Feminist Animal Studies

This book explores human–animal relations and species- based domination at the intersection of feminism with critique of our domination and exploitation of nonhuman animals, in conversation with power dynamics around coloniality and race, class, sexuality and embodiment.

The collection demonstrates the continued vital importance of feminism – conceptually and theoretically, methodologically and politically – to the development of animal studies. Feminism has made an incisive critique of the ways in which gender and other intersecting differences and inequalities are constitutive of our destructive, exploitative and often violent relationships with nonhuman worlds. An international group of scholars and activists showcase new work, revisiting and extending established debates while negotiating new paths. Amongst the issues addressed in this collection will be questions of animal being and animal rights, caring relations, the relationships between activism and theory, interspecies sexual violence, tension in the animal defence movement around body politics, gender politics and professionalisation, different spaces of gender and animal relations from social media to sexology, safe spaces and sanctuaries, spaces of home – both in times of ‘business-as-usual’ and in times of lockdown.

This multidisciplinary volume will be essential reading to students and academics working in the fields of cultural studies, criminology, geography, history, law, philosophy, politics and sociology, with interest in gender, environmentalism and animal studies.

The editors work in the School of Applied Social Sciences at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, and share interests in gender and species violence, environmental harms, social justice matters and intersected inequalities.

Erika Cudworth works in the School of Applied Social Sciences at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Her research interests include complexity theory, gender and human relations with nonhuman animals, particularly theoretical and political challenges to exclusive humanism. She is the author of Environment and Society (2003), Developing Ecofeminist Theory (2005) and Social Lives with Other Animals (2011); coauthor of The Modern State (2007); Posthuman International Relations (2011) and The Emancipatory Project of Posthumanism (2018); and co-editor of Technology, Society and Inequality (2013) and Anarchism and Animal Liberation (2015). Erika’s current projects are a book on people’s relations with dog companions and a critical reappraisal of the legacy of social theory for posthumanist scholarship.

Ruth E. McKie works in the School of Applied Social Sciences at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Her research interests include climate change counter movement delay and obstruction, environmental social movements, climate change and inequality with a specific focus on Latin America and pet abuse in coercive controlling relationships. Ruth’s current projects are a book on the global history of the Climate Change Counter Movement, the development of climate delay and obstruction studies in the Global South and insurance discrimination as it relates to pet abuse in domestic violence.

Di Turgoose works in the School of Applied Social Sciences at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Di is a subject lead for Domestic Violence and Abuse in the Community and Criminal Justice Division at DMU. Di also researches and lectures in gender studies, victimology and in feminist pedagogy on a range of both taught traditional and professional-based programmes, including criminology, criminal investigation, psychology, probation, social work and teacher training. Di is the Pracademics in Criminal Justice Network Lead. Her current research includes work on insurance discrimination and pet abuse within coercive controlling domestic violence and abuse relationships, where she is exploring protection, intervention, and prevention strategies.