Dear ASI Friend,
Happy New Year! I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your continued support and let you know about some of the exciting projects ASI has planned for the coming year. First and foremost, I want you to know that you helped make 2021 a success. Despite the setbacks that many of us experienced this past year as we continued to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, ASI is proud of what we were able to accomplish with you and our advocacy partners.
In 2021, we continued facilitating deep discussions on a range of HAS topics—entirely online. We were able to offer the Summer Institute, which we co-host with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in a virtual format. We also co-sponsored a virtual colloquium with the American Sociological Association (Society and Animals Section) on nontraditional ways that animal shelters can care for community animals. And our virtual BARK program continued to gain momentum when ASI Board President Dr. Kenneth Shapiro and ASI Board member Dr. Kimberly Spanjol led an online course at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work.
We are grateful that participants embraced the virtual format and engaged in such substantive, though-provoking discussions throughout the year. Given the success of this online programming, we are looking forward to hosting more virtual events in 2022.
But we have other goals for this year, too. With your help, we will release special issues of our two managed publications, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science (JAAWS) and Society and Animals. The JAAWS issue will focus on how global issues such as pandemics, climate change, and other natural disasters affect human-animal relationships. The special issue of Society and Animals will focus on the welfare and public health implications of outdoor community cats. We also plan to publish two new books in our Brill Human-Animal Studies Series. We are reviewing manuscript proposals now; stay tuned for our selections!
Finally, we are continuing to update the ASI website with the goal of improving its navigability and adding more HAS resources. On that note, I’d like to encourage you to visit our website and sign-up for ASI’s monthly newsletter here and HAS report here. Please note that we decided to delay our first 2022 editions of these resources until March.
Thank you for believing in our work to create safer and more compassionate communities.
With Gratitude,
