Susan McHugh, Ph.D.
Location
Susan McHugh researches and teaches courses in writing, literary theory, animal studies, and plant studies.
She has delivered keynote lectures and invited talks in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland the UK, and the US. Her ongoing research focuses on the intersections of biological and cultural extinction.
McHugh is the author of three monographs: Love in a Time of Slaughters: Human-animal Stories Against Extinction and Genocide (2019), a volume in Pennsylvania State University Press's AnthropoScene series; Animal Stories: Narrating across Species Lines (2011), a volume in the University of Minnesota Press's Posthumanities series and recipient of the Michelle Kendrick Memorial Book Prize; and Dog (2004), a volume in Reaktion Books' groundbreaking Animal series. Dog has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
McHugh has also published several co-edited volumes, including Animal Satire (2023), Posthumanism in Art and Science: A Reader (2021), The Palgrave Handbook of Animals and Literature (2020), Human-Animal Studies (2018), Indigenous Creatures, Native Knowledges, and the Arts: Animal Studies in Modern Worlds (2017), and The Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Studies (2014). She also co-edited Taxidermic Forms and Fictions (2019), a special issue of Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology, and Literary Animals Look (2013), a special issue of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture. Additionally, she has published dozens of essays in edited collections and peer-reviewed journals such as Critical Inquiry, Literature and Medicine, and PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America.
McHugh is Co-editor of two book series: Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature, the first academic book series devoted to literary animal studies; and Plants and Animals Interdisciplinary Perspectives published by Peter Lang.
McHugh also has broad and deep experience in editing and publishing academic and creative work. Presently she serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the interdisciplinary scholarly journal Society and Animals, and she is the Faculty Advisor to Zephyr: UNE's Journal of Artistic Expression.
Credentials
Education
Post-Doctoral Training
Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia)
Research
Selected publications
Books
Love in a Time of Slaughters: Human-Animal Stories Against Extinction and Genocide. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019.
Animal Stories: Narrating across Species Lines. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011.
Dog. London: Reaktion, 2004. Translations:
Abu Dhabi: Kalima, 2014 (Arabic).
Moscow: United Press, 2011 (Russian).
Beijing: Shenghuo-Dushu-Xinzhi, 2008 (Chinese).
Torino: Bollati Borginghieri, 2008 (Italian).
Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Editorial Melusina, 2007 (Spanish).
Paris: Delachaux et Niestlé, 2005 (French).
Istanbul: Kitap Yayinevi, 2005 (Turkish)
Edited Collections
Posthumanism in Art and Science: A Reader. Ed. with Giovanni Aloi. New York: Columbia University Press, 2021.
The Palgrave Handbook of Animals and Literature. Ed. with Robert McKay and John Miller. New York: Palgrave, 2020.
Human-Animal Studies: The Global Animal. 4 vols. Ed. with Garry Marvin. London: Routledge, (under contract).
The Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Studies. Ed. with Garry Marvin. London: Routledge, 2014.
Literary Animals Look. Ed. with Robert McKay. Spec. issue of Antennae:The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture 24 (2013).
Peer-reviewed Articles
“Unknowing Animals: Wild Bird Films and the Limits of Knowledge.” Animals and the Moving Image. Ed. Laura McMahon and Michael Lawrence. London: BFI (forthcoming).
“Loving Camels, Sacrificing Sheep, Slaughtering Gazelles: Human-Animal Relations in Contemporary Desert Fiction,” Sentient Creatures: Humans, Animals, and Biopolitics. Ed. Kristin Asdal, Steve Hinchcliffe, and Tone Druglitrø. Burlington: Ashgate. (forthcoming).
“Animal Gods in Extinction Stories: Power and Princess Mononoke.” Representing the Modern Animal in Culture, ed. Jeanne Dubino, Ziba Rashidian, and Andrew Smyth. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 205-25.
“‘A flash point in Inuit memories’: Endangered Knowledges in the Mountie Sled Dog Massacre.” The Global Animal. Ed. Karyn Ball and Lisa Haynes. Spec. issue of ESC: English Studies in Canada 39.1 (2013): 149-75.
“Hybrid Species and Literatures: Ibrahim al-Koni’s ‘Composite Apparition,’” Comparative Critical Studies 9.3 (2012): 285-302.
“Bitch, Bitch, Bitch: Personal Criticism, Feminist Theory, and Dog Writing,” Animal Others. Spec. issue of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Ed. Lori Gruen and Kari Weil. 27.3 (2012): 616-35.
“Real Artificial: Tissue-cultured Meat, GM Farm Animals, and Fictions,” Ecocriticism and Biology. Spec. issue of Configurations. Ed. Helena Feder. 18.1-2 (2010): 181-97.
“Being Out of Time: Animal Gods in Contemporary Extinction Fictions,” Australian Literary Studies 25.2 (2010): 1-16.
“Clever Pigs, Failing Piggeries: Image, Narration, and Sensation,” Pig. Spec. issue of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture 12.1 (2010): 19-24.
“Flora, Not Fauna: GM Culture and Agriculture,” Genomics in Literature, Visual Arts, and Culture. Ed. Priscilla Wald, Jay Clayton, and Karla F. C. Holloway. Spec. issue of Literature and Medicine 26.1 (2007): 25-54.
“The Call of the Other 0.1%: Genetic Aesthetics and the New Moreaus.” Genetic Technologies and Animals. Ed. Carol Gigliotti. Spec. issue of AI and Society 20.1 (2006): 63-81. Reprinted in Leonardo’s Choice: Genetic Technologies and Animals. Ed. Gigliotti. New York: Springer, 2009: 173-92.
“Bitches from Brazil: Cloning and Owning Dogs through The Missyplicity Project.” Representing Animals. Ed. Nigel Rothfels. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2002: 180-98.
“Bringing up Babe.” Camera Obscura 49 (2002): 149-87.
“Video Dog Star: William Wegman, Aesthetic Agency, and the Animal in Art.” The Representation of Animals. Ed. Steve Baker. Spec. issue of Society & Animals 9.3 (2001): 229-51.
“Marrying My Bitch: J. R. Ackerley’s Pack Aesthetics.” Critical Inquiry 27.1 (2000): 21-41.
“Horses in Blackface: Visualizing Race as Species Difference in Planet of the Apes.”South Atlantic Review 65.2 (2000): 40-72.
Invited Essays
“Allowed,” in Exploring the Animal Turn, Ed. Amelie Björck, Ann Sofie Lönngren, Erika Andersson Cederholm, and Kristina Jennbert. Lund: Pufendorf Institute, 2014. 219-21.
“In It Together” (co-authored with Garry Marvin). The Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Studies. London: Routledge, 2014. 1-9.
“Seeing and Being Literary Animals” (co-authored with Robert McKay). Literary Animals Look, Spec. issue of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture 24 (2013): 4-6.
“The Silence of Dogs in Cars” in Mute: The Silence of Dogs in Cars by Martin Usborne. Heidelberg: Kehrer Verlag, 2012. N.p.
“Coming to Animal Studies” in Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies by Margo DeMello. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. 29-31.
“Sweet Jane,” Feral. Ed. Heather Steffen. Spec. issue of the minnesota review n.s. 73-74 (2009): 189-203.
“Literary Animal Agents,” PMLA: Publication of the Modern Language Association 124.2 (2009): 487-95.
“Animal Farm’s Lessons for Literary (and) Animal Studies.” Humanimalia: A Journal of Human-Animal Interface Studies 1.1 (2009): 24-39.
“Revolting Nuggets and Nubbins.” Pretty Ugly. Spec. issue of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture 8.2 (2008): 14-19.
“Animal Stories,” The Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships, 4 vols., Ed. Marc Beckoff, Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 2007.
“One or Several Literary Animal Studies?” Ruminations 3. H-Animal Discussion Network 17 Jul. 2006. <http://www.h-net.org/~animal/ruminations_mchugh.html>
Interviews with Artists
“‘Fanciful and Very Much Alive’: A Conversation with Stephen Burt about Plants, Prints, and Drawings,” Beyond Morphology, Spec. issue of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture 18 (2011): 64-72.
“Stains, Drains, and Automobiles: A Conversation with Steve Baker about Norfolk Roadkill, Mainly,” Art and Animality, Ed. Ross Birrell and Ron Broglio. Spec. issue of Art & Research 4.1 (2011): http://www.artandresearch.org.uk/v4n1/pdfs/baker.pdf.
Invited plenary presentation
Keynote Addresses and Endowed Lectures
“Filming Packs.” Screen Studies Conference, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 28 June 2015.
“Read Dead: Hunting, Genocide, and Extinction Stories,” Reading Animals, Sheffield University, UK, 18 July 2014.
“When Species Meet on Killing Fields: Narrating Bio-cultural Extinctions,” Politische Zoologie, Summer School for Cultural and Literary Animal Studies, University of Würzburg, Germany, 23 Sept. 2013.
“Unsettling the Dead: Natives, Americans, Genocides, and Extinctions,” Bolt Memorial Lecture in American Studies, University of Kent, UK, 8 May 2013.
“The Birds and the Bees? Sexual Politics and Population Rhetorics,” The Rhetoric of Human-Animal Relations Workshop, University of Oslo, Norway, 29 May 2012.
“‘Real Artificial Meat’ and the Future of Animal Agency,” Animal Futures, British Animal Studies Network Symposium, London, UK, 25 Oct. 2008.