Acknowledgments

Properly, I should begin by thanking the animals. They, of course, will not recognize this thanks, nor particularly care about this book; nevertheless, without them and their alien agency, this book would not be possible. Surface Encounters has been a labor of love, passion, and joy. There are few moments in one’s life and writing that can provide such glad days. Writing this book has been that for me.

I sincerely hope this work has been brought energy and interest to all involved in making it possible. I would like to thank the artists discussed in this book. I appreciate their time spent in conversation with me and their willingness to risk inclusion in the strange hybrid that is this work. The concepts for this book grew from an initial invitation by Bryndis Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson to write for the catalog of their (a)fly exhibition. I am thankful for their invitation that became the impetus for further writing. I’m grateful to Steve Baker, who from the beginning has been a wise friend with advice on writing and interviewing. I am grateful to the UK Animal Studies Group and in particular Erica Fudge, Jonathan Burt, and Gary Marvin for their labors to establish the field of animal studies and unflagging energy toward this end. Thanks to Rosemarie McGoldrick for organizing the 2008 and 2011 Animal Gaze Symposiums at London Met and to Ross Birell for conversations at the Glasgow School of Art and in Art and Research. Thanks go to Giovanni Aloi and his tireless labors to create a home for animal studies scholarship at Antennae: Journal of Nature in Visual Culture and Rikki Hansen for her radio program. Many thanks also to the North American animal studies scholars whose work and friendship lend much to this book, including Susan McHugh, with whom I’ve had over a decade of conversations about animals; Randy Malamud, my Atlanta animal comrade (along with Pam Longobardi and Lori Marino); Nigel Rothfels; Susan Squire, a generous and beloved colleague; and Ruth Ozeki, Joan Landes, David Frazer, and Alice Kuzniar. For years Kari Weil and Tom Tyler have been companions in thought on a number of projects, and it has been a pleasure to exchange ideas and concepts with them. Thanks to Richard Nash, Hugh Crawford, Narin Hassan, Carol Coletrella, Pamela Gilbert, and the tenacious Eugene Thacker for their careful readings and kind encouragement. Other companions who have sustained my thinking include Paula Young Lee, a companion in thinking meat; Donna Haraway, who stays with the trouble and frictions of human–animal encounters; Andy McMurry, a steadfast thinker of nature; Jane Prophet, my go-to art resource; and Chris Pair, my cohort in an Animality chapbook and failed documentary film. Thanks also to the Culture and Animals Foundation for helping support the film and book efforts.

Thanks to a large number of scholars in my other field of study—British Romanticism—including but not limited to Steve Jones, Neil Freistat, Alan Liu, Marilyn Gaull, Richard Sha, Charles Rzepka, Adam Potkay, Jeff Cox, Thora Brylowe, Talissa Ford, Michael Gamer, David Baulch, and Rob Mitchell. Thanks also to my generous colleagues at Georgia Gwinnett College, where I found a home for a year. They provided encouragement and support for this project.

Over the years of labor a few comrades have particularly sustained my work, and they deserve special mention. A special thanks to David Clark, whose intellectual generosity and insight are unbounded. Thanks to Marcel O’Gorman and his Critical Media Lab, where I could explore the bounds of my work. Thanks to the animal revolutionaries Fredrick Young, Charlie Blake, Claire Molloy, Steve Shakespeare, and Frida Beckman. Thanks to Paul Youngquist, who is an animal revolutionary to the bones and has seen me through many a scrap. Because of you all, I have begun thinking the revolution (my next work), and Surface Encounters is for me its prelude. Thanks to Mark Lussier, my colleague at Arizona State University, whose generosity has helped my scholarship thrive, and to Arizona State and the department of English, which continues to support my work.

Many thanks to Cary Wolfe as a critical voice and sustained supporter of this work through its various iterations from early conference papers many years ago to a published book. Thanks to Doug Armato and all those at the University of Minnesota Press who have made the process of seeing these ideas in print a pleasure.

Finally and most particularly, many thanks to my wife, Theresa, who has been a sure and steady companion throughout my academic career and who has made my work possible.