Guest
Helen Cowie
Helen Cowie is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of York and a leading scholar in the cultural history of animals. Her research explores how human–animal relationships have shaped science, empire, fashion, and ethics from the eighteenth century to the modern world. She is the author of Victims of Fashion, a study of animal-based commodities in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, and Animals in World History, which traces shifting attitudes to animals from domestication to animal astronauts. Her earlier work examines zoos, menageries, and natural history in the Spanish Empire. Helen brings rich historical insight to contemporary debates on animal ethics and the roots of modern animal protection movements.