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ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have far too many people to thank to name them all, but let me make a beginning in the hope that those I neglect to mention will nonetheless accept my sincere gratitude. I thank the following places for inviting me to give talks based on early versions of chapters: the “Finding Animals” conference sponsored by the “Visualizing Animals” group at Penn State University, where I tried out “Hybridity”; York College, in York, Pennsylvania, whose Honors Program was a friendly host for early versions of “Biology” and “Inauguration”; the “Performativities Conference” sponsored by the Gender Institute at the London School of Economics, where I also presented a version of “Biology”; the Medical Museum at the University of Copenhagen and the Platform in Life-Science Governance at the University of Vienna, where I presented parts of “Disability”; the “Science Futures” conference of the Swiss STS, where I tried out a portion of “Hybridity”; the Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon, where I gave a portion of “Why Chickens?” as well as an early version of “Fellow-Feeling”; the Amsterdam meeting of the European Conference for the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, where I presented a version of “Auguries”; the conference “Who Owns Knowledge? A Symposium on Science and Technology in the Global Circuit” sponsored by George Mason University, where I tried out “Poultry Science, Chicken Culture”; and the Society for Literature , Science, and the Arts, where I presented “A Manifesto for Agricultural Studies,” the first talk of this nascent research project. Once again I thank members of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts for being such great interlocutors and friends. Earlier versions of several chapters of this book appeared in the following publications: “Chicken Auguries,” Configurations 14 (2006): 69–86; “Liminal Livestock,” Signs 35, no. 2 (Winter 2010): 477–502; “The Sky Is Falling: Risk, Safety, and the Avian Flu” in The Rhetoric of Safety, ed. Lawrence R. Schehr, Special Issue, South Atlantic Quarterly 107, no. 2 (Spring 2008): 387–410; and “Fellow-Feeling,” in Animal Encounters, ed. Tom Tyler and Manuela Rossini, 173–196 (Leiden: Brill, 2009). Sandra Stelts, curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Paterno Library of Penn State University, is top of my list to thank. One day I must have mentioned to her that I was working on a book on chickens. Imagine my surprise and gratitude when I received a package in the mail: a list of all the archival materials relating to chickens held in our superb Special Collections Library. Sandy has continued to keep her eyes open for chicken materials throughout this project, and it is she who first introduced me to Miss Nancy Luce, to Elmer Boyd Smith’s beautiful children’s book, Chicken World, and to many other early twentieth-century gems preaching the joys of the hen. I am grateful to the members of PASA, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, for introducing me not only to the concept of pastured poultry but also to the wonderful Eli Reiff. I thank the following people for the generosity they showed in giving me interviews, valuable information, even guided tours: Johannes Paul and the other partners in Omlet for a wonderful visit and an inspiring story; Professor Claudio Stern of University College, London , for being so generous with his time and information; Paul Farley of Seattle Tilth, the first person I interviewed in the course of this long project, for sharing with me his copy of E. B. White’s “Introduction”; Faith Wilding, for sending me subRosa’s great pamphlet on women and chickens; Jean Pagliuso, for her willingness to share experiences and photographs with me when I called on her after viewing her “Poultry Suite” show at the Marlborough Gallery; Koen Vanmechelen, for his hospitality, and for being a kindred spirit and a mindexpanding artist; Ruth Ozeki, for a writing collaboration that blossomed into a shared love of chickens and Zen meditation; Sandi Morgen, Nancy Tuana, and the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State for the faculty seminar on Social Justice and the Economy that got me thinking about the economics of chickens; Lovalerie King for her helpful comments in that seminar, and for her terrific book on race and theft; Grant Farred, for inviting me to write the first draft of “Epidemic”; my young neighbor Sam for splitting a flock of six Buff Wyandottes we bought at auction at the Belleville Poultry Auction; Patricia Dunn, DVM, of the Animal Diagnostic...

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