The Journal of Historical Geography invites proposals for a special issue of papers addressing Historical Animal Geographies, co-edited by Karen M. Morin and Alice J. Hovorka.
This special issue of Historical Animal Geographies seeks to build on the groundbreaking collection, Historical Animal Geographies (2018), with works at the interstices of history, geography, and critical animal studies. It will focus on themes that attempt to distinguish what it means to think geographically about animals with an emphasis on the historical shifts and framings that have occurred in the study of animals.
The co-editors of this special issue on Historical Animal Geographies will consider a wide-ranging set of themes including but not limited to:
• How to describe, represent, and reconstruct past geographies of animals (spaces, places, landscapes, environments, mobilities and networks)?
• How is the presentness of the animal past produced through landscapes, texts, memories and archives?
• How can we recognise diverse spatial and temporal imaginaries of animals (for instance, ancestral, spiritual, religious, or environmental)?
• What has been the reach and influence of different models and institutional hubs of historical geography of animals?
• How can the theories and methods used to study the historical geography of animals be applied to geography’s disciplinary histories?
Deadline for Abstracts: January 15, 2026
Expressions of interest (consisting of a title and a 250-word abstract) should be forwarded to the editors of the special issue – Professor Karen Morin (morin@bucknell.edu) and Professor Alice Hovorka (ahovorka@yorku.ca) by January 15, 2026.
The deadline for accepted submissions will be June 15, 2026. Submissions should follow the Journal’s standard guidelines https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-historical-geography and authors should feel free to contact the editors for advice and guidance. We invite papers from established scholars as well as early career scholars, and especially scholars from underrepresented regions, and the Journal of Historical Geography offers enhanced editorial support to these authors.
The papers will go through the Journal’s standard peer review process. As soon as papers are accepted, they will be published online (with a DOI) and then allocated to the next available journal issue for formal publication. When all are complete we will collate the papers and launch them as a virtual special issue with an online editorial introduction.
