MANCEPT

MANCEPT

  • MANCEPT
  • People
  • MANCEPT Workshops
    • Call for Convenors 2023
  • Brave New World
Select Page
  • MANCEPT
  • People
  • MANCEPT Workshops
    • Call for Convenors 2023
  • Brave New World
MANCEPT / MANCEPT Workshops / List of Panels (A-Z) / Animal Politics

Animal Politics: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of Multispecies Society

Angie Pepper, Eva Meijer and Josh Milburn

University Place 5.204 (Hybrid)

When animal ethicists dare to dream, they imagine worlds in which animals are protected from harm and welcomed as members of our societies. They can, however, be forgiven gloomy pessimism when they look at today’s world. Globally, more animals are kept in factory farms than at any other point in history. The last vestiges of untouched ‘nature’, if any exist at all, are tiny. And catastrophic climate change threatens all of us, but not least animals.

Animal ethicists – especially when informed by political theory – have done valuable work theorising multispecies utopias. But they have also done important work documenting today’s multispecies dystopias, exploring how we can move away from them. Bringing together political theorists, animal ethicists, critical animal studies scholars, and those in cognate disciplines, we propose to put this work in conversation: to place utopias next to dystopias, to put ideal theory in conversation with non-ideal theory.

Convenors: Angie Pepper (University of Roehampton); Eva Meijer (University of Amsterdam); Josh Milburn (Loughborough University).

Wednesday 7th September  

11:00-12:30 

Registration 

12:30-13:30 

Lunch 

13:30-14:00 

Welcome Speech 

14:00-16:00 

Session 1 

Steve Cooke (University of Leicester): Finding Wonder in Nonhuman Lives 

Liza Bauer (Justus Liebig University Giessen): Sharing Planets, Sharing Lives: Practicing Relationships with “Livestock” Animal Figures in Speculative Fiction to Deindustrialize the Imagination 

16:00-16:30 

Tea and Coffee Break (optional) 

16:30-17:30 

Session 1 (continued) 

Eva Meijer (University of Amsterdam): Political Conversations with Mice 

17:45-19:00 

Wine Reception 

19:30 

Conference Dinner 

Thursday 8th September  

9:30-11:30 

Session 2 

Josh Milburn (Loughborough University): Animals, State, and Utopia 

Angie Pepper (University of Roehampton) and Rich Healey (UCL): Against Interspecies Politics 

11:30-12:00 

Tea and Coffee Break (optional) 

12:00-13:00 

Session 2 (continued) 

Alasdair Cochrane: Are Multi-Species Political Communities Fantastical? 

13:00-14:00 

Lunch 

14:00-16:00 

Session 3 

Anat Pick (University of Helsinki and Queen Mary University of London): On Looking/ Eating Well: Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow (2019) and Andrea Arnold’s Cow (2021) 

Pattrice Jones (VINE Sanctuary): TBA 

16:00-16:30 

Tea and Coffee Break (optional) 

16:30-17:30 

Session 3 (continued) 

Paula Arcari (Edge Hill University): ‘They Don’t Have to Do Anything to Have the Right to Survive, to Live’: Heterotopia as Prefigurative Interventions Towards Utopian Hearts and Minds 

Friday 9th September  

9:30-11:30 

Session 4 

Simon Coghlan (University of Melbourne) and Christine Parker (University of Melbourne): Artificial Intelligence and Animal Futures 

Alejandra Mancilla (University of Oslo): Effective Disoccupation 

11:30-12:00 

Tea and Coffee Break (optional) 

12:00-13:00 

Session 4 (continued) 

Virginia De Biasio (University of York): An Extension to Natural Resources Justice: The Case of Animals 

13:00-14:00 

Lunch 

14:00-16:00 

Session 5 

Billy Godfrey (Loughborough University): Images of Enslaved Anteaters: The Case Against Utopian Thought in Animal Studies 

Frauke Albersmeier (Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf): Reconsidering the Circumstances of Interspecies Justice 

16:00-16:30 

Tea and Coffee Break (optional) 

16:30-17:30 

Session 5 (continued) 

Sue Donaldson (Queen’s University) and Will Kymlicka (Queen’s University): Burdens of Utopia 

17:30 

End of Conference 

 

Contact Us

+44 (0) 161 306 6000

mancept-workshops@manchester.ac.uk

 

Find Us

The University of Manchester
Oxford Rd
Manchester
M13 9PL
UK

Connect With Us

  • Facebook page for The University of Manchester
  • Twitter page for The University of Manchester
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • RSS

Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress

  • Disclaimer /
  • Privacy /
  • Copyright notice /
  • Accessibility /
  • Freedom of information /
  • Charitable status /
  • Royal Charter Number: RC000797
Tweets by OfficialUoM
The University of Manchester