Call for Papers: Animals as Protein Factories. A History of European Livestock across the East-West Divide (1950s – present)

This workshop explores how industrial livestock farming (whether for pigs, cows, chickens, or salmon) transformed animals as well as human diets on both sides of the Iron curtain, reshaped working communities, and caused massive environmental damage by altering landscapes and agricultural infrastructure. It also examines the upheaval in the relationships between humans and non-humans in the production of livestock, while considering aquaculture as an extension of the boundaries of the industrial domestication of living beings.

It traces how post-1945 frameworks shaped farming systems in Western, Southern, and Eastern Europe, including former Soviet states (incl. the Caucasus and Central Asia). It also addresses the collapse of working communities following the fall of the Eastern Bloc, and the subsequent integration of these regions into the global European market and its specific standardization. By analyzing the expansion of the European Union in Southern and Eastern Europe, the legacy of the Eastern Bloc, and recent shifts, like the fast-tracked integration of Ukraine and Moldova following Russia’s war of aggression, the event connects agricultural history and modern geopolitics. Additionally, it explores Europe’s colonial and post-colonial trade relationships—such as for livestock, feed, and technology exports—with non-European economies. The workshop also links these geopolitical frameworks to local environmental factors like climate, soil, topography, and water systems.

The event welcomes broad comparative, transnational or multi-scale approaches, while equally encouraging case studies focused on specific European locations that need not compare directly. This interdisciplinary workshop brings together experts from history, geography, sociology, anthropology, economy, veterinary medicine, biology, agriculture. Interest in audiovisual documentary collections and oral history projects are especially welcomed.

The proposals may focus on the following five themes: 1) Workers and Experts 2) The reshaping of the relationships between humans and non-humans and the life cycle of domesticated animals 3) The circulation of technologies, knowledge and consumption standards across a divided continent 4) Environmental disasters and the spatial distribution of industrial livestock farming 5) Between collapse and expansion – socio-economic and political entanglements in European livestock farming.
You can find an extended version of the call on our website.

Submission of Proposals:

Please complete the application form online by 18 October 2026. The link to the application form is here is on our website. The application should include a 300–500 words abstract and a brief biographical note (100-150 words).

Conference discussions will be based on pre-circulated papers, which should not exceed 10,000 words. A selection of papers is planned for publication.

Organization:

The workshop will take place at the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin from 15 to 16 June 2027 and will be held in English.

Participants’ travel and accommodation will be partly covered. When applying, please indicate whether you have access to alternative sources of funding to cover these costs.

In line with our commitment to reducing the workshop’s environmental impact, air travel will only be eligible for reimbursement if there is no train connection available under 10 hours.

The workshop is designed as an in-person encounter. Online participation will be considered only in exceptional circumstances, in particular for colleagues from overseas or for those based in Ukraine who are unable to leave the country.

For any questions, please feel free to contact us at animals.as.factories@gmail.com

Organizing Committee

Margot Lyautey (Helmut-Schmidt-Universität/Universität der Bundeswehr, Hamburg)
Nathalie Moine (CNRS/Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin)
Anna Safronova (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin)