Education for Total Liberation ― Critical Animal Pedagogy and Teaching Against Speciesism

Education for Total Liberation: Critical Animal Pedagogy and Teaching Against Specisim is an edited collection of essays from the leaders in the field of critical animal pedagogy (CAP). CAP emerges from activist educators teaching critical animal studies and is rooted in critical theory as well as the animal advocacy movement. Critical Animal Studies (CAS) argues for an interdisciplinary approach to understanding our relationships with nonhuman animals. CAS challenges two specific fields of theory: (1) animal studies, rooted in vivisection and testing on animals in the hard sciences and (2) human-animal studies, which reinforces a socially constructed binary between humans and animals and adopts abstract theoretical approaches. In contrast, CAS takes a progressive and committed approach to scholarship and sees the exploitation of nonhuman animals as interrelated with oppression of humans based on class, gender, racism. CAS promotes the liberation of all animals and challenges all systems of domination. Education for Total Liberation is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate level readers (and beyond) who wish to learn from examples of radical pedagogical projects shaped by CAS and Critical Pedagogy. Contributing to this collection are Anne Bell, Anita de Melo, Carolyn Drew, Amber E. George, Karin Gunnarsson Dinker, John Lupinacci, Anthony J. Nocella II, Sean Parson, Helena Pederson, Ian Purdy, Constance Russell, JL Schatz, William E. Shanahan III, Meneka Thirukkumaran, and Richard J, White.

The editors and contributing authors in this book are activist educators from around the globe and representing diverse critical perspectives contributing to Critical Animal Studies and the emerging and connected Critical Animal Pedagogies.

Anthony J. Nocella II, Ph.D., a professor and intersectional scholar-community organizer, has published more than fifty scholarly articles or book chapters. He is the editor of Peace Studies Journal, Senior Fellow with the Dispute Resolution Institute at Hamline Law School, and co-founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies. He has published more than twenty books, most recently including Policing the Campus: Academic Repression, Surveillance, and the Occupy Movement. His areas of interest include transformative justice, disability studies, environmental justice, and peace, conflict, and justice studies. His website is www.anthonynocella.org.

Carolyn Drew grew up imagining battles liberating animals and protecting the great forests, which dominated her childhood games, but today these imaginations have become reality as an activist. She spends her nights tracking down shooters to try and stop the carnage unleashed on kangaroos in her region. She works with Animal Liberation ACT, Australia, assisting with protests, marches, outreach and other actions. During the day, she teaches in access programs to those who have been disadvantaged by the system. This enables student access to university. Carolyn has a Master of Education in Adult Education, is co-author of ‘The Harvest’ published in The Southerly, a preeminent Journal of The English Association, Australia. Carolyn is Director of Regions for The Institute of Critical Animal Studies. She lives with her family of human-animals and non-human animals in Canberra, Australia

Amber E. George, Ph.D. is a scholar-activist who teaches philosophy at Misericordia University. She has taught undergraduate courses in social philosophy and presented her research at many colleges and universities. She has also acquired real-life experience as an ally, counselor, and community educator in social justice administration. Dr. George is a member of the Eco-ability Collective and an Executive Board Member of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS). She is also the editor of Journal of Critical Animal Studies. She is working on writing many books and book chapters about non/human animal liberation, disability studies, and critical theory. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her growing family, watching television, and gardening.

Sinem Ketenci is a social worker and the co-founder of the Canadian registered charity "Social Workers for Animals", as well as the Veg*n Club at Lakehead and Ryerson University. Sinem is the recipient of anti-racism and academic awards, and has presented papers on the topics of animal rights activism, marginalization, and the global food crisis in relation to plant-based vegan diet at national and international conferences.

John Lupinacci, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at Washington State University. He teaches in the Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education (CSSTE) program using an approach that advocates for the development of scholar-activist educators. His experiences teaching as a high school teacher, an outdoor environmental educator, and a community activist all contribute to examining the relationships between schools and the reproduction of the cultural roots of social suffering and environmental degradation.

Ian Purdy is a grassroots activist based in Toronto, Canada. He holds a Master of Social Justice and Equity Studies (with a CAS focus) from Brock University. Additionally, Ian holds a BA in English (University of Toronto) and a BSc in Nursing (Ryerson University.) His MA dissertation explored recruitment in the Canadian animal rights movement during the 1970s and 1980s. Ian presented ‘Canada’s Foie Gras Industry’ and ‘The Portrayal of the Animal Liberation Front in Canadian Newspapers in the Early 1990s’ at the 2011 and 2012 ICAS conferences, respectively. By day Ian works as a project manager at an epidemiological health research institute; by night he co-organizes an open lecture series at the University of Toronto called the Animal Rights Academy (http://animalrightsacademy.org/). Day and night he dotes on his family of rescued companion animals.

JL Schatz is a Lecturer in English & Feminist Evolutionary Theory at Binghamton University where he also serves as the Director of Speech & Debate. He has published essays on environmentalism and apocalypse, critical pedagogy, technology and transhumanism, disability studies, and cultural theory. His debate program has been consistently ranked in the top ten of the nation and was ranked 1st in 2008.