The Institute for Critical Animal Studies is pleased to announce our 2012 Annual North American Conference for Critical Animal Studies Awards of the Year. Awards will be bestowed on March 3, 2012 during the conference at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY (March 2-4). We thank the many nominees for submitting their work. It was an honor to consider the wonderful nominations from around the world! Although the final decisions were difficult, we truly feel that the following award recipients have done superb work to help animals and end oppression. We are proud to recognize their contributions to the field of Critical Animal Studies.

Critical Animal Studies Grassroots Project of the Year
“Food Empowerment Project”: http://www.foodispower.org/

Critical Animal Studies Media of the Year
“Conflict Gypsy”: http://www.conflictgypsy.com/

Critical Animal Studies Faculty Paper/Project of the Year
Dr. Lori Gruen, “The first 100”: http://first100chimps.wesleyan.edu/

Critical Animal Studies Undergraduate Paper/Project/Thesis of the Year
Lara Drew: “Freirean Pedagogy and Activism: Radical Adult Education in the Animal Liberation Movement

Critical Animal Studies Graduate Paper/Project/Dissertation of the Year
James Stanescu: “The Abattoir of Humanity: Philosophy in the Age of the Factory Farm”

Critical Animal Studies Book of the Year
Jason Hribal: Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance

Critical Animal Studies Tyke Scholar of the Year
Tereza Vandrovcova

Critical Animal Studies Britches Scholar of the Year
Jessica Groling

Critical Animal Studies Hilda Scholar of the Year
Adam Weitzenfeld

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In a recent New York Times article exploring the rise of the many manifestations of “animal studies” across campuses and universities nationwide, the Institute for Critical Animal Studies’ Journal for Critical Animal Studies was noted as being part of this important, growing movement in the academy. In particular, Karen L.F. Houle’s essay “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Ethics as Extension or Becoming? The Case of Becoming-Plant” (Volume IX, Issue 1/2, 2011) got special mention for “following in [the] word tracks” of Jacques Derrida.

The term “animal studies,” developed out of the field of animal research (i.e., nonhuman animal testing, dissection, and vivisection), can be confusing to some advocates. Two academic fields that arose at the same time in defense and advocacy of nonhuman animals are human-animal studies and critical animal studies. Moreover, human-animal studies was also mentioned under the umbrella of animal studies, but instead relates to animal advocacy, welfare, and protection. Recently, animal studies and human-animal studies have been adopted by objectivist opportunists not dedicated to promoting veganism and animal liberation, but rather, they are interested in theoretically studying the concept of the animal as subject. This can be argued,  as noted by Anthony J. Nocella II, as leading to theoretical vivisection lacking ethical consideration. Just as activist-academics from the Animals and Society Institute are trying to keep true to what human-animal studies is (i.e. animal protection and advocacy), critical animal studies and the Institute for Critical Animal Studies, a more board and radical field of study, must demand that those who use the term critical animal studies stay engaged in intersectional social justice “dedicated to the abolition of animal and ecological exploitation, oppression, and domination. CAS is grounded in a broad, global, emancipatory, and inclusionary movement for total  liberation and freedom” (ICAS website).

To forward the goals of ICAS and CAS, we will be holding the 11th Annual Conference for Critical Animal Studies with a special theme “From Greece to Wall Street: Global Economic Revolutions and Critical Animal Studies.” This event is taking place from March 2-4 at Canisius College on Buffalo, NY.

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde: A Paradigm for Animal Liberation
By: Kim Socha
Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2012, XIV, 258 pp.
Pb: 978-90-420-3423-5
€ 54 / US$ 81

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ABOUT THE BOOK

This interdisciplinary study fuses analysis of feminist literature and manifestos, radical political theory, critical vanguard studies, women’s performance art, and popular culture to argue for the animal liberation movement as successor to the liberationist visions of the early twentieth-century avant-gardes, most especially the Surrealists. These vanguard groups are judiciously critiqued for their refusal to confront their own misogyny, a quandary that continues to plague animal activists, thereby disallowing for cohesion and full recognition of women’s value within a culturally marginalized cause.

This volume is of interest to anyone who is concerned about the continued—indeed, escalating—violence against nonhumans. More broadly, it will interest those seeking new pathways to challenge the dominant power constructions through which oppression of humans, nonhumans, and the environment thrives. Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde ultimately poses the animal liberation movement as having serious political and cultural implications for radical social change, destruction of hierarchy and for a world without shackles and cages, much as the Surrealists envisioned.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword – Helena Pedersen and Vasile Stanescu: Series Editor’s Introduction: What is “Critical” about Animal Studies? From the Animal “Question” to the Animal “Condition”

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

I. Avant-Garde Women Writers and Destruction in the Flesh

II. Staring Back in the Flesh: Avant-Garde Performance as an ALM Paradigm

III. Convulsive Beauty, Infinite Spheres and Irrational Reasons: Reverie on a New Consciousness

Conclusion: Love and Laughter Now: Plucking at Stems or Uprooting Oppression?

Works Cited

Index

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Kim Socha is an animal activist and sits on the board of the Animal Rights Coalition in Minneapolis, MN. Holding a Ph.D. in English Literature and Criticism, she works as a composition and literature instructor with publications in the areas of surrealism, Latino literature and pedagogy.

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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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The following are the 2011 Scholars of the Year and Award Winners of the Year, that will be presented at the 10th Annual Conference for Critical Animal Studies Conference, “Thinking About Animals” at Brock University March 31 and April 1, 2011.

INSTITUTE FOR CRITICAL ANIMAL STUDIES
2011 ANNUAL AWARDS

2011 UNDERGRADUATE PAPER OF THE YEAR
“Animal Experimentation and the Law: Are the Laws Enough?”
Tayler Staneff

GRADUATE PAPER OF THE YEAR
“Gender and Slaughter in Popular Gastronomy”
Jovian Parry

MEDIA OF THE YEAR
“Bold Native”
Denis Henry Hennelly, Casey Suchan, Mary Pat Bentel, and Jeff Bollman

ACADEMIC BOOK OF THE YEAR
“Animals as Biotechnology: Ethics, Sustainability and Critical Animal Studies”
Richard Twine

ACTIVIST BOOK OF THE YEAR
“Muzzling a Movement: The Effects of Anti-Terrorism, Law, Money, and Politics on Animal Activism”
Dara Lovitz

2011 BRITCHES SCHOLAR OF THE YEAR
Jenny Grubbs

2011 TYKE SCHOLAR OF THE YEAR
A. Breeze Harper

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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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THINKING ABOUT ANIMALS CONFERENCE
March 31 and April 1, 2010
10th Annual N. American Conference for Critical Animal Studies

REGISTRATION FORM
ACCOMMODATIONS
NIAGARA VEGAN GUIDE
Your Vegan Survival Guide for Brock University and the Niagara Region.
SEE US ON FACEBOOK
CONFERENCE EVENT INVITATION
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT CRITICAL ANIMAL STUDIES AT BROCK

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!! Book Talk and Release !!

Conversations in Conflict Studies Series presents~

Friday, February 25, 2011 at 12:30 p.m.
…400 Eggers Hall, the PARCC Conference Room
Syracuse University, New York

Book Talk and Release of
“Hollywood’s Exploited: Public Pedagogy, Corporate Movies, and Cultural Crisis” (Palgrave 2010)

Please join us as co-editor Anthony Nocella, Instructor at SUNY Cortland who is finishing his Ph.D. at Syracuse University, discusses this book.

Also a  skyped in Guest Talk by international respected Scholar in Education: Dr. Shirley Steinberg

Also Skyped in Co-Editor Dr. Tony Kashani, Union Institute & University and many others to talk about their chapters and the books contributions to the field of media studies.

Nocella will talk about his chapter with Tony Kashani “Hollywood’s Cinema of Ableism: A Disability Studies Perspective on the Hollywood Industrial Complex”

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Love and Liberation: An Animal Liberation Front Story
Sarat Colling and Anthony J. Nocella II
Lara Drew Illustrations
Published by Arissa Media Group (coming soon)
www.arissa.org

ABOUT LOVE AND LIBERATION

Gabriella and Andre are an everyday couple working up the corporate ladder in Houston, Texas. With a brand new condo, plans for marriage and successful careers, their lives are set – or so they think. One night while taking out the trash, Gabriella inadvertently gets a glimpse into the underground world of animal liberationists. Unsure what to make of it, she begins an investigation which leads to some shocking realizations. Soon the couple is delving deeper into a covert movement of radical animal liberationists labeled by the FBI as a top domestic threat. Armed with nonviolent tactics and love in their heart, the couple educates and trains to free those who are caged. With captivating black and white illustrations, this is an action-packed, fun and informative read.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

You can see how it happens: the oblivious couple has their comfortable lives interrupted by a revelation that slowly makes it impossible for them to carry on as before. What seems a quick, easy read turns out to also be a true story of evolution that leaves the reader asking, “How shall I change my life?”

- Ingrid Newkirk, founder PETA, and author of “Free the Animals: The Untold Story of the Animal Liberation Front in America”

You could spend days researching animal rights, or you could read Colling and Nocella’s Love and Liberation and get an entertaining crash course that deftly illustrates the basic ideology of animal liberation and drops tantalizing breadcrumbs for the reader to follow into deeper study.

- Denis Henry Hennelly, Director, Writer, and Editor of “Bold Native”

“Love and Liberation” confronts us with a question many ask ourselves: ask nicely for exploiters to deliver animals’ freedom, or start taking it? Attend another protest, or start breaking down doors? This book explores one couple’s answer to these questions. With knowledge comes responsibility. And here two people learn that the knowledge of billions of animals imprisoned brings the responsibility to do whatever it takes to free them.

- Peter Young, former Animal Liberation Front political prisoner

What I like about Love and Liberation is its sensitivity to an intersectional vision. It must be the best AR fiction read since Rage and Reason

- Dr. Richard Twine, author of “Animals as Biotechnology: Ethics, Sustainability and Critical Animal Studies”

Intriguing. Exciting. Heart-wrenching and exposing, Love and Liberation takes you on a wondrous journey of self discovery, forcing you to delve into your own conscious behavior begging answers to questions you might have never even contemplated. This is a must read!

- Shannon Keith, Director of “Behind the Mask: The Story Of The People Who Risk Everything To Save Animals”

“Love and Liberation” is a gripping tale of courage and compassion; it at once entertains and educates, inspires and informs. This short story manages to address a multitude of issues, all within a powerfully written narrative.

- Melanie Joy, Ph.D., author of “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows”

In crafting the beautiful Love and Liberation: An Animal Liberation Front Story authors Sarat Colling and Anthony Nocella have provided a transformative understanding of our relationship with other animal species. The careful planning of the characters match the careful craft of the authors; each bringing to light the spirit of the movement and illustrating the drive and conviction of those who liberate and in turn liberate themselves.

- Dylan Powell, Vegan Police Radio

A touching and thought-provoking story that puts a new spin on the question of what love is and what role it should play in our life. We all know that love for one another brings two people together, but what about compassion for animals and a desire for justice? Crime, passion, sorrow, pleasure, pain and love blend together in unforeseen ways as two intelligent and sensitive individuals try to navigate a world that is not nearly as simple as it seems.

- Nick Cooney, author of “Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change”

Captivatingly written, Love and Liberation is a true to life and heartfelt story about people deciding to fight for something meaningful in this cruel and oppressive world… something bigger than themselves in a society that rewards self-interest and hypocritically represses freedom struggle. Outlining some intelligent guerrilla strategies, this could be the story of any potential animal liberationist, any budding Earth liberationist, anyone looking to take the struggle for freedom underground.

- Leslie James Pickering, author of “Mad Bomber Melville” and was a founder and spokesperson for the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office

In this engaging story, love and compassion abound as the heroes are emancipated from the consumeristic prison of cheeseburgers and leather shoes while they work enthusiastically to free nonhuman animals. I will never tire of reading about nonhuman animals being liberated from the grips of torture. These narratives inspire action, and there are countless cages yet full of nonhuman animals longing to be rescued.

- Dara Lovitz, author, “Muzzling A Movement: The Effects of Anti-Terrorism Law, Money, and Politics on Animal Activism”

“Love and Liberation” is a story of dedication and struggle born from political transformation: Do we allow the everyday cruelty of the world to continue right before our eyes, or do we intervene and reroute the world toward a new ethic of inter-species respect and appreciation? Speaking to issues of justice, humanity, environmentalism, capitalism, greed, corruption, love, and adventure, this provocative read is a must for all ages and political persuasions!

- Jason Del Gandio, author “Rhetoric for Radicals: A
Handbook for 21st Century Activists.”

This is an excellent, and thought-provoking story that – as all beautiful people now – reaffirms how the true revolutionary is guided by love.

- Dr. Richard White, Editor of Journal for Critical Animal Studies

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The Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS) is the only animal advocacy organization in the world dedicated to higher education and is also fully-volunteer. There are more than two hundred ICAS volunteers who are around the world from professors to undergraduate students. After anyone realizes we are fully-volunteer and on a zero dollar budget people are speechless. Please watch this video of ICAS Top Ten Achievements of 2010 and donate and volunteer to ICAS, as we wish 2011 to be a huge year for ICAS and for the field of critical animal studies. Please if you cannot donate to or volunteer with ICAS, please put on a critical animal studies event at your community center, college, or university.

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