The category of species has remained largely understudied in mainstream gender scholarship. This edition of the Yearbook of Women’s History attempts to show how gender history can be enriched through the study of animals. It highlights that the inclusion of nonhuman animals in historical work has the potential to revolutionize the ways we think about gender history. This volume is expansive in more than one way. First, it is global and transhistorical in its outlook, bringing together perspectives from the Global North and the Global South, and moving from the Middle Ages to the contemporary world. Even more importantly for its purposes, a range of animals appear in the contributions: from the smallest insects to great apes, and from ‘cute’ kittens to riot dogs and lions. The articles collected here reflect the variety of the animal kingdom and of the creative approaches enabled by animal history.

Sandra Swart is professor and chair of the Department of History at Stel¬lenbosch University, South Africa. She received her DPhil in Modern History from Oxford University in 2001, while simultaneously obtaining an MSc in Environmental Change and Management, also at Oxford. She studies the socio-environmental history of southern Africa, focusing on animals. She is an editor of the Brill book series African and Asian Anthropocene: Studies in the Environmental Humanities and co-vice president of the European Society for Environmental History. She has authored/co-authored over 80 articles and chapters.