |
| Title | Lesley Harrison, 'The Middle Deeps' |
| Description | The poem, written by the Scottish poet Lesley Harrison, is a fable about an encounter between a gannet and a whale in the ocean. They meet at the surface, both searching for krill. The poem illustrates how their meeting becomes increasingly constrained by changes driven by climate change. This piece was commissioned by this project. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | This poem became the starting point of the collaboration between Lesley Harrison, and the composer Emily Doolittle and the composerAlex South, who get together to create a performance piece 'The Gannet and the Whale' to be performed in our final conference (please see the entry for 'The Gannet and the Whale') |
| URL | https://www.rethinking-fables.org.uk/the-middle-deeps/ |
| Title | Sospeter Kiambi, 'Encounter with Tim, the "Super Tusker"' |
| Description | The fable, set in the 21st century, tells the story of a boy named Millennial and his encounter with Tim the elephant and his son Matt. It is told to draw attention to the violence of the ivory trade, the diminishing elephant population, and the worsening human-elephant relationship. The piece (1800 words) was presented in our workshop titled 'Elephant Fables' (30 January 2024), followed by the author's discussion of its relevance to elephant conservation efforts. Sospeter Kiambi is a Senior Research Scientist at the Wildlife Research and Training Institute in Kenya and is currently a PhD student at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent. Initially, I invited him to talk about his research on the topic of 'Human-elephant co-existence in a post-ivory ban landscape' in relation to some fables he knows. He responded to my request by writing a fable to illustrate the conservation issues he is engaged in. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Inspiring a conservationist to write a fable was itself an impactful result for our project. It also prompted him to reflect on the importance of fables and storytelling in raising public awareness about elephant conservation and correcting public misconceptions. We hope this contribution will enrich his own project and future endeavors. His talk also served as a very good example of how fables can bridge humanities and science. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxYTvCfaX90 |
| Title | Suniti Namjoshi |
| Description | Poet and Fabulist Suniti Namjoshi gave a performance at the Gulbenkian Theatre, University of Kent, May 24, 2025. She read from her fables - both old and new - to reflect on her changing attitudes towards animals and towards the environment over a very long period. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | Youtube video records 117 view to date. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kLdmDA8CA4 |
| Title | Susan Richardson, The Sack and the Selkie |
| Description | 'The Sack and the Selkie' is a sequence of five poems by the poet Susan Richardson, accompanied by a photograph (taken by the poet herself) of a seal pup trapped in a plastic sack. The collection draws attention to the issue of plastic pollution in the ocean and the endangered conditions that seals and other marine creatures face. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | The piece was performed by the poet (online) at the Rethinking Fables final conference, on May 24, 2025. The video is dued to be used in my teaching in the Summer Term 2026. |
| URL | https://www.rethinking-fables.org.uk/the-sack-and-the-selkie/ |
| Description | One of the key findings of the project is that it challenges the conventional understanding of the fable as a human-centred form that merely uses animals as allegorical devices. Instead, the project brought together a wide range of scholars and animal experts to demonstrate that the fable is a powerful tool for exploring how animals experience the world, as well as the current ecological crises we share with nonhuman life. As an ancient form of storytelling that exists across many parts of the world, our projects on fables uncovered new possibilities for fostering connections across cultures. The networking project also uncovered the power of fables to create interdisciplinary conversations and collaborations. Among the most exciting outcomes are several art-science collaborations that have emerged from the network, including the spider fable (developed with a US-based spider vision expert, Australasian Indigenous artists, a US sociologist, and a UK multimedia artist); music fables (in collaboration with zoomusicologist composers); an ivory fable (using museum artefacts and trade ivory to tell a story of global circulation); and an AI fable (developed with cybersecurity experts). |
| Exploitation Route | I have built a good team on the spider fable. One of my collaborators, US scientist Nathan Morehouse is a co-applicant of the AHRC Curiosity Award sensory studies for a more-than-human world (2026-2028). I have joined this as a core member, and we are planning to develop our spider fable project in conversation with other sensory studies experts. One of the key outcomes of Rethinking Fables is the creation of online resources (http://www.rethinking-fables.org.uk). These include fables developed during the project activities, which are now accessible for wider use. I am incorporating some of these fables into my own work and teaching. I will also share my experience and methodologies, offering insights into how the project's approaches can be applied in educational, artistic, and research contexts. These resources not only preserve the creative outputs of the project but also provide a foundation for others to experiment with fable-based storytelling as a tool for exploring animal worlds, environmental issues, and interdisciplinary connections. |
| Sectors | Education Environment Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.rethinking-fables.org.uk |
| Description | One of the participants was the local writer Susan Pope. The workshop not only prompted her to produce a fable for us ('Fossilised'), but inspired her writing group: she reported: 'Through my connections within the writing community, I am continuing to spread the word about writing fables to highlight the current environmental crisis. Groups I lead and attend are becoming inspired by my fable Fossilised, to write their own fables and folktales. My attending your workshop, has now spread to dozens of other writers I know, who will use their stories in publications and as competition entries.' I have been also contacted by the local art organisation 'We Live Here' to explore potential collaborations to create more local fables. Cass Lynch's fable, 'The Silken Cities', was used by a local school in Australia as assignment (Shenton College, Perth, Year 10 Gifted and Talented Program) and Lynch was invited to meet the students to talk about her story and our project. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2025 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | Participatory/Co-Produced Research Funding Scheme |
| Amount | £1,540 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Department | Research England |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2024 |
| End | 07/2024 |
| Description | AI/Cyber fables with the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS), University of Kent |
| Organisation | University of Kent |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| PI Contribution | Nagai co-organised an in-person workshop entitled 'Cyber/AI Fables: Creative Writing (and Crafting) Session' on October 23, 2024 with the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS), University of Kent. By organising this event, Nagai contributed to the series of events for the 'Cyber Awareness Month' organised by the institute. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS) paid half the costs of catering (£60.10), and took charge of designing and distributing the poster. They also asked three postgraduates to help organise Nagai's event. |
| Impact | There are some fables emerged out of this collaboration, and Nagai will feature them in the online resources (still under construction). |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | 'As the spider extends its web, one's destiny unfolds': The Cultural Value of Spiders (Online Workshop) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This online workshop on spider fables (held on January 11, 2024) was designed for our network by Lisa Jean Moore, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Purchase College, State University of New York. Its aim is to foster interdisciplinary conversation through the telling of spider fables. The speakers are: Dr Alberto Corsin Jimenez (ILLA-CSIC, anthropology), Dr Nate Morehouse (University of Cincinnati, biology) and Australian indigenous writer Dr Cass Lynch (Curtin University). 53 people attended the session. The session was advertised by the British Arachnological Society as an 'unmissable event' on their social media platforms, and the recording of the session has attracted 154 views (as of March 8, 2024). We received several queries about future events, especially from those who enjoyed our interdisciplinary approach, and the speakers requested that we organize a follow-up spider event to explore possible creative collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/r2hK2DCzKmE |
| Description | A talk by Professor Danta: 'Dear AI Reader' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Nagai hosted a talk by Prof Chris Danta (School of Cybernetics, Australia National University), on October 2nd, 2024, titled 'Dear AI Reader: Nonhuman Perspective and Evolutionary Thinking in the Human-Machine Relation' at the University of Kent. Prof Chris Danta is a key collaborator of her project, and his talk is a take on one of our research questions about AI fables. In organising this event, I collaborated with the university's Institute of Creative And Cultural Industries (iCCi), many of whose members and students have ties with and are involved in cultural industries. About 20 people from the iCCi, some Kent students and a few members of the public attended the event and we had a lively discussion afterwards about our relationship with AI technology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | AI and Other Scientific Fables (2 day hybrid conference) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Nagai's key collaborator, Prof Chris Danta, organised this 2-day hybrid conference (July 25-27, 2024) for us. It was held at School of Cybernetics, Australia National University, and online. Nagai contributed to planning of the event and advertising of it among her network members. It was held at the School of Cybernetics, Australian National University, and online. Nagai contributed to the planning of the event and advertising of it among her network members. The event played a significant role in addressing one of our research questions about the interrelation between the fable-the genre in which nonhumans act-and AI technology, and it also helped Nagai to plan future activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://cybernetics.anu.edu.au/news/2024/07/26/AI-and-Other-Scientific-Fables/ |
| Description | Animal Languages (online workshop, October 25, 2024) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The fable genre is famous for the use of talking animals, and this workshop focused on the issue of animal languages. It consistsed of two parts. Nagai collaborated with the German linguist Prof. Christiane M. Bongartz in putting together the first panel, consisting of three distinhuished speakers from different backgrounds: Prof Leonie Cornips (linguistics/ NL-Lab, Humanities Cluster KNAW & Maastricht University), Ana M. Ochoa (music/ Tulane University), Vocalization as the philosophical site of struggle between the animal and the human, Andrea Gutiérrez (Asian studies/ University of Texas at Austin). 51 attended the session and we had a lively discussion after the talks. The recording of the event has had 42 views (as of March 8, 2025). The second part of the workshop was a creative writing workshop by the award-winning poet Susan Richardson. 10 people attended the sessions, and it has resulted in several creative pieces on the seal and the selkie. Susan Richardson herself has written a fable-poem sequence. Nagai is putting them together to create an online resource. was in two-part. The first part is a workshop consisting of three scholarly papers on the issue of 'animal languages': the spea |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/ALPxmgeZtzw |
| Description | Cyber/AI Fables: Creative Writing (and Crafting) Session |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was an in-person 2-hour creative writing workshop, organized in collaboration with the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS) on 23rd October 2024. We started by discussing and sharing AI-related issues, then asked each participant to write a fable, and used AI to illustrate their stories. Nagai acted as the facilitator. The exercise resulted in a number of interesting fables, some of which Nagai intends to include in the online exhibition. 25 people participated in the event, including undergraduate and postgraduate students, and staff members from humanities, computing, and creative industries backgrounds. The event was part of the series of events organized by the iCSS for the 2024 Cyber Security Awareness Month, and contributed significantly to its discussions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://research.kent.ac.uk/cyber/events-2024/cyber-ai-fables/ |
| Description | Fables of Fulfillment: The Material Horse in Context of Interspecies Literacy (A Hybrid Workshop) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | This hybrid workshop was designed for our network by Dr. Christoph Lange and Prof. Christiane M. Bongartz (University of Cologne, Germany; MESH, Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities) and held at the University of Cologne and online on September 28-29, 2023. The hybrid aspect of the workshop included a collaboration with an equine facility in Cologne (a riding and training stable). The hybrid portion of the workshop commenced with the screening of a short documentary on September 28, followed by a one-day symposium on 'equine fables' on September 29. Nagai contributed a paper to the introductory session. The session was interdisciplinary as well as international, networking horse experts and projects in Germany, the UK, Canada, Egypt, and Morocco. We received several queries about future events, and there is a plan for a special collection of essays arising out of this symposium. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://mesh.uni-koeln.de/events/meshworks/fables-of-fulfillment |
| Description | Fabulous Species/Human-Animal Relationships (online workshop) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This two-day online workshop (January 29-30, 2024), comprising five panel sessions, aimed to explore human-animal relationships through the lens of fables. It featured leading scholars from three different continents and several time zones, representing various disciplines including literature, anthropology, philosophy, history, art, digital humanities, ethology, and conservation. Three of the panels were particularly popular and drew significant attention from both scholars and the general public. Firstly, 'Wisdom of Crows: Fables, Science, Storytelling' (January 29), an interdisciplinary panel on crow fables featuring two ethologists (Dr. Jo Wimpenny and Dr. Kaeli Swift) and one environmental philosopher (Prof. Thom van Dooren), attracted 74 registrations (with 37 attendees). The recording of the session was uploaded to YouTube, garnering 137 views and 6 likes within two weeks. 'Storying Animals in Public Places' (January 30), another highly interdisciplinary panel in which Thom van Dooren and five other colleagues presented two of their projects in collaboration with museums, was attended by 28 people and sparked a lively conversation, including contributions from members of the audience. 'Elephant Fables' (January 30) featured three brilliant papers on elephants by a literary scholar, a historian, and an elephant conservationist, the latter of whom wrote an elephant fable for us. The session also attracted a wide array of scholars in animal studies and elephant experts as audience members. This included Dr. Ashley Coutu, a curator from the Pitt Rivers Museum specializing in ivory. In collaboration with her, we will be developing more elephant storytelling based on the museum's ivory collection (for this I have successufully secured £1540 from 'Participatory/Co-Produced Research Funding Scheme' [Research England/University of Kent] to conduct the DNA tests of some museum objects). Overall, the workshop was a big success and raised the profile of the 'Rethinking Fables' project. After the event, we received several queries about the project, and our YouTube channel gained 21 subscribers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://research.kent.ac.uk/rethinking-fables/workshop-2/ |
| Description | Global Fables (2 day online workshop: September 12-13, 2024) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This is a two-day online workshop (September 12-13, 2024), designed to explore the global tradition and circulation of fables. It successfully represented the fable traditions from different cultures, including South Asian and Middle-Eastern fables, and transatlantic fables (USA, Caribbean), fables from Indigenous communities (Ainu, Sami). I also used this event to reach out to other existing networks which resonate with my project: notably, 'Kalila and Dimna: AnonymClassic' (ERC Advanced Grant, 2018-2023), 'Once upon a time ... a scientific fairy tale' project (initially funded by 'Science in Dialogue'), 'Future Fables' (British Academy ECR Network (Scotland) Seed Funding Grant), the Pacific Rim Literary Network (Japan/NZ). The event turned out to be a highly interdisciplinary event, and I have expanded my network significantly. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://research.kent.ac.uk/rethinking-fables/workshop-3/ |
| Description | New Approaches to Nonhuman Fables (a two-day online workshop) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Online Workshop: New Approaches to Nonhuman Fables (Workshop 1; June 20-21, 2024) This two-day workshop marks the official start of the project and sets the agenda for subsequent activities. All sessions were thus for network members, as well as several academic colleagues and postgraduate students, except for the one online talk on the second day, which we made public (Susan McHugh and Robert McKay, 'Animal Satire as an Ongoing Fable Tradition'). 51 people registered to attend this event. The recording of the talk was uploaded on YouTube and has had 164 views and 8 likes (as of March 8, 2024). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/buBJmWNBbWE |
| Description | Pigeons, Tigers, and Vampire Bats: On Ethnonationalism, Hospitality, and Kinship in South Asia (Online worksjop) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This online panel on South Asian fables (2 hours) was designed for our network by Dr Radhika Govindrajan, Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. Its aim is to explore human relationships with more-than-human entities through South Asian fables and folktales. Three distinguished experts in the field of anthropology spoke at this event. Dr Muhammad Kavesh (Australian National University), Prof Dolly Kikon (University of California, Santa Cruz), Dr Mythri Jegathesan (Santa Clara University). 150 people registered to attend the session, and the talks were followed by a lively debate about how fables, old and new, animate questions of ethnonationalism, militarization, hospitality, and kinship. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://research.kent.ac.uk/rethinking-fables/workshop-3/ |
| Description | Rats! Fabulation, Translation, Transmission (Online Workshop) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | This 2-hour online workshop took place on November 11, 2023, with the aim of considering the history of our relationship with rats through the lens of fables. It was organized in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust-funded project 'The Global War Against the Rat and the Epistemic Emergence of Zoonosis' (2019-2025: run by Professor Christos Lynteris) and brought together leading six rat experts for interdisciplinary conversations. The speakers are: Professor Christos Lynteris (University of St. Andrews), Professor Lucinda Cole (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Dr Jia Hui Lee (University of Bayreuth), Dr Jules Skotnes-Brown (University of St. Andrews), Rory Hutchings (University of Kent, PhD candidate), Dr Kaori Nagai (University of Kent). 23 people attended the session, which sparked lively discussions, questions, and requests for further rat-related sessions from both the audience and speakers. The recording of the event was made available on YouTube afterward. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/cy5OoaoptJ4 |
| Description | Restorative Fables for Wild Canids (Online Workshop) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This 2-hour online workshop (October 7, 2023) brought together three dog experts (including one PhD student), each of who gave a paper to explore the power of fables and storytelling to contest histories that lead to abuse and extinction of wild canids, such as coyotes, wolves, and south African wild dogs. The speakers were Professor Susan McHugh (University of New England), Professor Karen Jones (Kent), Rosa Deen (Kent, PhD candidate) and the session was chaired by another dog expert, Prof Jeanne Dubino (Appalachian State University). 40 people attended the session, sparking a lively discussion on the subject. It also raised awareness about our project, particularly outside of the arts and humanities. For instance, a British field naturalist who attended the event contacted me to share some examples of the use of fables he knows of in scientific journals. The recording of the talk was uploaded to YouTube and has received 51 views as of February 15, 2024. The speakers are currently discussing future collaborative ideas emerging from this session. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/TRIto31Rm8A |
| Description | Writing Environmental Fables in Kent: Creative writing workshop (in-person workshop, November 20, 2024) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 'Writing Environmental Fables in Kent' was a creative writing workshop, featuring an Indian writer and educator Shreyasi Sharma as its facilitator. We invited staff and students, general public, from Kent to write a fable which addresses environmental issues close to your heart participate in Local writers, creative writers, etc., participated in the event. Around 25 people from the university, members of the public, participated in the event, which included a local creative writer, who produced a couple of 'fables' as a result of this session. The event was recorded and captured the participants' responses, which say the importance of the fables. One of the participants in 'Writing Environmental Fables in Kent' was the local writer Susan Pope. The workshop not only prompted her to produce a fable for us ('Fossilised'), but inspired her writing group: she reported: 'Through my connections within the writing community, I am continuing to spread the word about writing fables to highlight the current environmental crisis. Groups I lead and attend are becoming inspired by my fable Fossilised, to write their own fables and folktales. My attending your workshop, has now spread to dozens of other writers I know, who will use their stories in publications and as competition entries. I'm so pleased if I have contributed to spreading the word in the spirit of your project. If it achieves the goal of more action to save the planet, you will have achieved something far beyond a successful academic project.' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/ouhOByeS6hw |