2024 Recap: What a year!

It‘s an almost impossible task to summarize the past year in just a few lines, but I feel that I should at least emphasize the challenging but stellar work I‘ve done in the academia:
– presented at three conferences in France (one on Giger and another one on Lovecraft, no less!)
– researched intriguing representations of multimodal figurativity in John Carpenter‘s “In the Mouth of Madness“ and Drew Goddard‘s “The Cabin in the Woods“
– prepared a couple of articles for peer review/publication
– became a member of AFLiCo – French Association for Cognitive Lingustics
– last but not least, acquired new acquaintances among fellow researchers

I‘ve also caught up with professor Zoltán Kövecses, who was a plenary speaker at the conference here in Lyon, and years ago one of my professors during the PhD studies in Croatia. Indulging in passionate conversations about genre movies and dark art with esteemed colleagues such as professors Gilles Menegaldo (who invited me to present at the incredible “H.P. Lovecraft and the Sciences“ conference in Poitiers), and Christopher Robinson has been nothing short of spectacular, and an especially lovely addition to these amazing encounters has been Kathy Lenze, an artist and animal rights activist who was simply like a breath of fresh air and I’m truly hoping our paths cross again soon. With new prospects on the horizons, I‘ve finished the year extremely grateful and inspired, all in the serenity of my home.

One of the other highlights has been traveling with my mom to Paris (hours spent at the Louvre, sightseeing and eating delicious vegan food!), with my husband to Amsterdam (what a lovely weekend getaway that was!), and with my best friend to the Weekend of Hell convention in Germany (see below). Animal rights activism deserves a bunch of special posts, but for now I‘ll say that this year I‘ve also been organizing/coorganizing a lot of events and actions and have come to an even deeper understanding of the speciesist bonds that tie and hide the need for animal liberation, and how to make this need truly apparent in our society. As with each year that passes, I hope for health of my loved ones and myself, serenity and success in all fields. And of course, that we get closer to a vegan world in which all animals are safe! God willing!

VEGAN VIGNETTES: Happy World Vegan Day!

Happy World Vegan Day!
In a just world, this day wouldn’t need to exist (it’s like saying we need an Anti-Women Abuse Day), but one day we will have justice for our fellow Earthlings.
Our Théâtre Luvière recently co-organized a remarkable street performance titled “Say Yes To Veganism”, a wedding action which captured the attention of hundreds of passers-by, both residents and tourists.

In front of cathedral St. Jean, one of Lyon‘s most famous landmarks, the activists celebrated not one, but two couples‘ commitment to ending their exploitation of animals and the transition from violence to peace towards our fellow Earthlings. At the end of the special vows that evoked the basic moral baseline of “do no harm“ and educated the public on veganism, speciesism and the notion of sentience, the activists said their fateful I Dos to lifelong engagement in the animal liberation movement, followed by other traditional wedding rituals such as cutting of the cake (of course, the cake offered a delicious vegan affair of the senses) and throwing the bouquet in a symbolic passing of the baton of veganism to others.

The event also served to further our efforts in putting the society‘s focus on animals and the necessity of respecting their fundamental rights to life, freedom of exploitation, and right to a safe habitat. In countries like France, which lags behind its other EU counterparts when it comes to animal rights and openness to abandoning barbaric acts of speciesism (see foie gras, corrida, etc), this and similar events serve as important steps towards outreaching the general public and pushing away harmful narratives that perpetuate the false notion of human supremacy.

“What do you support?” exclaimed a sign between two visual landmarks at the action: on one hand, a bloody table held a TV showing images from slaughterhouses, while on the other, videos from animals living a peaceful life at sanctuaries were shown to passers-by. The contrast was obvious, the message clear: we need to evolve from performing barbaric acts towards our fellow Earthlings and start respecting their rights and bodily autonomy.

Oceans of gratitude to all these fantastic activists who co-organized this action with me, developed together and made my idea a reality!