Series
Culture, Race, Veganism: Navigating the Tensions to Keep Animals in View
Aug 19, 2024
8:30 - 10:00 AM PDT
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Presenter: Maneesha Deckha, Professor, University of Victoria, British Columbia
Maneesha Deckha is Professor and Lansdowne Chair in Law at the University of Victoria in British Columbia where she directs the Animals & Society Research Initiative. Her research expertise includes critical animal law, vegan ecofeminist theory, and postcolonial theory. She is author of Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders and has directed an open access documentary series designed for high school and undergraduate screening called A Deeper Kindness: Youth Activism in Animal Law. In 2023-2024, Professor Deckha was a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Zurich and a Senior Fellow at the Collegium Helveticum, ETH, Zurich.
Culture, Race, Veganism: Navigating the Tensions to Keep Animals in View
This talk will address how animal rights, and particularly veganism, are often impugned as a racist or culturally imperialist practice by others on the critical Left, why such charges are ill-founded, and the arguments vegan advocates can put forth to help dispel the myth that veganism and animal rights are at odds with anti-racism or decolonization efforts. The talk showcases concepts and critiques from vegan feminist theory and decolonial theory, as well as discusses recent legal and policy developments to understand the persistence of vegan malignment and propose discursive solutions to reframe veganism and animal rights as part of intersectional praxis.