Latest news

Fellow Edits Pioneering Work on Animals and Cultural Studies

25th February 2008

The Centre is delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of a pioneering collection of essays on animals and Cultural Studies by Professor Jodey Castricano, titled Animal Subjects: An Ethical Reader in a Posthuman World. The book is the first of its kind to feature the work of Canadian scholars and writers in this emergent field, and to include the non-human-animal question as part of the ethical purview of Cultural Studies. The collection comprises essays on “Selfish Genes, Sociobiology, and Animal Respect” by Rod Preece; “A Missed Opportunity: Humanism, Anti-Humanism, and the Animal Question” by Paola Cavalieri; “Animals in Moral Space” by Michael Allen Fox and Lesley McLean; “I sympathize in their pains and pleasures”: Women and Animals in Mary Wollstonecraft” by Barbara K. Seeber, and “Animals as Persons” by David Sztybel, among others.

Commenting on the publication, Professor Castricano said: “I am proud that this book puts animals firmly on the agenda of Cultural Studies. Although Cultural Studies has directed sustained attacks against sexism and racism, the question of the animal has lagged behind developments in broader society with regard to animal suffering in factory farming, product testing, and laboratory experimentation, as well in zoos, rodeos, circuses, and public aquariums.” She continued: “The contributors to Animal Subjects are scholars and writers from diverse perspectives whose work calls into question the boundaries that divide the animal kingdom from humanity”.

Professor Castricano is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia (Okanagan) and a Fellow of the Centre. The book is published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in March 2008, and further details can be obtained here.