Thinking About Animals 2011 Conference Highlights

I just returned from this year’s Thinking About Animals 2011 conference, co-hosted by Niagara Action for Animals, the Institute for Critical Animal Studies and Brock University’s social science departments. The conference was an amazing event, which included speakers from both academic and animal advocacy backgrounds.

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It was invigorating and rejuvenating to be in a community of individuals who are contributing to the animal advocacy movement in such meaningful ways. Most importantly, I learned a lot! Panels included topics such as Capitalism & animal exploitation, Wild animals & captives, Oppression, grief & love, Veganism & gender, Otherness, similarity & sympathy, Animals in theory, and the list goes on. The conference was important not only for the ability to get so many experienced animal advocates and academics together to share knowledge and network, but also for the way in which it tied together advocacy and research, making sure that the business of helping animals remained the top priority.

The event was a red carpet for the small academic branch of the animal advocacy movement. Speakers included a number of people that have recently published or edited important books in critical animal studies and the animal advocacy movement, including Anthony Nocella (Call to Compassion), Will Potter (Green is the New Red), and Richard Twine (Animals as Biotechnology). Other speakers included Lauren Corman, professor of Human-Animal Studies at Brock University, Steve Romanian of the podcast Animal Voices, David Nibert, Sociologist and author of Animal Rights/ Human Rights, and HRC’s very own scholar-volunteers, Matthew Cole and Erin O’Sullivan.

Panels had undergraduate students, graduate students, animal advocates, animal advocacy organizations, professional researchers, and tenured professors all speaking on panels alongside one another. For anyone who has attended a research or academic conference before, they will know that this is not typical. The only concern at this conference, however, was sharing knowledge. Status was unimportant, as anyone with new knowledge that could help animals or their advocates was welcomed. This allowed voices that are sometimes not welcome in these settings to come through and educate conference attendees and participants.

The most important aspect of the conference was its focus on animal advocacy. While academics and researchers typically work on questions that build ideas or lead to advances in their field, research agendas rarely center on advocacy and the need to better inform social justice movements. The scholars and advocates here were doing just that—using their careers and the skills that they acquired outside the movement to give back to the animals and advocates that need their help. I am excited to incorporate all my new knowledge into the work I do at HRC for the benefit of advocates that use our resources.

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Coming Soon! HRC’s Research Director, Carol L. Gasser, presented at the recent ICAS conference. Her talk, Putting Research within Reach, will be published as an essay on the HRC website.

Please check out the rest of the conference presentations the HRC team will be involved in this year.