2026

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Natures in Translation: AI, Ethics and Environmental Conservation

(Abstract submission deadline: 20 April 2026)

Lancaster University, UK

Dates: 1-2 October 2026

Conference funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and BRAID

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Confirmed keynote speakers: Prof. Ursula K. Heise (UCLA), Prof. Şebnem Susam-Saraeva (Edinburgh University).

Confirmed keynote performance: Khairani Barokka

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The question of who can speak on behalf of the more-than-human world has been central to the development of environmental studies as well as animal and plant studies. As new AI technologies promise to translate animal and plant communications into human language(s), these questions are also of increasing importance to biologists, ethologists, humanities scholars and animal conservation actors. In their promotional and public-facing discourse, AI initiatives such as Earth Species Project and Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI) envision a future where humans might bridge the communication gap between themselves and non-human species with AI technologies. The intellectual, corporate and media narratives articulated around the generative AI technologies involved promise not only to improve human understanding of the natural world, but to also catalyze a cultural shift in how we interact with non-human species and the environment. This interdisciplinary conference explores the ethical implications of AI-assisted animal translation for environmental conservation and human-environmental relations. How might the use of AI to translate more-than-human communication help or hinder environmental conservation practices within a multispecies justice framework?

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At this conference, we invite perspectives from translation studies, animal behaviour science, philosophy, law, literature, computer science, social science, digital humanities and related fields to address urgent questions relating to the use of AI for environmental conservation purposes. Who has authority to speak for animals? How do these technologies extract, process and interpret data, and what assumptions do they embed about animal communication? Do they serve multispecies justice or reinforce anthropocentric perspectives?  What might a more expansive understanding of “listening” at the intersection of environmental conservation, translation studies, critical AI studies and media theory entail? What broader inter-disciplinary framework and collaborations can be developed to tackle these important epistemological, ethical, and ecological questions?

 

Conference introduction and website: https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/animalsintranslation/conference/introduction/  

 

A non-exhaustive list of possible presentation topics includes:

• Interspecies Communication: Science, Ethics and Translation

• Current understanding of animal and plant communication systems (cognition, vocalizations, chemical signaling, mycelial networks)

• Translation studies perspectives on rendering animal/plant communication legible to humans

• Historicising scientific histories of human-animal communication

• Critiques of anthropomorphism in interspecies translation

• Critical Perspectives on AI Translation Technologies

• Algorithmic logics , data extraction, and the commodification of animal bioacoustic data

• Implications for AI-assisted animal translation for critical AI and data studies and digital humanities

• Corporate interests and the governance of AI animal translation projects

• Transparency, accountability, and the environmental costs of large-scale AI models

• Media narratives and public discourse around AI-assisted animal translation

• Philosophical and legal questions: animal rights, personhood, consent, and agency in relation to communication technologies

• Indigenous Knowledge and Decolonial Approaches

• Indigenous perspectives on interspecies communication and relationality

• Place-based ecological knowledge and translation in the age of AI

• Questions of sovereignty, land rights, and authority to interpret more-than-human communication

• Reciprocity, accountability, and Indigenous AI and human/more-than-human protocols

• Creative Methods, and Interdisciplinary Futures

• Literary, artistic, and speculative approaches to interspecies communication (creative writing, sound art, film, performance)

• Practice-based and arts-based methodologies for engaging with more-than-human worlds

• Literary, artistic and digital/computational representations of more-than-human voices

• Conservation Practice and Policy

• Case studies of AI deployment in conservation contexts

• The potential benefits and risks of AI translation for endangered species protection

• Community-based conservation and local knowledge systems

• The relationship between technological innovation and material conservation action

Timeline:

Abstract submission deadline: 20 April 2026

Review period: 21 April – 9 May 2026

Notification of acceptance: 10 May 2026

Conference: 1-2 October 2026

Guidelines:

Abstract length: 250–300 words

Bio: 100–150 word

Format: Word or PDF, submitted to: naturesintranslation@lancaster.ac.uk

Abstract submission deadline: 20 April 2026

Notification of acceptance: 10 May 2026

Conference: 1-2 October 2026

 

CPA: Wildfire Ethics: A Handbook. (Submission deadline April 30th)

We invite the submission of abstracts for possible inclusion in a volume entitled: Wildfire Ethics: A Handbook. (final title to be determined). We are seeking original, unpublished, high-quality papers from academics, researchers and professionals that examine the myriad theoretical, conceptual, and practical issues  arising from the increasing intersection of wildfires and ethics.

 

As more intense and severe wildfires increase in frequency, their impact upon the world will continue to grow. We aim for this to be a significant resource on wildfire ethics for students, government, NGOs, professionals and more. Thus, it will be important to provide well-written concise articles from experts in relevant fields who can contribute  to shaping our understanding of ethical beliefs and appropriate responses and actions related to wildfire ethics. Topics (see attached) are grouped under eight categories.   

·       Ethical Theory and Responsibilities

·       Prevention, Preparedness & Mitigation

·       Response, Suppression & Operational Priorities

·       Evacuation, Public Health & Community Care

·       Property, Insurance & Economic Justice

·       Culture, Indigenous Knowledge & Rights

·       Biodiversity, Restoration & Rewilding

·       Technology, Data, AI & Media Ethics

 

As we have more than one publisher interested, we would like to request your abstract/s (250 – 400 words each) along with a short CV by April 30th.  

 

Given the nature of the book, full articles are expected to be relatively short, (i.e., 2500-5000 words). However, there may be some justification for one or two longer pieces. Moreover, depending upon the number of successful submissions, we may have two volumes.  If you wish to propose a different topic or a variation upon one already listed, we would be happy to consider it. With all this in mind, we encourage you to consider submitting more than one separate abstract!  Furthermore, submissions with multiple authors are welcome.  

 

The editors of the collection are:

Dr. Jeff McLaughlin, Professor of Philosophy

Dr. Mike Flannigan, BC Innovation Research Chair in Predictive Services, Emergency Management and Fire Science

Dr. Cordy Tymstra, Adjunct Professor and CEO Whitebark and Sage Wildfire Science and Management Inc.

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Caring for Non-Humans: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Care among Animals, the Environment, and AI (deadline April 30th 2026.) 

Conference dates: 12th–14th October 2026

 

What is the meaning of care in more-than-human worlds? How should we care for non-humans? How do non-humans care for each other and how do they care for humans? hese questions stand at the heart of the conference Caring for Non-Humans, hosted by the Center for Environmental and Technology Ethics – Prague (CETE-P).

 

Care has long been an important concept in moral and political philosophy and has shaped debates in animal ethics, environmental thought, and science and technology studies. Yet discussions of care in relation to animals, ecosystems, and artificial intelligence tend to remain fragmented across disciplines. At the same time, growing ecological pressures, changing human–animal relations, and rapid technological development raise new practical and normative questions about how care should be understood and organized in increasingly entangled human, environmental, and technological contexts. This conference aims to provide a forum for addressing these questions in a systematic and interdisciplinary way.

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Concretely, the conference will examine what it means to think and practice care in relation to animals, the environment, and artificial intelligence. We will explore how caring relations are conceptualized and enacted across these domains, and how limited care resources might be allocated among diverse beings and systems.

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Central questions include: What grounds obligations of care? Which moral, scientific, political, or practical considerations matter when needs compete? And how ought care be distributed when the interests of humans, animals, ecosystems, and artificial agents come into tension? At the same time, we encourage reflection on care as a relational practice shaped by interdependence within more-than-human contexts. How do animals, ecological systems, and AI challenge prevailing assumptions about agency and moral standing? Who cares for whom, how, and under what conditions?

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The event will take place in Prague from 12th–14th October 2026, and will bring together scholars and practitioners from philosophy, environmental humanities and animal studies, technology ethics, social sciences, and related fields.

Each of the conference’s three days will center on one of the core themes:

Caring for Animals

• Keynote: Maneesha Deckha (University of Victoria, Canada)

Caring for the Environment

• Keynote: Christine Hentschel (University of Hamburg, Germany)

Caring for AI

• Keynote: Patrick Butlin (Eleos AI, UK)

 

We welcome contributions from a wide range of disciplines and methodological perspectives, including (but not limited to) philosophy, animal ethics, technology ethics, science and technology studies (STS), sustainable AI, environmental humanities, cognitive and social sciences, political theory, and art.

 

We particularly encourage submissions from scholars and practitioners from underrepresented groups and from regions less visible in academic discourse. The event will be held in English, and we aim to create a collegial and inclusive atmosphere where participants from diverse backgrounds can engage in open and constructive discourse.

Submission details
 

Please submit the following materials to caringconferenceprague@gmail.com by April 30th 2026. Notifications will be sent out by early June 2026.

1.      An anonymized abstract of 250–500 words for blind peer review.
Please use the following naming convention to title the file:
Anonymous_Title of your contribution_Caring Conf

2.      A brief biography, affiliation, and contact details (maximum 100 words).
Please use the following naming convention to title the file:
Your Name_Title of your contribution_Caring Conf

Selected papers from the conference, if not previously published, will be considered for inclusion in a special journal issue or edited volume to be published with a reputable academic press.

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In case of questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to caringconferenceprague@gmail.com

Best wishes, Friderike Spang & John Dorsch

https://cetep.eu/news/cfa-caring-for-non-humans/

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CFP: MANCEPT Workshop - Speciesism, Power and Human Prejudice

(Abstracts due 11 May 2026.) Conference date(s): September 2, 2026 - September 4, 2026

Manchester Centre for Political Theory, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, United Kingdom

 

Speciesism has become a central concept in moral, social and political scholarship and movements concerning animals. Broadly understood, speciesism refers to discrimination based on species-membership and is often compared to racism and sexism. Nonetheless, unlike racism and sexism, speciesism is still generally regarded as an acceptable bias by the public and, also amongst philosophers, opinions diverge.

Nowadays, most philosophers reject forms of speciesism which rely merely on membership in the human species. However, anthropocentric approaches which are justified in more indirect terms are widespread. Indeed, these have received renewed defences recently – including accounts which rely on rationality or social categories, among others.

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This raises pressing metaphysical, normative and epistemic concerns about what it means to be a human, whether anthropocentric approaches to moral and political theory can be successfully defended, and a wider question about why philosophers might be compelled to defend them at all. At the same time, there are a variety of related concerns that are more overtly political in character, which theorists of race and gender attend to, but which are under-addressed in the literature on animals. These include issues regarding systems of power, structural injustice, social hierarchy, domination and oppression.

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This panel is therefore broadly concerned with the following question: if speciesism is similar to racism and sexism, what lies behind the former’s largely unchecked dominance in our thinking, conduct and social structures? And how might we better understand its continued socio-political power, within and beyond analytic political and moral philosophy? The panel will consider a range of related sub-questions including, but not limited to, the following:

• How should we define and understand speciesism? What similarities with and differences to racism and sexism does it have?

• Must speciesism be morally wrong? Furthermore, must it constitute an injustice? 

• What are the psychological-philosophical roots of speciesism? And why has speciesism not experienced a similar widespread condemnation to racism and sexism?

• In what ways does speciesism continue to impact political and moral philosophy, contemporary politics and beyond?

• How might speciesism be related to forms of social hierarchy and oppression seen in racism and sexism?

• How do social, institutional and political structures impact speciesism? And how might these need to be reformed?

 

Confirmed speakers: Hannah Battersby (KU Leuven), Catia Faria (Complutense University of Madrid), François Jacquet (Université de Strasbourg), Matthew Wray Perry (University of Sheffield) and Valérie G. Topf (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem).

 

For remaining speaker slots, we invite submissions of abstracts of 250–300 words from scholars within philosophy, political science, law, animal studies, and related disciplines. Abstracts should be suitable for a presentation of roughly 20-30 minutes. Please email your anonymised abstract to valerie.topf@unipv.it by 11th May 2026. Responses to submitted abstracts will be provided by 22nd May 2026.

Please note that registration, travel and accommodation fees must be covered by speakers themselves. Information on current registration fees – and bursaries for accepted abstracts – will be available on the MANCEPT website. This year’s edition of the workshops will take place in-person only.

https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/activities/mancept-workshops-2026/

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CFP: Philosophy of Animal Welfare (Due date for abstracts:  June 1, 2026)

​Center for Law, Economics, and Public Policy, Duke Law School, Durham, United States

​Conference date(s): November 20, 2026 - November 21, 2026

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This conference will focus on the nature, measurement, and moral significance of animal well-being.   We invite philosophical contributions on the following topics: (1) Which animals are welfare-subjects?  (2) What is the appropriate account of well-being for nonhuman animals (be it a hedonic, desire- or preference-based, objective-good, or hybrid theory)? (3) Does the very same account apply to both human and nonhumans (the question of “invariabilism”)?  (4) How should animal welfare be measured, on one or another account of well-being?  (5) How does animal welfare matter morally?  (6)  How should uncertainty about any of these topics be managed?

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Those interested in presenting at the conference should email an abstract not to exceed 300 words to leanna.doty@law.duke.edu.  Please include a current CV.  Due date for abstracts:  June 1, 2026.   Presentations should be based on work-in-progress, rather than already published work.   (Working papers available at the conference date will be circulated to participants, but are not required for a presentation.) The conference will be an in-person conference.  Zoom presentations are possible, but preference will be given to in-person presentations.   The conference sponsors will cover accommodation (up to 3 nights) for those presenting at the conference, and vegan food will be served during the conference.   We have limited budget to cover travel by early career scholars (within five years of their degree).

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Because of space limitations, participation in the conference will be limited to presenters.

https://law.duke.edu/laweconomicsandpublicpolicy/conferences/animalphilosophy26

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2029

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CFP: Ecokritike
Submission deadline: December 31, 2029

Ecokritike is an international, open access, blind and double peer-review journal for academics and researchers who study the fields of Environmental Humanities, Literary Theory and Cultural Criticism. The journal seeks to explore issues beyond the traditional binary and complex relationship of nature-culture, and also examines the changing status of subjectivity, agency, and citizenship, while envisioning matters for sustainable futures in a more-than-human world.

 

Details about the submissions' guidelines can be seen here: https://ecokritike.hcommons.org/submission-guidelines/

 

https://ecokritike.hcommons.org/about/

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