Andy Stepanian, cofounder of the Sparrow Media Project and defendant in the landmark SHAC7 case, will be coming to New York University’s Kimmel Center on Tuesday, April 26th to speak on matters pertaining to contemporary activist endeavors.  Specifically, he will reflect on his experiences and observations as to which tactics and strategies are effective, when to employ them, and how the inclusion of varied approaches when advocating for an issue can often yield the most positive outcomes.  Given his extensive background with non-violent direct action movements, his role in the campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences, and his current work with the Sparrow Media Project, the evening is sure to be an engaging one for all who attend.  Open to the public.

Date:  Tuesday, April 26^th, 2011

Time:  6:00pm to 7:30pm

Location:  NYU’s Kimmel Center, Room 803

Relevant Links:

www.sparrowmedia.net

www.shac7.com

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Gene Baur
Author and Co-Founder of Farm Sanctuary

Book Signing and Talk

April 13, 2011

7 to 8pm

Moffett Hall 2125

SUNY Cortland, New York

Gene Baur is co‑founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, America’s leading farm animal protection organization. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from California State University, Northridge and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University. He has conducted hundreds of visits to farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses to document conditions. His pictures and videotape, exposing factory farming cru…elty, have been aired nationally and internationally, educating millions. Gene has testified in court and before local, state and federal legislative bodies, and has initiated groundbreaking legal enforcement and legislative action to prevent farm animal abuse. He played an important role in passing the first U.S. laws to prohibit cruel farming methods – including the Florida ban on gestation crates, the Arizona ban on veal and gestation crates, the California ban on veal and gestation crates and battery cages, and the California ban on foie gras. His efforts have been covered by leading news organizations, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, National Public Radio, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN. His book, entitled Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food, was published by Touchstone in March, 2008 and has appeared on the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe best seller lists.

More about Gene at: http://www.genebaur.org/

Sponsored by:
Anthony Nocella’s Deviant Behavior Course and Cortland Animal Allies

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Book Talk – Call to Compassion with Anthony J. Nocella II
3 to 5
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Brooklyn’s Restaurant
206 Richmond St
Thorold, ON

“Covering doctrine and the lived experience of the world’s religious practitioners, Call to Compassion is a collection of stirring and passionate essays on the place of animals within the philosophical, cultural, and everyday milieus of spiritual practices both ancient and modern. From Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism, through the Abrahamic traditions, to contemporary Wiccan and Native American spirituality, Call to Compassion charts the complex ways we interact with the world around us.”

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Come join us at Brooklyn’s for some great vegan food and hear Anthony J. Nocella, co-editor of the book, talk about and expand upon its focus and intent.

http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.html?id=9781590561829

Anthony J. Nocella II activist, academic, and author, is co-founder of the field of Critical Animal Studies and the Institute for Critical Animal Studies and teaches at SUNY Cortland in Education, Sociology, and Criminology. He is also co-editor of Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals (2004).

http://www.anthonynocella.org/

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Protest Earlier that Day

We hope attendees will also join us at an anti-seal hunt demonstration planned for earlier in the day, more info here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149468241782366

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Dr. Melanie Joy presents: “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism”
Monday – March 28, 2011

This slide show is based on the critically acclaimed book of the same name. In Why We Love Dogs…social psychologist Melanie Joy explains carnism, the invisible belief system that shapes our perception of the meat we eat, so that we love some animals and eat others without knowing why. Joy explains how carnism, like other isms, (sexis…m, racism, etc.) is most harmful when it is unrecognized; and it is sustained by complex, hidden social and psychological mechanisms.

Dr. Joy is a Harvard-educated psychologist, personal/relationship coach, professor of psychology and sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and celebrated speaker.

Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3)
170 North Street, Dryden, NY 13053

Monday, March 28, 2011 in the Forum from 12pm-1pm with book signing to immediately follow.

Books will be available for sale in the TC3 Bookstore in the weeks leading up the the event and after. This event is free and open to the public.

This event is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Services, the Social Science department, the Women and Gender Studies program, and the Sustainability Council.

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PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich will kick off a series of “Is Eating Meat Ethical?” debates at Texas A&M University this Fall.

Students and community members are encouraged to attend this debate.

“Is Eating Meat Ethical?”

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July 7 saw the confluence of thousands of student progressives in Washington D.C. to share information and learn about progressive causes and strategy at the 2010 Campus Progress National Conference. The Feminist Majority, the SEIU, and the Enough Project were just a few of the groups present along with myself, representing peta2. Sadly, the wide array of campaigns presented at the conference by speakers, panelists, exhibitors, and students seemed to leave little room for animal liberation.

Originally thinking peta2 would help facilitate the Force of Food panel discussion, I was ultimately relegated to a place in the audience, frantically waving my arm as the discussion closed without anyone mentioning animal suffering. The sole and fleeting moment of respite came when Malik Yakini, chairman of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, confessed—rather dismissively—to being vegan, and prompting applause from several audience members.

Following the panel, which focused on food inequality and the industrialization of agriculture, each table from the audience discussed the issue. I was left to address animal liberation to my table of progressive students, who attempted to placate me with polite and dismissive responses. The woman to my right claimed the reason for silence on animal rights is because “we know” about the cruelty. One man said that eating meat was a comfort food to him and part of his Greek culture. A black woman said that she read Eating Animals but buttressed it with “I like meat” and asked what people like her can do to help animals (short of not oppressing them).

The table was primarily interested in how to bring fresh, local, healthy food to those in disenfranchised communities without being seen as intruders. Important, to be sure. And necessary for liberating humans and nonhumans alike. But avoiding the most abject form of oppression inherent to the system of animal agriculture—the animals.

I was further disappointed by the limited selection of vegetarian fare available during meal times. If meat, milk, and eggs are environmental, human rights, and animal issues, and the environment, human rights, and animal issues are pillars of progressive discourse, then someone forgot to tell the lunch and dinner organizers. The website’s FAQ responds to the question of whether the conference will be environmentally-friendly with: “Duh.” The boxed turkey sandwiches say something equally flippant, but much less reassuring.

On one hand, we should embrace the terms on which the “progressive movement” wishes to discuss factory farming and veganism (if this conference is an accurate sampling of some “progressive ideology”). At the same time a group that, at least on its face, seems so wrapped up in addressing inequality, is ripe for a critique of its anthropocentrism.

Related posts:

1. Call for Presentations – Sex, Gender, and Species Conference

Philosopher Tom Regan, Emeritus Professor, North Carolina State University, and author of many books on animal rights and on the ethicist G. E. Moore, will give two talks at Pennsylvania State University.

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“G. E. Moore: The Liberator”
July 27, 7:00 p.m.
Palmer Lipcon Auditorium, Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University
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“Empty Cages: An Introduction to Animal Rights”
July 28, 10:00 a.m.
273 Willard Building, Pennsylvania State University

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***Both events are free and open to the public.

***More information is available at the Rock Ethics Institute‘s blog.

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Bringing Academia and Community Activism together for Animal Liberation

Tuesday, July 13, 2010
7PM to 9PM
Brentwood Community Center, 2505 South Brentwood
Brentwood, Missouri

Join St. Louis Animal Rights Team (START) for a lecture by Laura Shields of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS) next week.  Laura will being discussing the discipline of Critical Animal Studies and ways to bring activism into academia.

Laura Shields, Assistant Editor and Interview/Dialogue Editor of the Journal for Critical Animal Studies earned a B.A. from Willamette University in History and Spanish and is currently a doctoral student in American Studies at Saint Louis University. Her academic interests include: human-nonhuman animal interactions in culture, gender and sexuality, environmental history and prison studies. She has presented at several conferences including the International “Gender, Animals and Society” conference at Uppsala University in Sweden. She holds a certificate in University Teaching Skills and teaches a Middle Eastern dance class to young women in a St. Louis detention center. Laura lives in St. Louis city with her feline friends, Emmett and Ota, and her human partner, Matt.

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On Saturday March 7th, join us at Wooden Shoe Books for an evening of discussion with Anthony J. Nocella II, co-editor of the exciting new volume Academic Repression: Reflections from the Academic Industrial Complex, out now from AK Press.

Since 9/11, the Bush administration has pressured universities to hand over faculty, staff, and student work to be flagged for potential threats. Numerous books have addressed the question of academic freedom over the years; this collection asks whether the concept of academic freedom still exists at all in the American university system.

It addresses not only overt attacks on critical thinking, but also—following trends unfolding for decades—engages the broad socioeconomic determinants of academic culture.

This edited anthology brings together prominent academics writing hard-hitting essays on free speech, culture wars, and academic freedom in a post-9/11 era. It’s a powerful response to attacks on critical thinking in our universities by well-respected scholars and academics, including Joy James, Henry Giroux, Michael Parenti, Howard Zinn, Robert Jensen, Ward Churchill, and many more..

“This book puts the lie to the myth of academic freedom and that the university is an unabashed training ground for radicals.”
—Richard Kahn, University of North Dakota

“Essential reading for anyone concerned about the stifling of dissent and free expression in academia and beyond.”—Uri Gordon, author of Anarchy Alive!

When: Sat, March 6, 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Location: Wooden Shoe Books 704 South Street Philadelphia PA 19147
Contact: 215-413-0999. http://www.woodenshoebooks.com/

Anthony J. Nocella, II, author, activist, education, is a professor in Sociology and Criminology at SUNY Cortland and Le Moyne College. He also is a life skills teacher at Hillbrook Youth Detention Center promoting nonviolence and group-building skills. He is a co-founder of more than fifteen active social/political organizations, four active scholarly journals, is board member of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), has published more than twenty-five scholarly articles and is working on his eleventh book, “Global Industrial Complex” (Lexington Books, coming soon). His other books include A Peacemaker’s Guide for Building Peace with a Revolutionary Group (PARC, 2004), co-editor of Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals (Lantern Books, 2004); and co-editor of Igniting a Revolution Voices in Defense of the Earth (AK Press, 2006). http://www.anthonynocella.org

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Friday Dec 4, 7PM @ Red Emma’s

Join us for an evening of discussion with Anthony J. Nocella II, co-editor of the new volume Contemporary Anarchist Studies: An Introductory Anthology of Anarchy in the Academy, out now from Routledge. This volume of collected essays by some of the most prominent academics studying anarchism bridges the gap between anarchist activism on the streets and anarchist theory in the academy. It also brings together a wide variety of anarchist voices while stressing anarchism’s tradition of dissent.

We’re excited to have Anthony here in Baltimore for a discussion of the past, present, and future of anarchist studies, both inside and outside the academy. Don’t miss it!

This volume of collected essays by some of the most prominent academics studying anarchism bridges the gap between anarchist activism on the streets and anarchist theory in the academy. This volume brings together a wide variety of anarchist voices whilst stressing anarchism’s tradition of dissent. This book is a must buy for the critical teacher, student, and activist interested in the state of the art of anarchism studies.

Anthony J. Nocella, II award-winning author, educator, and peacemaker is a professor of Criminology and Peace and Global Studies at Le Moyne College and SUNY, Cortland. Nocella also teaches Life Skills at a New York youth detention facility and is the Executive Director of the Central New York Peace Studies Consortium and Co-Director of Save the Kids. He is now working on his eleventh book “Global Industrial Complex” which should be out next year by Lexington Books.

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1st Annual European Conference For Critical Animal Studies

Animal(s) Matter(s)
The Future of Critical Animal Studies

This day conference will bring academics and activists together to consider future ways of addressing the radical implications of critical work on understanding and dealing with with other species and discuss interspecies relations, cultures, and systems of domination.

• Venue: Foresight Centre, University of Liverpool, UK (Building 359 on the Campus Map)

• Date: April 23rd, 2010

• Speakers: Alistair Currie (PETA); Professor Celia Deane-Drummond (Chester and CAFOD); Jasmijn de Boo (Animals Count); Professor Robert Garner (Leicester); Dr Simon James (Durham); Dr Dan Lyons (Uncaged Campaigns); Dr Karen Morgan (Cardiff); Dr Anat Pick (UEL); Dr Richard Twine (Lancaster); Dr Richard White (Sheffield Hallam). Full speaker information and programme.
• Registration Fee (includes lunch and refreshment): £40 (waged) / £30 (students and unwaged). Registration Form.
• For further details, contact Dr. Stephen R. L. Clark at the Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool.
  Please let us know if accommodation is needed on either the night of April 22nd or April 23rd.
  Department of Philosophy, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX
  Tel: 0151 794 2787
  Fax: 0151 794 2789
  Email: srlclark@liverpool.ac.uk

• With enough advance notice, we may be able to arrange a conference discount at a local hotel.
• This conference is sponsored by the Institute for Critical Animal Studies, the Society for Applied Philosophy, the Mind Association, and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool.

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1st Annual European Conference For Critical Animal Studies

Animal(s) Matter(s)

The Future of Critical Animal Studies

Programme and Speaker Information (April 23rd, Foresight Centre, University of Liverpool)

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Programme

8.30 Registration

9.00 Alastair Currie (PETA): ‘Gauging, Changing and Mobilising Public Opinion: Challenges for AR Advocates’

9.40  Dr Dan Lyons (Uncaged Campaigns) ‘Advancing Animal Protection: Strategic Action in an Adverse Structural Context’

10.40 Prof Robert Garner (Leicester) ‘In Defence of Sentiency: A Critique of One Version of Animal Rights’

11.20 Dr Simon James (Durham) ‘Animal Minds and the Demand for Evidence’

12.00 Dr Anat Pick (UEL) ‘Creaturely Ethics: Beyond the Discourse of Rights’

12.40 Lunch

1.40 Jasmijn de Boo (Animals Count) ‘Animal Protection on Hold in Conservative UK’

2.20 Dr Karen Morgan (Cardiff) ‘Ethical Veganism and Animal Rights: Learning from Feminist Research and Activism’

3.00 Prof Celia Deane-Drummond (Chester & CAFOD) ‘Taking Leave of the Animal: Transhumanity as Transanimality’

3.40 Dr Richard Twine (Lancaster) ‘Putting the ‘Critical’ in Critical Animal Studies. What does it Mean?’

4.20 Tea/Coffee

4.40 Dr Richard White (Sheffield Hallam) ‘Building Alliances between Academic and Activist Communities.’

5.20 Concluding Panel

Speakers

Alistair Currie is Policy Adviser to PETA UK, the British affiliate of the world’s largest animal rights organisation, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. His specific area of expertise is animal experimentation but his work encompasses all aspects of animal use. He has appeared in the media frequently and spoken on animal rights issues in debates and other public fora regularly. He previously worked for the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, Viva! and Uncaged Campaigns.

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Professor Celia Deane-Drummond is Professor of Theology and the Biosciences at the University of Chester. Her more recent books include, The Ethics of Nature, Blackwells, 2004; Future Perfect: God, Medicine and Human Identity, ed. with Peter Scott, Continuum, 2006; Ecotheology, DLT, 2008; Creaturely Theology: On God, Humans and Other Animals, ed. with David Clough, SCM, 2009; Christ and Evolution, Fortress/SCM, 2009.

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Jasmijn de Boo (BSc, MSc, DipEd) is an animal welfare scientist and educator. She was a candidate for the Dutch political Party for the Animals during the 2004 EU elections and was actively involved from 2003-2004 in the Dutch party until she emigrated to London. She has lived in Thailand where she studied gibbon behaviour, and she has worked for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the Brooke Hospital for animals in developing countries, for five years. She was involved in further and higher education in the Netherlands for four years from 2000 to 2004. She is currently focusing on writing and publishing research articles about alternatives to animals in experiments, which, she hopes, may lead to a PhD via Research Publications.

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Professor Robert Garner is Professor of Politics at the University of Leicester, and author of numerous books and articles on the philosophy and politics of animal rights including Animals, Politics and Morality (MUP, 2004 second edition) and The Political Theory of Animal Rights (MUP, 2005). Currently the recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship working on a project “A Theory of Justice for Animals”.

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Dr Simon James is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Durham. His main interest are in environmental philosophy, existential phenomenology, moral philosophy and Buddhist philosophy.

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Dr Dan Lyons is an award-winning animal rights advocate and political scientist. He is Campaigns Director of Sheffield-based advocacy group Uncaged, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield’s Department of Politics, and an elected Town Councillor in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire. Between 2000 and 2003 he successfully fought a historic legal battle against Novartis Pharma AG to win the right, on public interest grounds, to publish leaked documents describing severe pig-to-primate organ transplant experiments which breached regulations.

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Dr Karen Morgan is currently working at Cardiff University on a research project assessing the impact and effectiveness of the ethical framework for local government in England. However her main areas of interest are concerned with empirical and theoretical research into gendered and symbolic violence, print media analysis, and issues around ethical veganism and animal rights. She is co-founder (with Dr M. Cole) of Vegatopia, a website which is intended to inform individual and collaborative research and teaching, as well as making a contribution to vegan activism. She also acts as a school speaker for the Vegan Society, delivering talks or lessons on themes such as a general introduction to veganism, global issues, environmentalism, ethics and morality and nutrition.

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Dr Anat Pick is Senior Lecturer and Programme leader in film at UEL.  Her book Creaturely Poetics: Animality, Vulnerability, and the Identity of Species is forthcoming from Columbia University Press. Anat is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

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Dr Richard Twine is a Lecturer at Lancaster University. He writes and researches at the nexus of animal studies, critical posthumanism, science studies and eco/feminism.  He spoke at two of the recent major international conferences on Animal Studies (Meet Animal Meat, Uppsala, Sweden May 2009 and Minding Animals, Newcastle, Australia July 2009). He is currently finishing his first book, which focuses on animal biotech (Earthscan).

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Contemporary Anarchist Studies
Wednesday Nov 4, 8 to 9 PM
Wooden Shoe Books
704 South Street • Philadelphia, PA 19147
BOOK TALK BY THE EDITORS

This volume of collected essays by some of the most prominent academics studying anarchism bridges the gap between anarchist activism on the streets and anarchist theory in the academy. Focusing on anarchist theory, pedagogy, methodologies, praxis, and the future, this edition will strike a chord for anyone interested in radical social change.

This interdisciplinary work highlights connections between anarchism and other perspectives such as feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, disability studies, post-modernism and post-structuralism, animal liberation, and environmental justice. Featuring original articles, this volume brings together a wide variety of anarchist voices whilst stressing anarchism’s tradition of dissent. This book is a must buy for the critical teacher, student, and activist interested in the state of the art of anarchism studies.
About the Editors:

Luis A. Fernandez, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University and author of “Policing Dissent.” He has worked for several research institutions, including the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Dr. Fernandez serves on the board of directors for the Society for the Study of Social Problems and is a founding member of the Institute for the Study of Dissent and Social Control.

Anthony J. Nocella, II is a professor at SUNY Cortland and has published numerious books including “Igniting a Revolution” and “Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?.” He is also the Executive Director of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies and a board-member of the American Friends Service Committee and co-founder of the Anarchist Studies Intiative at SUNY Cortland, the first academic center in the world dedicated to anarchist studies, which hopes to have a minor in a year.

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