Virtual Menageries

Praise

“Virtual Menageries in an interesting and rich book that advances academic knowledge on animal mediation and in doing so demonstrates the potential that an interdisciplinary critical appriach holds for looking at contemporary media phenomena, such as cats on the internet”
—International Journal of Communication

“Berland’s book is a wonderful opening to dive deeper in the digitalized human-animal cultures and should find its way to the bookshelves or digital databases of scholars at least from the fields of media studies, critical animal studies, postcolonial studies, or environmental humanities.”
—Trace: Journal for Human-Animal Studies
 
“Virtual Menageries brings to light that we live with a digital consciousness. We are connected with the past because of the responsibility that is in our hands and continue to maintain the menagerie whether we do so willingly or passively. We decide what to do together to maintain the future and the Anthropocene is our last chance at shifting the tides for preservation and sustainability with this knowledge. Virtual Menageries impels us to create a new framework for defining why and newly learning how we can imagine living our lives differently from viewing animal life mediologically. It is a book I recommend to anyone looking to expand from a humanist scope to one more ethically mindful and consciously awake. Liberated from the restrictions of the mere human condition and one contributing in the creation of a global paragon.”
—Leonardo

“Virtual Menageries is a rich and intellectually invigorating book. It synthesizes scholarly seriousness with an unapologetic passion for animals and the planet. Berland effortlessly guides the reader through the thickets of forgotten histories, complex theoretical debates, and urgent ecological demands. She writes with a compelling and inspiring moral voice, making the stakes abundantly clear, and crafting a biopolitics for a world under digital capitalism. After reading this book, it will be difficult ever to look at our media environment in the same way. Students, scholars, and activists alike will find Virtual Menageries enormously rewarding. I recommend it without reservation.”
—Canadian Journal of Communication

“Virtual Menageries is essential reading.”
—PUBLIC Journal: Art Culture Ideas