Critical Animal Studies

Grounds for Incitement: Compassion Inspired Terrorism

by Jon Bonhomie

draft only

Comparing the motivations and effects of the earth and animal liberation movements to the impetus and impact of... more Comparing the motivations and effects of the earth and animal liberation movements to the impetus and impact of definitively violent industries, the ‘terrorist’ label is shown to be a misnomer for activists; rather, it is the deflecting denial-mechanism of inherently violent and destructive entities.

Philosophy: Human-Nonhuman (MS Number: 702)

by Emma Roe

Published in the Philosophy section of the International Encylopeadia of Human Geography. Elsevier 2009

Ethics and the non-human: the matterings of sentience in the meat industry

by Emma Roe

Published as chapter 14 in Taking-Place. Non-representational geographies and philosophies. Edited by Ben Anderson and Paul Harrison. Published in 2010 by Ashgate.

This chapter considers ethics and the non-human in the empirical context of animal production and meat processing. It... more This chapter considers ethics and the non-human in the empirical context of animal production and meat processing. It articulates an ethics of the nonhuman that works with a relational ontology between humans and nonhumans. It then goes on to develop work by Elizabeth Grosz and Karen Barad to discuss sentient materialities at work in the journey an animal body takes from farm to abattoir to becoming meat. This work concludes by arguing for the socio-historical contingencies of knowledge-making practices with sentient bodies in terms of the care now shown to the living animal's body. The modern meat industry 'reads' the feelings felt by the animal in the quality of its meat, after-death.

Commodifying Animal Welfare

by Emma Roe

Co-authored with Henry Buller, University of Exeter, Published in Animal Welfare 2012 Vol 21 (S1) 131-135

As the profile of farm animal welfare rises within food production chains, in response both to consumer demand and... more As the profile of farm animal welfare rises within food production chains, in response both to consumer demand and greater ethical engagement with the lives of animals, animal welfare is increasingly being commodified by various foodchain actors. That is to say that, over and above regulatory or assurance scheme compliance, welfare conditions and criteria are being used as a ‘value-added’ component or distinctive selling point for food products, brands or even particular manufacturers and retailers. We argue in this paper that such a commodification process has major implications both for the way in which farm animal welfare is defined and assessed (with greater emphasis being placed either on those welfare elements that lend themselves to commodification processes or on those that respond to consumer interpretations of what ‘good’ welfare might be at a particular time) and for the ways in which farm animal welfare is articulated and presented to food consumers as a component of product value or quality.

"The Question of the Animal: Why Now?"

by Jodey Castricano

TOPIA, Number 21, Spring 2009: Nature Matters

Towards Ecopedagogy: Weaving a Broad-based Pedagogy of Liberation for Animals, Nature and the Oppressed Peoples of the Earth

by Richard Kahn

From: A. Darder, R. Torres, M. Baltodano (eds), The Critical Pedagogy Reader (2nd. ed.), 2008

Interview with Journal for Critical Animal Studies

by Abbey Willis

Review: Gray Ghosts and Red Rangers: American Hilltop Fox Chasing, by Thad Sitton

by Rob Boddice

Journal of American Studies (2012), 46 : E7

Review: What it Means to be Human: Reflections from 1791 to the Present, by Joanna Bourke

by Rob Boddice

Dr Rob Boddice, review of What it Means to be Human: Reflections from 1791 to the Present, (review no. 1199)
URL: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1199

[2012] Operation Splash Back!: Queering Animal Liberation Through the Contributions of Neo-Insurrectionist Queers

by Michael Loadenthal

TO BE published Spring 2012 in the Journal of Critical Animal Studies Special Edition: Intersecting Queer Theory and Critical Animal Studies.

The neo-insurrectionist network known as Bash Back! has contributed to the queering of the animal liberation discourse... more The neo-insurrectionist network known as Bash Back! has contributed to the queering of the animal liberation discourse through the publication of their 2010 communiqué entitled, “Bash Back!ers in Support of Autonomous Animal Action Call For Trans-Species Solidarity With Tillikum.”  The politic developed by the larger movement of neo-insurrectionist Queers, as exemplified by Bash Back!, has served to disrupt anthropocentric notions of human-liberator, animal-captive that form the centerpiece of the animal liberation discourse.  Through their appropriation of an attack wherein an orca whale killed its trainer at SeaWorld, Bash Back! problematizes not only the normalized domestication of non-human animals for entertainment, but also the discourse used to critique such enslavement.  Through satirical posturing and a liberatory framework, Bash Back! attempts to draw intersectional connection between the systems of domination that enslave both non-human animals and non-heterosexual Queers.  Through a queering of this understanding of liberation, Bash Back! serves to shift the animal liberation discourse away from the human centric “total liberation” framework, and towards an anti-speciest framework proposed herein, termed “total solidarity.”

Genomic natures read through posthumanisms

by Richard Twine

Intersectional disgust? Animals and (eco) feminism

by Richard Twine

SEARCHING FOR THE 'WIN-WIN'? ANIMALS, GENOMICS AND WELFARE

by Richard Twine

From the Mortician's Scalpel to the Butcher's Knife: Towards an Animal Thanatology

by Sarah Bezan

Published in the Journal for Critical Animal Studies 10.1 (2012).

Proceeding from Judith Butler’s evocative suggestion that unsettling the matter of bodies initiates “new ways for... more Proceeding from Judith Butler’s evocative suggestion that unsettling the matter of bodies initiates “new ways for bodies to matter” (Bodies That Matter), this paper investigates the material reality and ethical implications of animal and human death, taking the corpse/carcass as a dramatic site of rupture.  While a number of anthropocentric projects from Linnaeus to Descartes have attempted to consolidate the matter of animal-human relations into a cohesive epistemology that emphasizes the alterity of animality, this study regards Death itself as the ultimate Other, and suggests that it is upon the recognition of our shared mortality that an ethical foundation is formed.

Through an examination of the history of veterinary medicine, the carnivalesque corpse and the practice of public dissection, along with an analysis of artistic productions by Janieta Eyre, Damien Hirst, and Gunther Von Hagen (Body Worlds), I argue that the ontological “unsettling” of the corpse/carcass opens up a productive space in which the plurality of being is understood.

Revealing the ‘Animal-Industrial Complex’ – A Concept & Method for Critical Animal Studies?

by Richard Twine

This paper returns to Barbara Noske‟s (1989) concept of the „animal-industrial complex‟ in order to develop and... more This paper returns to Barbara Noske‟s (1989) concept of the „animal-industrial complex‟ in order to develop and re/present it as a key organizing frame of analysis and research collaboration for the field of critical animal studies (CAS). In presenting various ways of refining its definition and illustrating some intersections between both different forms of animal use and with other „complex‟ concepts, the aim is also to help build CAS capacity in analyzing the role of political economy in shaping human-animal relations. Whilst keeping the permeability of the boundaries of the complex very much to the fore, this paper nevertheless focuses on farmed animals and case studies virtual methods of apprehending „livestock‟ genetics companies as one approach for potentially bringing the animal-industrial complex into a more clearly delineated space of scholarly and public critical scrutiny.

Veganism Contra Speciesism: Beyond Debate

by Matthew Cole

Cole, M. & Morgan, K. (2011) ‘Veganism contra speciesism: Beyond debate’, The Brock Review, 12 (1): 144-163 (Special Issue: Animals in Human Societies)

While the case for veganism may be argued to be beyond debate, ending the exploitation of nonhuman animals remains... more While the case for veganism may be argued to be beyond debate, ending the exploitation of nonhuman animals remains hindered by the ubiquity of speciesism. This paper therefore explores the resilience of the speciesist order in two related contexts: the cultural reproduction of speciesism, including the ridicule of veganism; the applicability of Cohen’s sociological theory of denial to the exploitation of nonhuman animals. In so doing, the paper points towards intersections between speciesism and other forms of oppression, which may in turn help to inform effective vegan activism and prevent veganism from being marginalized as a “single issue."

The discursive representation of nonhuman animals in a culture of denial

by Matthew Cole

Karen Morgan & Matthew Cole (2011) in R. Carter & N. Charles (eds) Humans and Other Animals: Critical Perspectives, London: Palgrave, pp. 112-132

Ci può essere amicizia tra umani e animali? Tommaso d’Aquino e Barbara Smuts

by Stefano Perfetti

in «Teoria», (2009/2), pp. 79-91.

This paper compares the opposite views of Thomas Aquinas and contemporary primatologist Barbara Smuts. According to... more This paper compares the opposite views of Thomas Aquinas and contemporary primatologist Barbara Smuts. According to the former, for human beings it is not appropriate to feel love or friendship toward non-human animals (a detailed analysis of Summa Theologiae IIa-IIae, q. 25, art. 3 and other related passages is provided). According to the latter, relations with non-human animals should be thought in terms of intersubjectivity, thus can include love and friendship.

The Lovable, the Loathsome, the Liminal: Emotionality in Ethnozoological Cognition

by Justin Nolan

Female Singer, Male Speaker: Ventriloquism and the Construction of Poetic Gender in Keats's luscinia megarhynchos

by Nandita Batra