Animal Ethics talks and courses in multiple countries

25 Sep 2019

In 2019, Animal Ethics is focusing on research, but we are also continuing our outreach work by speaking at universities and conferences. In recent months, Animal Ethics members have given talks in multiple countries, and we will continue to do so in the coming weeks.

On Sunday September 29, Animal Ethics member Courtney Henry will be giving a talk at the EAGx Conference in Sydney, entitled “Promoting concern for wild animals internationally.”

The same weekend, on Saturday 28, Animal Ethics member Asher Soryl will be speaking at the New Zealand Animal Law Conference at the Auckland University of Technology, on October 17 we will participate at the effective animal advocacy pre-EAG event at London, and on November 2 we will be giving a talk at the Animal Rights Gathering in Asturias, Spain.

Earlier this year, Animal Ethics spokespersons participated in other events including giving a presentation and a workshop at EAGx Nordics in Stockholm. Animal Ethics members also spoke at academic events in several other countries, such as the Conference of the European Association for Critical Animal Studies, seminars at the University of Bucharest in Romania, and the Italian Philosophy Institute in Naples. We were also represented at vegan festivals in several countries and gave talks at high schools.

In addition to this, Animal Ethics members involved in academia have been collaborating with different universities to teach courses about the moral consideration of animals using an antispeciesist approach. For each of these courses, students can receive educational credit. From August until the end of this academic semester in December, an Animal Ethics member is lecturing weekly at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, in Brazil. Also, during October, another of our spokespersons will be presenting a short course on the moral consideration of animals at the School of Law at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. We plan to soon expand our presence in other universities, paying special attention to those in countries where these initiatives may be unknown. This work continues the previous tour of talks series carried out in the USA, Mexico, Spain, and Brazil.

We have also noticed that the issue of wild animal suffering is becoming better known among animal advocates and effective altruists. Our recent talks introducing this problem to students and academics have generally been received very positively. Animal advocates used to be more cautious about this issue, fearing that working on it could impede progress in other areas of animal advocacy. However, we’re noticing a shift with regard to this.

The concept of speciesism and arguments about it, which we also focus on in our talks, are still relatively unknown among university audiences, but interest in it is apparently growing.

We will continue to carry out this outreach work, with an emphasis on organizing courses that can provide substantial training and capacity building for these issues.