The Human Sciences Seminar returns in 2015-16 thanks to the generosity of the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

On 3rd December, Paolo Palladino from the University of Lancaster will give a lecture entitled ‘On transhumance: Making sense of sheep, shepherds and their movement across the landscape’.

In this paper, transhumance is not the recovered and remembered trace of a long lost past, but the site of critical reflection on the relationship between humans, non-human animals and movement. The endeavour is part of a broader project on sheep, wool and landscape, which aims ultimately to explore how best to combine philosophical reflection and care for the historical constitution of the present moment. On this occasion, the seasonal movement of sheep and shepherds across the landscape serves to open a critical inquiry into Deleuzian notions of ‘becoming animal’ and ‘nomadic thought’. As such, the paper is not a report of any findings, but is intended instead as an exploration of the questions that transhumance would seem to pose and that perhaps deserve further consideration.