Colloquium: The Honor of Naming a New Species: Emotional Communities of Naturalists in the Early Twentieth Century

The Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, led by Prof. Ute Frevert, cordially invites all interested to attend its winter semester 2019/2020 colloquium:

Takashi Ito, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

The Honor of Naming a New Species: Emotional Communities of Naturalists in the Early twentieth Century

The early twentieth century was the age of heroic naturalists. They conducted expeditions to the unexplored regions of the world and collected a vast array of zoological specimens. The prize was to find new species. The names of successful naturalists were to be credited in history, but in the worst cases the explorers would lose their lives in their undertakings. Their letters, written in the collecting field, were emotionally charged with a desire for reputation, an enmity towards rival naturalists, and a fear of death aroused by a distant sound of gunfire. The sense of honor was at the heart of these naturalists’ actions, connections and emotional configurations.

Takashi Ito is associate professor at the Institute of Global Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He is the author of London Zoo and the Victorians, 1828–1859, Royal Historical Society Studies in History New Series (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2014), whose paperback edition is also due to come out in February 2020. His current research interest lies in the comparative history of human-animal relationships in Britain and Japan. His recent article on “‘Flying Penguins in Japan’s Northernmost Zoo’” is collected in Tracy McDonald and Daniel Vandersommers, eds., Zoo Studies: A New Humanities (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019).