Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
Thinking Whales
Saturday 11th June 6pm - 9pm (all tickets £5)
A special event hosted by The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society to explore our thinking on cetaceans and their complex relationship with humankind.
Cetaceans are intelligent, social animals that communicate with each other in ways that we are still only just beginning to understand. The relationship between humans and cetaceans is both complex and longstanding, and as our knowledge of their world has grown we have seen our perceptions evolve from seeing cetaceans as a commodity to a cohabiter.
Booking signing from 6pm
The new publication Whales and Dolphins: cognition, culture, conservation and human perceptions will be available for purchase and signing by the editors and two contributors
Guest speakers and a live performance from 7pm to 9pm
Mr Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan or, The Whale, winner of the 2009 Samuel Johnson prize
Hal Whitehead, University Research Professor at Dalhousie University in Canada and the world’s foremost expert on sperm whales
Questions and answers session with Philippa Brakes (WDCS Ethics Programme Leader), Thomas White (Hilton Professor of Business Ethics and Director of the Center for Ethics and Business at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California) Philip Hoare and Hal Whitehead.
The event will conclude with a live performance featuring the composer and pianist Nick Atkinson and violinist Lorna Osbon accompanying a screening of Angela Cockayne’s ‘Rachel’s Orphan’. The performance is in direct reference to the conclusion of the novel Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.