Feminists Encountering Animals
In Hypatia 27.3, a special issue on “Animal Others”, leading feminist animal studies scholars, Lori Gruen (author of Ethics and Animals: An Introduction) and Kari Weil (author of Thinking Animals: Why Animal Studies Now) present exciting new work on the intersections of sex, race, gender, and species. As co-editors of the special issue, Gruen and Weil invited six scholars to reflect on some of the lively debates occurring within this burgeoning new field of scholarship. Join the discussion from July 9-13, 2012.
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Download a PDF of this Symposium
Symposium articles:
  Introduction: Feminists Encountering Animalsby LORI GRUEN and KARI WEIL Editors, Hypatia Special Issue “Animal Others” 9th July 2012, 09:00am EST |
 Ambivalence toward Animals and the Moral Communityby KELLY OLIVER W. Alton Jones Chair of Philosophy with appointments in African-American and Diaspora Studies, Film Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies, Vanderbilt University 9th July 2012, 11:00am EST |
 Must Every Animal Studies Scholar Be Vegan? by TRACI WARKENTIN Assistant Professor, Hunter College of the City University of New York 9th July 2012, 11:05am EST |
 Returning the Ethical and Political to Animal Studiesby STEPHANIE JENKINS Assistant Professor, Oregon State University, School of History, Philosophy and Religion 9th July 2012, 11:10am EST |
 Disciplinary Becomings: Horizons of Knowledge in Animal Studiesby CARRIE ROHMAN Assistant Professor, dept. of English, Lafayette College 9th July 2012, 11:15am EST |
 “The Animal” and “The Feminist”by EMILY CLARK PhD Graduate Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison 9th July 2012, 11:20am EST |
 Speaking of Animal Bodiesby GRETA GAARD Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-River Falls 9th July 2012, 11:25am EST |
The Philosopher's Eye 
This is an exciting time in animal studies as more and more scholars are interested in questions about animals and a growing number of people in general are paying attention to our relationships with other animals. Like other types of scholarship that got its start from activists theorizing about how to change the world, I think it is important to make explicit the contributions that feminists bring to the discussion.
As Kari and I wrote in our contribution to Margo DeMello’s book *Teaching the Animal*:
“It may even seem that there is a “natural” fit between women/gender studies and animal studies, not because women are naturally connected to or drawn to animals, as much of patriarchal thinking would have it, but rather because of the ways that sexism and speciesism mutually inform one another. Like sexism and racism, speciesism, is the prejudicial view that there is an ontologically distinct marker, in this case species membership, that adds value to those who belong to the human species and justifies domination of those who don’t. As scholars who interrogate the constructions of categories of gender, species, and race and analyze the connections — perceived and real — among women, animals, and nature, we believe bringing animal studies and women’s studies together is beneficial to both fields of inquiry.”
I’m looking forward to the online discussion this week!
LG
what would it be like to develop empathy where there isn’t identification. how can an empathy that’s not identity-dependent be developed?
Hey, Lori:
Chris at Muhlenberg here. I think the Symposium is wonderful! I do not teach the EE course any more, but I will absolutely recommend your book to my colleague who does.