Do fishes think? Jonathan Balcombe dives into the subject during talk

what-a-fish-knowsRenowned ethologist Jonathan Balcombe will be a guest at York University on Sept. 27 when he presents a talk on his new book What a Fish Knows (Scientific American/Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2016).

Co-organized with Zoocheck, Balcombe’s talk will take place at 4pm in the Founders Senior Common Room, 205 Founders College.

Balcombe is the director of animal sentience for the Humane Society Institute for Science & Policy. He is also author of several books, including Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good (2006), and more than 50 scientific papers studying animal behaviour and animal protection.

What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of our Underwater Cousins explores questions about whether fishes think, and if they have memories. It was published in June 2016 and is already a New York Times bestseller. Copies of the book will be available at the talk.

This lecture is the first public event hosted by critical animal studies scholars at York University. It is sponsored by the Department of Humanities, the Digital Animalities Project and the Faculty of Environmental Studies.