Picturing the Animal

Animals in Visual and Material Culture with Dr. Danielle Raad

We are pleased to share the latest work of PAN Works Fellow and Curator in Virtual Residence, Danielle Raad. In August, Danielle will begin a new position as Curator of the Stanford University Archaeology Collections (SUAC) and Assistant Director of Collections at the Stanford Archaeology Center.

(Image: On Mount Minobu with Mount Fuji in the distance, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. Photo credit: Danielle Raad)

From Danielle:

“After transitioning into this new role, I will continue to build the “Picturing the Animal” project with PAN Works that I started while a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Yale University Art Gallery. “Picturing the Animal” is a digital exhibition of animals in visual and material culture. As I get to know the archaeological and anthropological collection I will be stewarding, I will identify objects to highlight that have intriguing representations of or connections to animals and then conceptualize and build future installations focused on SUAC works.”

Danielle’s most recent project is the third installation of “Picturing the Animal,” about animal lessons in a Medieval bestiary. Her ongoing exhibition encourages close-looking engagements with depictions of animals. The project, employing ethics as lens and art-based pedagogy as method, explores human beliefs, philosophies, and treatment of other animals contextually and throughout history. In visually studying these ideas and relationships across time periods and cultures, we can begin to understand, with nuance and complexity, how humans have conceived of and related to animals — and are challenged to consider how we might better interact with animals in forming a morally inclusive future.

Additionally, Danielle has a book manuscript under review, titled Above the Oxbow. It is what Danielle calls an orogenic ethnography, or a study of place-making and place attachment on mountains, at the site of Mount Holyoke in Western Massachusetts.

We look forward to following along with Danielle’s current work and future projects!

Please visit PAN Works for more about our work on ethics and animal wellbeing.