Book lauch: Cormorant - A Cultural History of Greed and Prejudice

Gordon McMullan wrote Cormorant: A Cultural History of Greed and Prejudice during his time as an AIAS-Cofund Fellow in 2022-23.

Published by Cambridge University Press, Cormorant is both the gripping story of a ‘greedy’ bird hated across the world, the object of global conflict between the fishing industry and environmental science, and a revealing exploration of racism, xenophobia and capitalism. If we are fully to recognise the ways in which prejudicial attitudes towards both animals and our fellow human beings overlap and sustain each other, then we need to look to the past to understand how those attitudes took hold.

Join us for an engaging and inspiring afternoon at AIAS as we celebrate the launch of Gordon McMullan’s new book.

Register here

Refreshments and snacks will be served.

‘One of the most original, stylish and memorable works of cultural criticism I have read in a long time: beautifully written, packed with startling research and full of jaw-dropping surprises’ (Sir Jonathan Bate).

‘A fascinating, wide-ranging, spiky, cultural and biological biography of "pretty much nobody's favourite bird"’ (Tim Birkhead).

‘McMullan has linked the exploitation and domination of avian nature effectively to the forms of conflict and subordination evident among humankind. Prejudices warranted by race and species combine in the unsettling, blackened figure of an evil, guano-producing emissary from the dark side. This exhilarating cultural ecology presents human and animal in truly complex relation’ (Paul Gilroy).