The domestic cat (Felis catus) is a ubiquitous aspect of many people’s daily lives. Our relationship with cats is complex, fascinating, and multi-faceted. Their role has varied throughout history; from symbols of worship in ancient Egypt to vermin catchers by Anglo- Saxons and from prestigious Viking pets and valuable companions in the Middle Ages. Cats have lived in the homes of many famous people, including Abraham Lincoln, Lenin, Freddie Mercury, and T.S. Eliot. Today, cats feature in poetry, literature, and film. There is a long history of felines appearing in paintings, films and literature, and cat cafés have opened in cities around the world. Cat videos and memes proliferate on social media. People have developed an online cat pidgin (lolspeak) to accompany memes with phrases such as: If it fits, I sits & I can has cheezburger. Many cats, such as Grumpy Cat or Lil Bub have gained immense social media followings.

Cats entertain and distract us and can help therapeutical settings as emotional support animals. Often considered to be members of the family, many experience “peternal” feelings toward them. We try to communicate with cats by interpreting their vocalisations and tail positions, and when they die, they are often mourned in the same way as human family members. We are also endlessly fascinated by the social lives of cats. At the same time, there is a darker side to our association with felines. The stereotype of a cat lady can have a negative connotation, and people have been known to hoard, torture, or kill cats. Others might suffer from ailurophobia (fear of cats) and feel anxiety with the proliferation of cats throughout society.

The purpose of this two-day interdisciplinary conference is to investigate cats in society, social media, literature, film, TV series, music, language, history, and every-day lives. We invite scholars to analyse what cats signify to us, how they are represented in various discourses, how we interact with and talk to our cats, and how cats influence our health and wellbeing.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit your abstract in pdf through EasyChair. The length of abstracts is 300 words (excluding references). Please include a 100-word bio in the same file.

Submission of abstracts by: 1 February 2023. Notification of acceptance: 1 March 2023.

We especially welcome abstracts from graduate students, early career researchers, and those who have been historically marginalised within academia. We are committed to making the conference as accessible as possible to everyone. If you have any access needs for presentations or attendance, please mention these upon the submission of your abstract and we will work with you to fulfil these needs if your paper is accepted.

List of Topics

Topics of relevance are (but not limited to):

• Treatment of cats in different cultures and eras
• Cats on the internet and in popular culture: social media accounts, memes, videos, lolspeak, films, TV series
• Cats in cinema and literature
• Discourse on cat hoarders, rescuers, and fosterers
• Communication and narratives with and about cats
• Cat cafés and other settings where cats are not usually encountered (stores, libraries, etc.)
• Personification and humanisation of cats
• Cats as family members: naming practices, mourning
• Cat-human interaction and cat behaviour
• Famous cats: past & present
• Discourse on cats: obituaries, adoption ads, lost posters, cat charities, cards from ‘cats’
• Cats in the media, advertising, and branding
• Gender and cats (cat ladies and cat daddies)
• Idioms on cats

The following sub-disciplines are relevant: (Popular) Cultural Studies, Comparative Literature, Literary Studies, Archaeology, Media Studies, Anthropology, Ethnography, Sociology, History, Linguistics, Animal Behavioural Science, Gender Studies, Psychology, Veterinary Science, Narratology, Museum and Archive Studies. Interdisciplinary studies are particularly welcome. 

Keynote Speakers

Dr Kathleen Walker-Meikle, Science Museum Group, United Kingdom

Dr Kristyn Vitale, Unity College, New Gloucester, ME, United States

Professor Ben P. Robertson and Ms Katona Dail Weddle, Troy University, Troy, AL, United States

Publication

A selection of the talks will be published in an edited volume after the conference.

Venue

The conference will be held in London and online (hybrid). There will be a virtual exhibition featuring items from Senate House Library's collections.

Organisers and contact

All questions about submissions and the conference should be emailed to the organisers

Riitta Valijarvi (University College London, Uppsala University): r.valijarvi@ucl.ac.uk

Charlotte Doesburg (University College London): charlotte.doesburg.16@ucl.ac.uk