*STS Circle at Harvard* [image: image.png] *Irus Braverman* *University of Buffalo, State University of New York, Law and Geography* * * on
*The Nature of Zoos: Captive Animal Networks in North America* Monday, January 30th 12:15-2:00 p.m. 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 100, Room 106 [image: image.png] Lunch is provided if you RSVP. Please RSVP to sts <[email protected]>@hks.harvard.edu<[email protected]>by 5pm Thursday, January 26th. * * *Abstract:* My presentation begins with the story of Timmy, the oldest male gorilla in North America. Timmy’s story parallels the dramatic transformations undergone by North American zoos over the last several decades. While early zoos and menageries were dedicated largely to entertaining the public, modern zoos emphasize conservation and education as their central institutional missions. Timmy’s story highlights the various technologies that North American zoos use to govern captive animals. First, it demonstrates how zoos naturalize their spaces, classify their animals, and produce an experience of seeing for their human visitors. Second, it highlights the everyday processes by which zoo animals are named, identified, and recorded within the zoo world and how they are then registered onto institutional and global databases and informational networks. Thirdly, Timmy’s story exemplifies how animal bodies are translated into laws, and how these laws manifest in the material world. And finally, it calls attention to both the nature and the politics of the zoo’s network, giving special attention to the importance of genetic reproduction for the immediate survival of this network. Throughout, Timmy’s story illuminates the pastoral power of zoos: their self-assumed role as the animal’s exclusive human caregivers. *Biography*: Irus Braverman is an Associate Professor of Law and an Adjunct Professor of Geography at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. Her main interests lie in the interdisciplinary study of law, geography, anthropology, and STS. Writing within this nexus, Braverman has researched illegal houses, trees, checkpoints, public toilets, and zoos. Braverman's first book, *House Demolitions in East Jerusalem: 'Illegality' and Resistance* (2006, Hebrew), focuses on how planning laws and regulations applied in East Jerusalem create a discriminatory urban landscape and produce illegal spaces. Her second book, *Planted Flags: Trees, Land, and Law in Israel/Palestine* (Cambridge University Press, 2009), describes how acts of planting and uprooting trees have facilitated the struggle over land and identity in Israel/Palestine. In *The Institution of Captivity: Governing Zoo Animals in North America *(forthcoming 2012, Stanford University Press), Braverman presents a mundane account of zoo networks. A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/ Follow us on Facebook: STS@Harvard <http://www.facebook.com/HarvardSTS>
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