Researchers in Animal Studies (yes, it’s actually an academic discipline!) agree that we use non-human species as mechanisms for self-definition. We learn about each other and our own “selves,” for example, when we interact with our pets (“Let’s take the dog for a walk.”), stroll through the zoo (“That Egyptian fruit bat really behaves differently from us!”), or attend a Civil War game (“We wear ducks on our shirts, they wear beavers.”). Ironically, then, it is by “thinking with” beasts that we begin to envision ourselves as … human.
I hope you’ll reflect upon these ideas as you leaf through our Winter issue. Specifically, I’d encourage you to think about your fellow students’ art, photography, essays, and poetry as engagements with “the b.east,” those moments of imaginary creativity that make us, the collective Bean East community, who we are becoming.