This panel invites contributions that explore the ethical, political, and aesthetic dimensions of slaughterhouses and the meat industry as they appear in contemporary literature and visual media. From novels and memoirs to documentaries, graphic novels, and art installations, the industrialized killing of animals has become a site of critical engagement and imaginative resistance. These cultural texts interrogate how violence against animals is normalized, concealed, or contested within systems of capitalist production and consumption, often drawing connections between speciesism, environmental destruction, and other forms of structural violence.

Literary works such as Agustina Bazterrica’s Cadáver exquisito, Lucie Rico’s Le chant du poulet sous vide, Deb Olin Unferth’s Barn 8, and Isabelle Sorente’s 180 jours exemplify how contemporary fiction confronts the ethics and infrastructures of animal agriculture. These texts foreground the lived experiences of non-human animals, destabilize anthropocentric narratives, and render slaughterhouses as ethically charged and symbolically dense spaces.

We welcome papers that examine how literature and visual media make visible the often-hidden realities of meat production, evoke empathy or revulsion, or propose alternative multispecies futures. Topics may include but are not limited to: the aesthetics of animal suffering; intersections of animal ethics with race, gender, and labour; posthumanist or ecofeminist readings; multispecies storytelling; the politics of visibility and witnessing; and narrative strategies that challenge the reader or viewer’s complicity.

Contributions from scholars in literary studies, animal studies, film and media studies, and environmental humanities are encouraged. Interdisciplinary and comparative approaches are especially welcome.

Please upload your proposal (~300 words) for the presentation of your paper (20 minutes and additional 10 minutes for discussion) under the URL provided.