On April 15, 2021, a roundtable occurred at the annual conference of the Midwestern Political Sci... more On April 15, 2021, a roundtable occurred at the annual conference of the Midwestern Political Science Association to discuss Animal Labour: A New Frontier of Interspecies Justice?, edited by Charlotte Blattner, Kendra Coulter, and Will Kymlicka, and published by Oxford University Press in February 2020. The following symposium contains expanded versions of the papers presented at the MPSA conference. Jishnu Guha-Majumdar introduces the edited volume and the contributions of the respondents in the symposium. Diego Rossello then discusses the book's framing as "interspecies justice" and its definition of labor. Angie Pepper reflects on whether it is possible for animals to justly consent to labor occupations. Guha-Majumdar examines how the afterlives of transatlantic slavery shape the terms of debates over animal labour. Peter Niesen considers questions about the sequencing and types of labor rights for animals used in agriculture. Finally, Blattner and Kymlicka offer a reply.
How does one give voice to the unspeakable, inhuman violence that shapes the present, and what re... more How does one give voice to the unspeakable, inhuman violence that shapes the present, and what remains of humanity in their wake? Adriana Cavarero offers an answer that roots human speech in embodied vulnerability, in contrast to philosophical emphases on disembodied rationality. In the face of what she calls horrorism, which puts humans in proximity to animality, she calls for resuscitating vocality, and therefore humanity, from loss. This article reads Kafka’s short story “A Report to an Academy”—which structurally resembles a slave narrative and concerns a kidnapped ape who learns to speak—to extend Cavarero’s emphasis on vulnerability while challenging her humanism. In Kafka, modern horror’s locus is not animality but the abstract human, and it projects the unstable distinction between voice and noise onto blackened humans and nonhuman animals.
The production of meat and other animal-sourced foods, especially in their industrialized form, e... more The production of meat and other animal-sourced foods, especially in their industrialized form, entails significant exploitation of animals, labor, and the natural environment. However, concern with animals is often sidelined in left and progressive politics, and veganism is often derided by leftists as a liberal project. Many contend that veganism is fixated on consumerism, asceticism, identity, and deontological ethics, and is insensitive to the oppressions perpetrated by Western, capitalist epistemologies and economic structures. Responding to these charges, this article argues that veganism conceived as a boycott aligns with existing Left commitments to social and environmental justice, and also those concomitant with a trans-species anti-exploitation ethic. The authors elaborate a specific definition of veganism as a boycott, situate it as a tactic within the broader political horizon of total liberation-schematized as a three-tier model for political action-and explain why it offers an effective form of eroding capitalism and other systems of domination. The authors conclude that refusing to consume animal products has tangible economic and social impacts, increases solidarity between human and nonhuman populations, and sensitizes individuals and communities to the socio-political effects of their consumer behavior.
Abstract: This essay reads John Locke’s Two Treatises through its nonhuman animal presences, espe... more Abstract: This essay reads John Locke’s Two Treatises through its nonhuman animal presences, especially the emblematic figures of cattle and "noxious creatures" like "lyons," "tygers," and wolves. It argues that the real ground of Lockean human equality is an ongoing practice of subjugating nonhuman animals, and not any attribute of the human species as such. More specifically, the Lockean social compact founded on this equality relies on a “dominion covenant,” an existential “agreement” in which God lends the power of dominion to man and any threats to this order require punishment. This dynamic enables violence towards humans, in the name of their humanity, if they do not properly exert their power of dominion. Critics have connected Locke’s theory of property to indigenous dispossession and his theory of punishment to carceral systems; both processes, I argue, intimately rely on the dominion covenant. Lockean racism is the fulfillment of, and not a deviation from, his account of human equality.
Feminist theorist Marilyn Frye, in The Politics of Reality, uses a metaphorical birdcage to conce... more Feminist theorist Marilyn Frye, in The Politics of Reality, uses a metaphorical birdcage to conceptualize interconnected systems of oppression. To only examine one wire of the cage, no matter how closely, renders it impossible to understand why the bird does not simply fly to freedom. Instead, she writes, you must "stop looking at the wires one by one, microscopically, and take a macroscopic view of the whole cage." The network of interconnected wires, of oppressions, is what entraps the bird. "Feminist Animals: Sex, Nature and Nonhumans" shares Frye's emphasis on interconnected oppressions and also takes seriously the referent of her metaphor. Though the Greek philosopher Aristotle famously claimed that "Man is a political animal," this class explores the thought, practice, and actions of feminist animals, both human and nonhuman. Introducing feminist approaches to ecology and nonhumans, the course considers the interconnections between heteropatriarchal domination and the domination of nonhuman animals like Frye's bird. What different ways of seeing sex and gender open up when attention shifts to nonhumans? What tensions within and between feminism, animal liberation, and ecological concern come to the fore when each approach is considered alongside the others? How does the study of nonhumans extend the promise of feminism, and vice versa? In responding to these questions, we will see the real breadth of issues that the theory and practice of feminism can address.
On April 15, 2021, a roundtable occurred at the annual conference of the Midwestern Political Sci... more On April 15, 2021, a roundtable occurred at the annual conference of the Midwestern Political Science Association to discuss Animal Labour: A New Frontier of Interspecies Justice?, edited by Charlotte Blattner, Kendra Coulter, and Will Kymlicka, and published by Oxford University Press in February 2020. The following symposium contains expanded versions of the papers presented at the MPSA conference. Jishnu Guha-Majumdar introduces the edited volume and the contributions of the respondents in the symposium. Diego Rossello then discusses the book's framing as "interspecies justice" and its definition of labor. Angie Pepper reflects on whether it is possible for animals to justly consent to labor occupations. Guha-Majumdar examines how the afterlives of transatlantic slavery shape the terms of debates over animal labour. Peter Niesen considers questions about the sequencing and types of labor rights for animals used in agriculture. Finally, Blattner and Kymlicka offer a reply.
How does one give voice to the unspeakable, inhuman violence that shapes the present, and what re... more How does one give voice to the unspeakable, inhuman violence that shapes the present, and what remains of humanity in their wake? Adriana Cavarero offers an answer that roots human speech in embodied vulnerability, in contrast to philosophical emphases on disembodied rationality. In the face of what she calls horrorism, which puts humans in proximity to animality, she calls for resuscitating vocality, and therefore humanity, from loss. This article reads Kafka’s short story “A Report to an Academy”—which structurally resembles a slave narrative and concerns a kidnapped ape who learns to speak—to extend Cavarero’s emphasis on vulnerability while challenging her humanism. In Kafka, modern horror’s locus is not animality but the abstract human, and it projects the unstable distinction between voice and noise onto blackened humans and nonhuman animals.
The production of meat and other animal-sourced foods, especially in their industrialized form, e... more The production of meat and other animal-sourced foods, especially in their industrialized form, entails significant exploitation of animals, labor, and the natural environment. However, concern with animals is often sidelined in left and progressive politics, and veganism is often derided by leftists as a liberal project. Many contend that veganism is fixated on consumerism, asceticism, identity, and deontological ethics, and is insensitive to the oppressions perpetrated by Western, capitalist epistemologies and economic structures. Responding to these charges, this article argues that veganism conceived as a boycott aligns with existing Left commitments to social and environmental justice, and also those concomitant with a trans-species anti-exploitation ethic. The authors elaborate a specific definition of veganism as a boycott, situate it as a tactic within the broader political horizon of total liberation-schematized as a three-tier model for political action-and explain why it offers an effective form of eroding capitalism and other systems of domination. The authors conclude that refusing to consume animal products has tangible economic and social impacts, increases solidarity between human and nonhuman populations, and sensitizes individuals and communities to the socio-political effects of their consumer behavior.
Abstract: This essay reads John Locke’s Two Treatises through its nonhuman animal presences, espe... more Abstract: This essay reads John Locke’s Two Treatises through its nonhuman animal presences, especially the emblematic figures of cattle and "noxious creatures" like "lyons," "tygers," and wolves. It argues that the real ground of Lockean human equality is an ongoing practice of subjugating nonhuman animals, and not any attribute of the human species as such. More specifically, the Lockean social compact founded on this equality relies on a “dominion covenant,” an existential “agreement” in which God lends the power of dominion to man and any threats to this order require punishment. This dynamic enables violence towards humans, in the name of their humanity, if they do not properly exert their power of dominion. Critics have connected Locke’s theory of property to indigenous dispossession and his theory of punishment to carceral systems; both processes, I argue, intimately rely on the dominion covenant. Lockean racism is the fulfillment of, and not a deviation from, his account of human equality.
Feminist theorist Marilyn Frye, in The Politics of Reality, uses a metaphorical birdcage to conce... more Feminist theorist Marilyn Frye, in The Politics of Reality, uses a metaphorical birdcage to conceptualize interconnected systems of oppression. To only examine one wire of the cage, no matter how closely, renders it impossible to understand why the bird does not simply fly to freedom. Instead, she writes, you must "stop looking at the wires one by one, microscopically, and take a macroscopic view of the whole cage." The network of interconnected wires, of oppressions, is what entraps the bird. "Feminist Animals: Sex, Nature and Nonhumans" shares Frye's emphasis on interconnected oppressions and also takes seriously the referent of her metaphor. Though the Greek philosopher Aristotle famously claimed that "Man is a political animal," this class explores the thought, practice, and actions of feminist animals, both human and nonhuman. Introducing feminist approaches to ecology and nonhumans, the course considers the interconnections between heteropatriarchal domination and the domination of nonhuman animals like Frye's bird. What different ways of seeing sex and gender open up when attention shifts to nonhumans? What tensions within and between feminism, animal liberation, and ecological concern come to the fore when each approach is considered alongside the others? How does the study of nonhumans extend the promise of feminism, and vice versa? In responding to these questions, we will see the real breadth of issues that the theory and practice of feminism can address.
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