Conferences
International conferences bring together professionals, community members, alumni, faculty, students, and leading experts to rethink human relationships with other animals and to highlight the latest research, best practices, and future directions of human-animal-environment interactions.
Signature Conferences
Institute for Human-Animal Connection Conference
IHAC conferences focus on the complex relationships between humans, other species, and the environment. Highlighting human-animal-environment interaction research, programs, and interventions, these practitioner conferences bring together content experts to share ideas and knowledge, all while elevating the interconnectedness of our world.
HAI Green Chimneys Conference
IHAC is proud to partner with Green Chimneys for their bi-annual conference that focuses on best practices and the exchanging of ideas within human-animal-environment interactions. This two-day, hands on conference located at the Green Chimneys campus in New York brings together human-animal-environment interaction professionals from around the world to discuss programming, research, and future directions in the field.
Upcoming Conferences
Save the Date: hai2025
Save the date! IHAC will be partnering with Green Chimneys for the hai2025 conference, dates April 25 to April 26, 2025 in Brewster, New York.
There will be phenomenal speakers, poster presentations, opportunity for hands-on learning with animals, and plenty of time for networking and collaboration. Green Chimneys' farm setting is a "living classroom" and an excellent place to learn best practices and exchange ideas with other professionals in the human-animal-environment interactions field!
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Past IHAC Conferences
The Animals on the Mind conference series for practitioners explored the human-animal relationship from a variety of perspectives, settings, and experiences.
2018 - Extraordinary Connections: Illuminating Neurodiversity in Human-Animal Relationships
The goal of this conference was to increase awareness, compassion, and understanding of people on the autism spectrum through the strengths-based perspective of neurodiversity.
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2016 - Social Neurobiology of Human-Animal Interactions in Research and Practice
This conference centered on the applications and research of human-animal interactions, specific to social neuroscience in areas such as: autism spectrum disorder, mental health treatment, and variants of exposure to animals across the lifespan.
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2014 - Transforming Trauma: Research Developments and Methods for Trauma-Informed Animal-Assisted Interventions
Our inaugural practitioner's conference focused on the applications and research of animal-assisted interventions addressing the critical issues of: child maltreatment, post-traumatic stress disorder, and disaster/crisis intervention.