XIIe ZOOMATHIA Conference
2026, October 23-24
Athens, Greece, Kostis Palamas Building

Call for Papers. Interdisciplinary Conference in Animal Studies

This conference aims, through a resolutely interdisciplinary approach, to explore the relations between animals and their environments. Bringing together scholars in ancient and medieval philology, the history of zoological knowledge, and contemporary ecological sciences, the event seeks to examine how living beings interact with their surroundings—and how these interactions have been conceptualised, described, and modelled from Antiquity to the present.

Two main thematic axes will structure the discussion:

1. Animals and Environments: Ancient and Modern Ecologies

This axis invites contributions on how animals are embedded within complex systems of relations—habitats, ecological niches, environment-dependent behaviours, cooperation, climatic constraints, migration, and adaptation—whether in ancient and medieval texts or in modern ecological theory. Ancient zoological traditions (Aristotle, Aelian, Pliny, the Physiologus, medieval encyclopaedias and bestiaries) offer a rich repository of observations, explanatory models, and conceptual frameworks that allow us to question both continuities and ruptures between pre-modern forms of knowledge and contemporary ecological thought.

2. Animal Ecological Awareness: Perception, Umwelt, and Narrative Models

The second axis focuses on how animals perceive their environment, and how these perceptual worlds are represented in ancient and medieval sources: smell, vision, hearing, spatial orientation, and ecological cognition. Literary, philosophical, and natural-historical descriptions will be examined in dialogue with current research in ethology, behavioural sciences, and animal cognition. Particular attention will be paid to how ancient societies conceptualised or imagined animals’ ecological sensitivity, and to how these representations may inform present-day debates on animal consciousness, environmental vulnerability, and biodiversity.

Scientific Objectives

The conference seeks to interrogate the epistemological continuities among ancient naturalistic observation, medieval representations of living beings, and modern ecological approaches. It aims to highlight the contribution of ancient traditions to contemporary ecological thinking, while offering biologists and ecologists a historically informed and critical perspective on models of animal–environment interaction. In the current context of biodiversity collapse, this meetingintends to reaffirm the value of dialogue between the humanities and the life sciences in rethinking the place of animals as sentient, acting, and situated beings.

Submission of Proposals

We welcome contributions from all disciplines (philology, history, literature, philosophy, anthropology, zoology, ethology, ecology, environmental studies). Talks will be delivered in English, French or Modern Greek. Note that a written version of the papers in (or translated into) English will be submitted promptly to an editor.

Conference papers will be 25 minutes, with 10 minutes for discussion. Interested scholars from all academic levels are invited to send an abstract of no more than 500 words to cepam.zoomathia.in.athens@univ-cotedazur.fr by May 15, 2025. Participants will be notified in June 15, 2025. Accepted papers will be presented on an equal footing with invited speakers.

Accommodation and meal expenses will be covered by the organization.

Proposals may address topics including, but not limited to:

• ancient descriptions of environment-adapted behaviours

• conceptualisations of ecological niches in ancient and medieval sources

• practices of naturalistic observation in pre-modern societies

• literary representations of animal sensory and perceptual worlds

• comparisons between ancient explanatory models and contemporary ecological theory

• animal ecological awareness (perception, attention, orientation, environmental cognition)

• current issues in biodiversity viewed through the lens of ancient traditions

Organization committee

Stavros LAZARIS (CNRS / ICP, Paris), Sophia XENOPHONTOS (Academy of Athens), Arnaud ZUCKER (Université Côte-d’Azur, Nice)

Scientific committee

Ilias ANAGNOSTAKIS (National Hellenic Research Foundation), Stathis ARAPOSTATHIS (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Petros BOURAS-VALLIANATOS (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Isabelle DRAELANTS (IRHT, CNRS), Cristiana FRANCO (Università per stranieri, Siena), Oliver HELLMANN (Trier Universität), Stavros LAZARIS (CNRS / ICP, Paris), Pascaline LE GOUAR (Université de Rennes), Nelly MÉNARD (Université de Rennes), Cédric SUEUR (Université de Strasbourg), Sophia XENOPHONTOS (Academy of Athens), Arnaud ZUCKER (Université Côte-d’Azur, Nice)