What the Fishes Taught Us:
Becca Franks (NYU) examines dignity and the non-human world
On Thursday, January 19, the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum will host Dr. Becca Franks, a leading scholar in animal welfare studies, for an evening lecture about the concept of dignity and its role in thinking through our relationships with the non-human world.
An expert in aquatic animal welfare, Dr. Franks’s lecture will draw heavily from her years of research at the intersection of environmental and animal protection. In her scholarship, Franks specializes in understanding the complex dynamics of animal cognition and its bearing on the structure of human-animal relationships. Specifically, her work explores two core questions: How are animals affected by the Anthropocene? And how can our scientific studies of animal life contribute strategies to our conservation efforts?
“What the Fishes Taught Us” is the latest event in the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum’s Climate Change and Ecology Lecture Series. As one of the first museums devoted to ichthyology in the world, the Vanderbilt Museum is committed to presenting educational opportunities that inspire us all to become more conscientious stewards of our planet.
The lecture will take place at 7:00pm in the Vanderbilt Museum’s Charles and Helen Reichert Planetarium. Tickets are available online at the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum’s website.
Becca Franks is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at New York University (NYU). She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University and a B.A. in Anthropology from New York University.
Prior to joining NYU, Franks was a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia where she was awarded the Killam Research Prize. She is an Associate Editor for the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.