Organizers: Dr. Soheb Niazi, Freie Universität, Berlin and Dr. Vishal Singh Deo, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal- Karnataka

Venue: GHIL

While ecological concerns and contemporary livestock practices have generated criticism in Western societies, the production of animal flesh for human consumption continues to expand persistently (Weis, 2013). This expansion is underpinned by the quest for appropriating nature and its resources into commodities of trade and profit, a characteristic feature of global capitalism. This concept note proposes an international workshop to offer critical analysis of these contemporary concerns regarding livestock practices. This calls for an examination of global networks that tie ecologies to livestock frontiers and the commodities (meat, hides or skins) that are produced and circulated across the Global South. 

The workshop invites contributions from various disciplines (social, economic and labour histories, geography, sociology and anthropology, science and technology and environmental studies) and regions (Asia, Latin America and Africa) within the Global South, with the aim of fostering a collaborative understanding of the expansion and transformation of frontiers and global networks related to the trade of commodities. We seek papers that explore life histories of social actors, the production and negotiation of infrastructural spaces, the impact of technological innovations on skills, labour, and markets, as well as strategies of resistance and subversion. 

Recent scholarship, following Jason Moore’s concept of the “commodity frontiers” (Moore, 2000) has presented an agenda that calls for a rethinking of the relation of change and contestation in peripheral or frontier spaces to processes of globalisation. The Commodity Frontiers Initiative (CFI) calls for studying the history and present of capitalism through the lens of commodity frontiers and commodity regimes, exploring local resilience, contestations and ecological transformations in the countryside (Beckert, Bosma, Schneider, Vanhaute, 2021). The CFI agenda has been further expanded to include “livestock frontiers”, that is both processes and sites in which animals are bred, reared, cured, traded and commodified in novel ways, by -reallocating land, labour, capital, knowledge, and other resources, to enhance productivity and maximise gains (Schneider, & Coghe, 2021). 

To view such a frontier is to revisit colonial and unofficial archives to uncover nodes of resistance and non-compliance that help us understand histories of caste and occupational groups, labor processes, markets, and, more specifically, human-animal interactions. The conference aims to explore these themes as we journey to micro-historical sites, demonstrating how materiality remains in critical dialogue with our understanding of global history.

We invite contributions that engage with the themes outlined below, focusing on various elements of the Livestock Frontier, including but not limited to commodities (meat, hides, skins, leather, cattle, etc.), social actors (butchers, artisans, traders, tanners, merchants), infrastructural spaces (slaughterhouses, ranches, tanneries, leather goods factories, etc.), markets, and patterns of land use:

1. Empire, Imperialism and Colonialism 

2. Transformations and Transitions 

3. Negotiations, Mobility and Subsistence 

4. Practices of Resilience and Resistance

5. Technological Innovations and Skill

6. Variegated Ecologies and Contested Environments 

This workshop, scheduled for July 9-10, 2026, at the German Historical Institute in London, is organized with support from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and the Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies in Delhi. The proceedings will be compiled into an edited volume. We invite contributions that engage with the themes outlined above. The deadline for submitting a 300-word abstract is February 15, 2026. We will inform selected participants by February 20, and they will be required to submit a 6,000-8,000-word paper by June 20, 2026.

The workshop will feature pre-circulated papers, allowing participants to read each other's contributions, fostering engaged discussions and extensive feedback on each paper. Following the workshop, authors will be invited to revise their papers within 3-4 months, incorporating the feedback received, for formal submission to the volume. We hope to provide funding for travel (economy class flight tickets for participants outside the EU and 2nd class train tickets for those within the UK/EU), as well as accommodation for two nights in London for all invited participants.

Proposal Submission Email: niazi@mwsindia.org or vishal.pratap@manipal.edu

Call for Papers (PDF)