After 4 years learning and growing as Art History Animalia, this project is transitioning to a new phase as Animal Aspects! The name change reflects a shift in focus to animal depictions more broadly defined – both as images (in art and art history, visual culture, and material culture) and as words (including naming, classifying, and describing, both in spoken and written language). In other words, zooiconology and zoolexicology: two terms not currently in widespread use, but I am invested in promoting as accepted names for viable independent fields of study.
In addition to the short-term goals of building this new site (including migrating relevant pages from the old site) and connecting current social media pages to it, the new name also connects to both the research group I recently founded at University of Delaware (UDAAWG: UD Animal Aspects Working Group), as well as long-term goals of growing a global community of scholars and makers around this project. Ideally, this will ultimately materialize as a formal organization, a journal, and a physical location for the research library along with exhibition space. (Nobody ever accused me of not dreaming big LOL!)
Stay tuned for more info as things get organized around here! I will post updates to social media as pages are up and ready – until then expect lots of “coming soon” placeholders and links to the old site.