Papers by Justyna Wlodarczyk
Polish Journal for American Studies, 2020
The article uses posthumanism and animal studies as a framework for making sense of B.F. Skinner’... more The article uses posthumanism and animal studies as a framework for making sense of B.F. Skinner’s wartime project of training pigeons to guide missiles, with emphasis on explaining the negative response of the donors and the public. The article first considers the hypothesis that the donors’ incredulity was evoked by the species of the animal. During World War II the United States began a massive program for the training of dogs for the military, and the campaign received unanimously positive publicity in the media. Possibly, thus, dogs were perceived as capable of bravery and sacrifice while pigeons were not. However, messenger pigeons had been traditionally incorporated into the war machine and were perceived as heroic. Thus, the analysis moves on to suggest that the perception of the project as ridiculous was related to the type of behavior performed by the animals: a behavior perceived as trained (artificially acquired) and not instinctive. The analysis then shifts into how the distinction between what is perceived as instinctive (natural) and learned (artificial) behavior influences the reception of different performances involving animals. Performances built around “natural” behaviors generate much stronger positive responses, even if the naturalness of these behaviors is a carefully crafted effect.
Fictions: studi sulla narrativita, 2018
The paper takes a close look at the construction of animality and humanity in Cesar Millan's show... more The paper takes a close look at the construction of animality and humanity in Cesar Millan's show The Dog Whisperer and in his training books.
Dog training has undergone significant changes in the past three decades: Don't Shoot the Dog, Karen Pryor’s groundbreaking book from 1984, posited that the advantage of ‘modern training methods’ lies in their not being based on «folk beliefs but on behavioral science». The suitability of a training practice is now established in the laboratory and the scientists unanimously agree on the dangers of the abuse of punishment. In this atmosphere, it would seem that a reality television show hosted by a trainer with no academic credentials – and one that promotes punishment-based methods – should be bound to fail. Yet, César Millán’s The Dog Whisperer remained the most popular television program about dogs from 2004 to 2012. The response from within the animal training and animal behavior communities has been to systematically debunk the myths perpetuated by Millán. However, this approach does not address the roots of Millán’s popularity. The anti-intellectual Millán rose to fame in a climate in which expert knowledge perpetrates every sphere of life. Engaging with other sources on Millán’s show (Weber 2009, Jackson Schebetta 2009, Pręgowski 2015) the article argues that the popularity of Millan can be read as populist cry for ‘common sense’ in an era in which expert knowledge perpetrates every sphere of human (and canine) life. Aided by the format of the makeover show – one which Brenda Weber (2009) has interpreted as the perfect embodiment of the contradictions inherent in cultural narratives of self hood, citizenship and Americanness – Millán sets off on something of a populist anti-establishment crusade that allows him to become an expert precisely through his renunciation of expert knowledge. The position of the ‘folk expert’ makes it possible for Millán to diagnose not only the causes of a dog’s misbehavior but, in a holistic and highly non-scientific approach, the problems of the dog’s owner and even of American society in general. Through the simple fixes he advocates Millán targets not the dogs but the often-female owners. He diagnoses their attachment to the dog as excessive and proposes programs of ‘tough love,’ which result in a restoration of balance; understood as a situation in which the priorities of the owners are set straight: human relationships come first and the relationship with the dog is subordinate.
W atching performances of Poland's top competitive obedience teams at the 2015 qualifications for... more W atching performances of Poland's top competitive obedience teams at the 2015 qualifications for the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (Fci) world championships, it is easy to observe the dogs' joy when performing the exercises. 1 Their tails are almost constantly wagging; their gaze is fixed on their handlers' faces; their responses to the commands are brisk and enthusiastically joyful. The dogs seem to be excited in anticipation of the tasks awaiting them; yet, it is an enthusiasm which is under control, curbed -at least as it appears -by the dogs' own internal motivation, not by leashes or collars. in contrast, the behavior of dogs in an instructional obedience video dated 1991, scripted and directed by communist Poland's most well-known dog trainer, antoni Brzezicha, is strikingly different: as the dogs go through their paces, their heads and tails are invariably down, their movements cautious and slow . 2 The dogs seem to be performing without much joy, grudgingly complying with the handlers' demands. They invariably lag behind their handlers in off-leash exercises and rarely maintain eye contact with their humans, often displaying other signs of discomfort and stress, 62 Chapter 3 such as licking and sniffing the ground -signs evident to the eye of a spectator with even a rudimentary knowledge of canine ethology. The change is glaring and -from the contemporary point of view -it is difficult not to ask: Did the handlers and judges not see that the dogs were not enjoying themselves? why did the judges not demand (and reward) a more joyful performance? why were the trainers unable to elicit such a performance?
rozdział z książki:
Ernest Hemingway. Mistrzowie Literatury Amerykańskiej.
Warszawa: Wydawnictwa ... more rozdział z książki:
Ernest Hemingway. Mistrzowie Literatury Amerykańskiej.
Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2017.
red. Ewa Barbara Łuczak.
The article attempts to present the complexity of relationships between women, capitalism, democr... more The article attempts to present the complexity of relationships between women, capitalism, democracy, and competitive dog training in post-communist Poland. The article documents the correlation between increased involvement of women in competitive canine sports in Poland after 1989, changes in the methods of dog training, and the transformation in politics from totalitarianism to democracy. The correlation suggests that in the early years of democracy in Poland women were more open to shaping their bonds with companion animals and to taking into account the ethical dimension of these relationships. Secondly, the article attempts to argue that the primary motivation for women who participate in dog sports is the desire to create a relationship in which the non-human other shares their desires, primarily the desire for interaction.
This text analyzes US sheepdog culture through the lens of American pastoralism, taking its cue f... more This text analyzes US sheepdog culture through the lens of American pastoralism, taking its cue from the obvious connection between pastoralism and shepherds, but also locating features of the American pastoral- in particular the tension between nature and civilization and ambivalence towards technology - in the development of sheepdog trials in the US, the figure of the American shepherd, the shepherd's attitude to the dog and the training methods used in the process of training a sheepdog.
Books by Justyna Wlodarczyk
Flyer for my forthcoming book: Genealogy of Obedience: Reading North American Dog Training Litera... more Flyer for my forthcoming book: Genealogy of Obedience: Reading North American Dog Training Literature, 1850s-2000s.
Schedule publication date: September 2018 (Brill)
This book is an interdisciplinary collection shedding light on human-animal relationships and int... more This book is an interdisciplinary collection shedding light on human-animal relationships and interactions around the world. The book offers a predominantly empirical look at social and cultural practices related to companion animals in Mexico, Poland, the Netherlands, Japan, China and Taiwan, Vietnam, USA, and Turkey among others. It focuses on how dogs, cats, rabbits and members of other species are perceived and treated in various cultures, highlighting commonalities and differences between them.
* * *
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword – Robert W. Mitchell
Introduction – Michał Piotr Pręgowski
Part I: Conceptualizing our Relationships with Animals
1. Companion Animals and Nuisance Species: Adventures in the Exotic, the Wild, the Illegal and Cross-Cultural Comfort Zones – Sara Waller
2. Anthrozoology in the Netherlands: Connecting Science and Practice – Jannes Eshuis, Marie-José Enders-Slegers, Theo Verheggen
3. Bringing the Beast Back In: The Rehabilitation of Pet Keeping in Soviet Russia – Amy Nelson
Part 2: Taking the Plunge: Adopting a Companion Animal, Traditional and Otherwise
4. Perceptions of Personality: How What We See Influences Our Perceptions about and Behavior toward Companion Animals – Miranda K. Workman
5. “A Cat-sized Hole in my Heart”: Public Perceptions of Companion Animal Adoption in the United States of America – Jennifer Sinski
6. Rabbits Multiplying Like Rabbits: The Rise in the Worldwide Popularity of Rabbits as Pets – Margo DeMello
Part 3: To Eat or to Love?
7. An Appetite for Dogs: Consuming and Loving Them in Vietnam – Anthony L. Podberscek
8. Human-Canine Relationships in China – Scott Hurley
9. Attitudes to Dogs in Taiwan: A Case Study – James Serpell, Yuying Hsu
Part 4: Companion Animals as Political Fallout
10. Semi-Stray Dogs and Graduated Humanness: The Political Encounters of Dogs and Humans in Mexico - Iván Sandoval-Cervantes
11. Polarized Opinions and Shared Goals: Feral Cat Management in an Academic Community in Kentucky – Rosanne Lorden
12. Strong Bonds: Companion Animals in Post-Tsunami Japan – Ross Mouer, Hazuki Kajiwara
Part 5: The Difference Language Makes
13. “I am a dog”: Orhan Pamuk and the Mongrelization of Fiction – Jeanne Dubino
14. Human Names as Companion Animal Names in Poland – Michał Piotr Pręgowski
15. Awareness Can Change a Society: The Link between Animal Abuse and Domestic Violence in the Netherlands – Marie-José Enders-Slegers, Theo Verheggen, Jannes Eshuis
Part 6: Companion Animals and Leisure
16. Chats, Cats and a Cup of Tea. A Sociological Analysis of the Neko Café Phenomenon in Japan - Noriko Niijima
17. Canine Disc: America’s Best Export Product to Poland – Justyna Włodarczyk
What has changed in the last twenty-five years in the relationship of Poles with their dogs? How ... more What has changed in the last twenty-five years in the relationship of Poles with their dogs? How have the free market and capitalism influenced Poland and the human-canine bond there? Are dogs “property,” “friends,” or “members of the family” in post-communist Poland? Free Market Dogs, edited by Michał Piotr Pręgowski and Justyna Włodarczyk, examines the interactions and relationships of dogs and humans in contemporary Polish culture and society, and explores how Poland’s intense exposure to Western—and particularly American—cultural patterns influenced the status of dogs after restoration of democracy in 1989.
This book discusses topics such as the emergence of pet cemeteries, dog memoirs, and presidential dogs in Poland; the growing popularity of dog sports and the feminization of said sports; the philosophical and ideological changes in dog training caused by exposure to state-of-the-art methods from American books and videos; dogs in contemporary Polish art; and the specificity and growing pains of local pet-facilitated therapy.
Free Market Dogs was written by researchers and practitioners whose academic background includes sociology, anthropology, pedagogy, cultural studies, and literary studies, and whose practical experience involves either training dogs or working with them. Based on thorough research and personal expertise, this is a great book for anyone interested in human-canine relationships—and their similarities and differences—around the world.
EDITED BOOKS by Justyna Wlodarczyk
Series: Human-Animal Studies, Volume: 21, 2018
Animals and Their People: Connecting East and West in Cultural Animal Studies, edited by Anna Bar... more Animals and Their People: Connecting East and West in Cultural Animal Studies, edited by Anna Barcz and Dorota Łagodzka, provides a zoocentric insight into philosophical, artistic, and literary problems in Western, Anglo-American, and Central-Eastern European context. The contributors go beyond treating humans as the sole object of research and comprehension, and focus primarily on non-human animals. This book results from intellectual exchange between Polish and foreign researchers and highlights cultural perspective as an exciting language of animal representation. Animals and Their People aims to bridge the gap between Anglo-American and Central European human-animal studies. See the contents and other information: https://brill.com/abstract/title/36120
Teaching Documents by Justyna Wlodarczyk
Syllabus for my 2019 class "Reading Animals: Animals and Animality in American Literature and Cul... more Syllabus for my 2019 class "Reading Animals: Animals and Animality in American Literature and Culture"
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Papers by Justyna Wlodarczyk
Dog training has undergone significant changes in the past three decades: Don't Shoot the Dog, Karen Pryor’s groundbreaking book from 1984, posited that the advantage of ‘modern training methods’ lies in their not being based on «folk beliefs but on behavioral science». The suitability of a training practice is now established in the laboratory and the scientists unanimously agree on the dangers of the abuse of punishment. In this atmosphere, it would seem that a reality television show hosted by a trainer with no academic credentials – and one that promotes punishment-based methods – should be bound to fail. Yet, César Millán’s The Dog Whisperer remained the most popular television program about dogs from 2004 to 2012. The response from within the animal training and animal behavior communities has been to systematically debunk the myths perpetuated by Millán. However, this approach does not address the roots of Millán’s popularity. The anti-intellectual Millán rose to fame in a climate in which expert knowledge perpetrates every sphere of life. Engaging with other sources on Millán’s show (Weber 2009, Jackson Schebetta 2009, Pręgowski 2015) the article argues that the popularity of Millan can be read as populist cry for ‘common sense’ in an era in which expert knowledge perpetrates every sphere of human (and canine) life. Aided by the format of the makeover show – one which Brenda Weber (2009) has interpreted as the perfect embodiment of the contradictions inherent in cultural narratives of self hood, citizenship and Americanness – Millán sets off on something of a populist anti-establishment crusade that allows him to become an expert precisely through his renunciation of expert knowledge. The position of the ‘folk expert’ makes it possible for Millán to diagnose not only the causes of a dog’s misbehavior but, in a holistic and highly non-scientific approach, the problems of the dog’s owner and even of American society in general. Through the simple fixes he advocates Millán targets not the dogs but the often-female owners. He diagnoses their attachment to the dog as excessive and proposes programs of ‘tough love,’ which result in a restoration of balance; understood as a situation in which the priorities of the owners are set straight: human relationships come first and the relationship with the dog is subordinate.
Ernest Hemingway. Mistrzowie Literatury Amerykańskiej.
Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2017.
red. Ewa Barbara Łuczak.
Books by Justyna Wlodarczyk
Schedule publication date: September 2018 (Brill)
* * *
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword – Robert W. Mitchell
Introduction – Michał Piotr Pręgowski
Part I: Conceptualizing our Relationships with Animals
1. Companion Animals and Nuisance Species: Adventures in the Exotic, the Wild, the Illegal and Cross-Cultural Comfort Zones – Sara Waller
2. Anthrozoology in the Netherlands: Connecting Science and Practice – Jannes Eshuis, Marie-José Enders-Slegers, Theo Verheggen
3. Bringing the Beast Back In: The Rehabilitation of Pet Keeping in Soviet Russia – Amy Nelson
Part 2: Taking the Plunge: Adopting a Companion Animal, Traditional and Otherwise
4. Perceptions of Personality: How What We See Influences Our Perceptions about and Behavior toward Companion Animals – Miranda K. Workman
5. “A Cat-sized Hole in my Heart”: Public Perceptions of Companion Animal Adoption in the United States of America – Jennifer Sinski
6. Rabbits Multiplying Like Rabbits: The Rise in the Worldwide Popularity of Rabbits as Pets – Margo DeMello
Part 3: To Eat or to Love?
7. An Appetite for Dogs: Consuming and Loving Them in Vietnam – Anthony L. Podberscek
8. Human-Canine Relationships in China – Scott Hurley
9. Attitudes to Dogs in Taiwan: A Case Study – James Serpell, Yuying Hsu
Part 4: Companion Animals as Political Fallout
10. Semi-Stray Dogs and Graduated Humanness: The Political Encounters of Dogs and Humans in Mexico - Iván Sandoval-Cervantes
11. Polarized Opinions and Shared Goals: Feral Cat Management in an Academic Community in Kentucky – Rosanne Lorden
12. Strong Bonds: Companion Animals in Post-Tsunami Japan – Ross Mouer, Hazuki Kajiwara
Part 5: The Difference Language Makes
13. “I am a dog”: Orhan Pamuk and the Mongrelization of Fiction – Jeanne Dubino
14. Human Names as Companion Animal Names in Poland – Michał Piotr Pręgowski
15. Awareness Can Change a Society: The Link between Animal Abuse and Domestic Violence in the Netherlands – Marie-José Enders-Slegers, Theo Verheggen, Jannes Eshuis
Part 6: Companion Animals and Leisure
16. Chats, Cats and a Cup of Tea. A Sociological Analysis of the Neko Café Phenomenon in Japan - Noriko Niijima
17. Canine Disc: America’s Best Export Product to Poland – Justyna Włodarczyk
This book discusses topics such as the emergence of pet cemeteries, dog memoirs, and presidential dogs in Poland; the growing popularity of dog sports and the feminization of said sports; the philosophical and ideological changes in dog training caused by exposure to state-of-the-art methods from American books and videos; dogs in contemporary Polish art; and the specificity and growing pains of local pet-facilitated therapy.
Free Market Dogs was written by researchers and practitioners whose academic background includes sociology, anthropology, pedagogy, cultural studies, and literary studies, and whose practical experience involves either training dogs or working with them. Based on thorough research and personal expertise, this is a great book for anyone interested in human-canine relationships—and their similarities and differences—around the world.
EDITED BOOKS by Justyna Wlodarczyk
Teaching Documents by Justyna Wlodarczyk
Dog training has undergone significant changes in the past three decades: Don't Shoot the Dog, Karen Pryor’s groundbreaking book from 1984, posited that the advantage of ‘modern training methods’ lies in their not being based on «folk beliefs but on behavioral science». The suitability of a training practice is now established in the laboratory and the scientists unanimously agree on the dangers of the abuse of punishment. In this atmosphere, it would seem that a reality television show hosted by a trainer with no academic credentials – and one that promotes punishment-based methods – should be bound to fail. Yet, César Millán’s The Dog Whisperer remained the most popular television program about dogs from 2004 to 2012. The response from within the animal training and animal behavior communities has been to systematically debunk the myths perpetuated by Millán. However, this approach does not address the roots of Millán’s popularity. The anti-intellectual Millán rose to fame in a climate in which expert knowledge perpetrates every sphere of life. Engaging with other sources on Millán’s show (Weber 2009, Jackson Schebetta 2009, Pręgowski 2015) the article argues that the popularity of Millan can be read as populist cry for ‘common sense’ in an era in which expert knowledge perpetrates every sphere of human (and canine) life. Aided by the format of the makeover show – one which Brenda Weber (2009) has interpreted as the perfect embodiment of the contradictions inherent in cultural narratives of self hood, citizenship and Americanness – Millán sets off on something of a populist anti-establishment crusade that allows him to become an expert precisely through his renunciation of expert knowledge. The position of the ‘folk expert’ makes it possible for Millán to diagnose not only the causes of a dog’s misbehavior but, in a holistic and highly non-scientific approach, the problems of the dog’s owner and even of American society in general. Through the simple fixes he advocates Millán targets not the dogs but the often-female owners. He diagnoses their attachment to the dog as excessive and proposes programs of ‘tough love,’ which result in a restoration of balance; understood as a situation in which the priorities of the owners are set straight: human relationships come first and the relationship with the dog is subordinate.
Ernest Hemingway. Mistrzowie Literatury Amerykańskiej.
Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2017.
red. Ewa Barbara Łuczak.
Schedule publication date: September 2018 (Brill)
* * *
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword – Robert W. Mitchell
Introduction – Michał Piotr Pręgowski
Part I: Conceptualizing our Relationships with Animals
1. Companion Animals and Nuisance Species: Adventures in the Exotic, the Wild, the Illegal and Cross-Cultural Comfort Zones – Sara Waller
2. Anthrozoology in the Netherlands: Connecting Science and Practice – Jannes Eshuis, Marie-José Enders-Slegers, Theo Verheggen
3. Bringing the Beast Back In: The Rehabilitation of Pet Keeping in Soviet Russia – Amy Nelson
Part 2: Taking the Plunge: Adopting a Companion Animal, Traditional and Otherwise
4. Perceptions of Personality: How What We See Influences Our Perceptions about and Behavior toward Companion Animals – Miranda K. Workman
5. “A Cat-sized Hole in my Heart”: Public Perceptions of Companion Animal Adoption in the United States of America – Jennifer Sinski
6. Rabbits Multiplying Like Rabbits: The Rise in the Worldwide Popularity of Rabbits as Pets – Margo DeMello
Part 3: To Eat or to Love?
7. An Appetite for Dogs: Consuming and Loving Them in Vietnam – Anthony L. Podberscek
8. Human-Canine Relationships in China – Scott Hurley
9. Attitudes to Dogs in Taiwan: A Case Study – James Serpell, Yuying Hsu
Part 4: Companion Animals as Political Fallout
10. Semi-Stray Dogs and Graduated Humanness: The Political Encounters of Dogs and Humans in Mexico - Iván Sandoval-Cervantes
11. Polarized Opinions and Shared Goals: Feral Cat Management in an Academic Community in Kentucky – Rosanne Lorden
12. Strong Bonds: Companion Animals in Post-Tsunami Japan – Ross Mouer, Hazuki Kajiwara
Part 5: The Difference Language Makes
13. “I am a dog”: Orhan Pamuk and the Mongrelization of Fiction – Jeanne Dubino
14. Human Names as Companion Animal Names in Poland – Michał Piotr Pręgowski
15. Awareness Can Change a Society: The Link between Animal Abuse and Domestic Violence in the Netherlands – Marie-José Enders-Slegers, Theo Verheggen, Jannes Eshuis
Part 6: Companion Animals and Leisure
16. Chats, Cats and a Cup of Tea. A Sociological Analysis of the Neko Café Phenomenon in Japan - Noriko Niijima
17. Canine Disc: America’s Best Export Product to Poland – Justyna Włodarczyk
This book discusses topics such as the emergence of pet cemeteries, dog memoirs, and presidential dogs in Poland; the growing popularity of dog sports and the feminization of said sports; the philosophical and ideological changes in dog training caused by exposure to state-of-the-art methods from American books and videos; dogs in contemporary Polish art; and the specificity and growing pains of local pet-facilitated therapy.
Free Market Dogs was written by researchers and practitioners whose academic background includes sociology, anthropology, pedagogy, cultural studies, and literary studies, and whose practical experience involves either training dogs or working with them. Based on thorough research and personal expertise, this is a great book for anyone interested in human-canine relationships—and their similarities and differences—around the world.