Editorial board
CONFERENCES 9th Annual Conference for Critical Animal Studies, SUNY Cortland, New York, April 10th 2010
Download 1 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- 1st Annual European Conference for Critical Animal Studies, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, April 23rd 2010
CONFERENCES9th Annual Conference for Critical Animal Studies, SUNY Cortland, New York, April 10th 2010.Sarat CollingThe Institute for Critical Animal Studies recently celebrated its 9th Annual North American Conference at SUNY Cortland, New York. Located 30 minutes south of Syracuse and north of Ithaca, the beautiful setting and excellent campus facilities were appreciated by the 220 participants from around the world. This year’s conference, “Abolition, Liberation, and the Intersections of Social Justice,” opened on April 10th with a welcoming address from ICAS co-founder and SUNY Cortland teacher Anthony Nocella. He discussed how Critical Animal Studies is a rapidly growing field of study which breaks down the socially constructed human-animal binary and studies all species in order to achieve total liberation and freedom. With fifty presenters speaking on topics such as coalitional politics, animals and disability, prison abolition, eco-sustainability, LGBTQ issues, feminism, food politics, the AETA, anarchist perspectives and more, the panels and workshops provided for a full and invigorating day of learning, inspiration and community. The sessions were broken up by a delicious lunch of Greek food and the Critical Animal Studies awards ceremony which acknowledged a number of scholars in the field (see the ICAS website for a list of award winners). During the awards ceremony we heard from William Skipper, Chair of SUNY Cortland’s Sociology department, who welcomed Critical Animal Studies into the school and emphasized the importance of studying human’s relationship with other animals. Throughout the day attendees browsed the booths of various organizations including The Vegan Police, Mercy for Animals, Lantern Books, peta2, Canadian Animal Liberation Movement, and Transformative Studies Institute, for educational information, books, t-shirts and other animal-friendly goodies. Norm Phelps, an animal rights activist and author of 25 years, Andrew Jones, a Professor of Sociology researching the cultural and structural roots of the ecological crisis, and Lauren Corman, who teaches Critical Animal Studies at Brock University gave the plenary talk. Their thought provoking presentations were followed by an interesting discussion on eco-feminism and to what degree animal advocates should build coalitions with other social justice movements. It was an honor to hear from them, as well as all of the other fabulous presenters who work toward compassion for all. Finally, the day ended with a screening of the newly released documentary film Skin Trade. A tour of the Watkins Glen Farm Sanctuary on April 11th served as an appropriate closing event for the ICAS conference. During the tour over 50 participants had the opportunity to connect with nonhuman animals who have been rescued from various situations of cruelty, such as factory farming. As the ICAS activists and academics work for animal liberation, it was a pleasure to spend the afternoon supporting an organization dedicated to compassionate living through rescues, education and advocacy. The Critical Animal Studies conference is run entirely by volunteers. While previously free, this year ICAS charged a fifteen dollar registration fee to cover costs. We anticipated 100-150 attendees and were pleasantly surprised to find out that more than 220 people showed up for the conference! However, due to this year’s popularity we sincerely apologize if anyone did not receive everything on the lunch menu, and appreciate your understanding. To remedy this, next year we will provide an online registration option so that everyone may register conveniently prior to the conference. ICAS would like to express much appreciation to those who made the event happen. This includes the SUNY Cortland sponsors: Women’s Studies Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies (CGIS), Anarchist Studies Initiative, Institute for Disability Studies, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology Center for Ethics, Peace, and Social Justice (CEPS), Criminology Club, Social Advocacy and Systems Change Journal, and Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies; as well as the Non-SUNY Cortland sponsors: Central New York Peace Studies Consortium, Center for Green Criminology and Security Studies, Transformative Studies Institute, Political Media Review, Sacco and Vanzetti Foundation and Save the Kids. We would like to thank the Conference Committee: Judy K. C. Bentley, Andrew Fitz-Gibbon, Elizabeth Green, Ashley Mosgrove, Caroline Kaltefleiter, Mechthild E. Nagel, Sarat Colling and Anthony J. Nocella, II. Thanks also to the facilitators: Jackie Riehle, Doreen Nieves, Ashley Mosgrove, Anastasia Yarbrough, Brittani Mannix, Ronald Pleban, Elizabeth Green, Jamie Alvito and Timothy Rodriguez. Finally, we greatly appreciate all of the dedicated presenters, booth participants, amazing volunteers, and everyone who attended and encouraged others to join in. Next year will be the 10th Annual Conference of Critical Animal Studies. We hope you can make it! 1st Annual European Conference for Critical Animal Studies, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, April 23rd 2010Jessica Groling1The first annual conference for Critical Animal Studies in Europe was held on Friday 23rd April 2010 at the University of Liverpool. The day was a resounding success with 48 activists and academics coming together to present papers and discuss issues within the broad theme of “Anima(s) Matter(s): the Future of Critical Animal Studies”. Unfortunately, three overseas delegates were unable to attend because their flights were grounded as a result of the recent eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. Alastair Currie, policy adviser for PETA UK, began proceedings with a presentation on the challenges faced by contemporary AR advocates, giving a summary of policy milestones and changing attitudes to animal issues in Britain. He used key performance indicators to make an argument for evidence-based advocacy and more research into the reasons why some people choose to become vegans while others don’t and on which tactics are most effective in generating adherence to AR principles. Dr. Dan Lyons of Uncaged presented his doctoral research into the evolution of British animal research policy, tracing its relation to particular animal ‘use’, ‘welfare’, and ‘AR’ ideologies. By way of a case study on xenotransplantation experiments on primates using pig organs, Dr. Lyons suggested that despite legislative changes, and particularly the 1986 Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, the discourse very much remains one of animal ‘use’ as opposed to ‘welfare’. He concluded that the animal research lobby enjoys a large structural advantage and that the policy community only reacts symbolically to demands for greater attention to welfare issues. Dr. Lyons suggested that animal advocates ought to challenge and expose secrecy surrounding animal experiments to prevent the regulatory system from evading scrutiny. In the presentation that followed, delegates heard from Professor Robert Garner of the Politics Department at the University of Leicester, who sought to explore the relationship between cognitive capacities and moral entitlements. Prof. Garner noted that the AR movement is divided along ethical lines in terms of adherence to the ‘use position’, whereby the use of animals is categorically considered wrong irrespective of how they are treated whilst being used, or the ‘sentiency position’, which holds that the infliction of suffering is the moral wrong. He holds that the use position is not necessary and requires us to accept an ethical position that is difficult to sustain with regards to the distinction between human and non-human animals’ autonomous capacities and their respective intrinsic versus instrumental interests in liberty. Prof. Garner argued that even if we accept these distinctions, and this leads us to adopt the sentiency position, many of the goals of those who hold the use position can still be met by an application of the sentiency position. He concluded that perhaps a goal of reducing suffering by engaging with public policy opportunities may be more attainable and effective than campaigning for veganism. The fourth presentation was given by Dr. Simon James, Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at the University of Durham. Dr. James suggested that ethology (the scientific study of animal behaviour) is as much a social science as it is a natural science by challenging the ‘objectivist model’ in ethology and juxtaposing it with a ‘hermeneutic model’. He argued that the objectivist model is an empirical impossibility because it challenges us to describe animal behaviour as a mere series of perceived movements and from there to attribute meaning to behaviour. Dr. James proposed that ethology is not about inferring meaning on naked objects, but that animals present themselves to us in meaningful ways and that the objectivist model forces us to purge animals of all their meaning. Dr. Anat Pick, Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in Film at the University of East London, presented an account of ‘creaturely ethics’ that seeks to transcend the liberal-humanist discourse of animal ‘rights’, which requires for certain criteria be met for animals to be given moral consideration. Drawing on the philosophical-theological work of Simone Weil, Dr. Pick proposed a discourse that transcends rights reasoning and recognises the shared vulnerability and finitude of all creaturely life as the foundation of our ethical obligations to other animals. After lunch, Jasmijn de Boo from Animals Count, a political party that is contesting the 2010 British general elections and aims to positively influence the outcome, presented an interesting analysis of mainstream British political parties’ policies on animals. Animals Count intends to raise the profile of animal issues in politics and hold other political parties to account. Jasmijn de Boo explained how the Green Party for instance has already agreed to make animal issues more prominent within their policies and campaigns as a result of discussions with Animals Count. The presentation that followed looked at feminism, ethical veganism and animal rights. Dr. Karen Morgan is a researcher at Cardiff University, a co-founder of vegatopia.org and school speaker for the Vegan Society. She considered the linked oppressions of women and other animals and suggested that activists advocating for ethical veganism and animal rights can learn from the success of the feminist movement in taking their issues into the mainstream and from the close and productive relationships between feminists academics and activists. Professor Celia Deane-Drummond, Professor of Theology and the Biosciences at the University of Chester, gave a talk on “Taking leave of the animal: transhumanity as transanimality”, and argued that transhumanity as it manifests itself in various forms of biotechnology for instance is a form of secularised eschatology that leads to a weak understanding of human beings and is ultimately dehumanizing. She suggested that by trying to create ‘human perfection’, biotechnology aims to transcend animality and further distances us from other animals. The penultimate paper of the day was presented by Dr. Richard Twine, Lecturer in Sociology at Lancaster University and President of ICAS. His paper sought to encourage a dialogue on the scope of Critical Animal Studies (CAS). He drew on Steve Best’s critique of ‘mainstream’ animal studies as unhelpfully abstract and suggested that CAS should seek to respond to interlinked crises and struggles, break out of the academy and build alliances with social movements, critique “theory for theory’s sake”, and destabilise human/animal dualisms. The final presentation was given by Dr. Richard White, Senior Lecturer in Geography at Sheffield Hallam University, and Editor-in-Chief of JCAS. His presentation brought together many of the day’s themes and drew directly on Dr. White’s research and experience of the activist-academic divide in the city of Sheffield. He explained what possibilities there were for critical engagement and made suggestions for creating more productive spaces that would encourage mutually beneficial exchanges to occur between academics and grassroots activists. This included the suggestion of creating an on-going radical seminar series that would take place in a non-academic space, and would be tasked with addressing and responding to a range of critical themes and intersections that relate to the crises facing humans, other animals and earth. The day ended with a question and answer session and panel discussion on the strategies of the animal rights movement and ways to build alliances between activists and academics. Thanks must go to ICAS, the Society for Applied Philosophy, the Mind Association, and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool for kindly sponsoring this conference, and especially to Stephen Clark, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool for organising the event and arranging for vegan buffet lunch and refreshments throughout the day. Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2009 2009 -> Guide to learn how to install, set up and access the music you need today! 2009 -> Terry L. Root 2009 -> For immediate release 2009 -> A parent-Friendly Handbook Things you’ll be glad to know about 2009 -> Children and adolescents, trauma and disasters 2009 -> Children and adolescents, trauma and disasters. A reference list compiled by dr philos. Atle Dyregrov Center for Crisis Psychology, Bergen, Norway 2009 -> Children and adolescents, trauma and disasters. A reference list compiled by dr philos. Atle Dyregrov Center for Crisis Psychology, Bergen, Norway 2009 -> Children and adolescents, trauma and disasters 2009 -> Mobile Chipset Applications Processor Download 1 Mb. Share with your friends:
|