Intergender Course: Gender and Critical Animal Studies

Intergender, Consortium and Research School in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies www.Intergender.net

For this course PhD students, but also Master’s students are eligible to apply. 20 places are reserved for PhD students (please consult the Information of Admission at the end of this document) and 7 places are open to Master’s students.

Title of the Course: Gender and Critical Animal Studies 7,5 + 7,5 credits

Time: 11/25/2015 09:00 – 11/27/2015 16:00

Location: Stockholm University, Sweden

Deadline for applications: September 20, 2015

Applications should be sent to: Intergender Consortium Coordinator, Dr Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se), AND cc’d to the local Intergender Course Coordinator, Dr Helena Pedersen (helena.pedersen[at]buv.su.se).

Maximum number of participants: 27

Organized by: Intergender, Consortium and Research School in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies Stockholm University, Sweden

Course coordinators: Helena Pedersen, Local Intergender Course Coordinator. Edyta Just, Intergender Consortium Coordinator. Nina Lykke, Intergender Consortium Director.

Teachers: Helena Pedersen, Associate Professor, Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University Tobias Linné, Senior Lecturer, Department of Communication and Media, Lund University Per-Anders Svärd, Department of Political Science, Stockholm University

Course description: Historically, the subordination and oppression of animals and women has been facilitated and legitimated by the discursive and material linking of these two groups. The articulation of masculinity with “animality,” on the other hand, has carried very different connotations. This conceptual and political cleavage is organized by structures of power that traverse gender as well as species. For these reasons, gender studies served as a “model” for human-animal studies already when the latter was first established in the 1990s. This connection between the disciplines was further consolidated a decade later when critical animal studies were established in opposition to what was seen as a growing apolitical and academic “mainstreaming” tendency within human-animal studies. Critical animal studies are intellectually rooted in critical theory and its analyses of, and opposition to, different forms of oppression and marginalization. The analysis of power relations are central to critical animal studies: the interplay between androcentrism and anthropocentrism (as well as between sexism and speciesism); the gender coding of animal-exploiting practices such as hunting, butchering, milk and meat production (and consumption); and the sexist and speciesist effects of different linguistic and discursive strategies have all been in focus for gender-oriented researchers working in the field of critical animal studies. The interest in the relation between science and politics, the contestation of the border between research and activism, as well as a belief in the potential of theoretical work to effect social change are also common denominators between the fields. The encounter between gender studies and critical animal studies have also spawned its own repertoire of analytical concepts, such as the “absent referent” (Carol J. Adams), “carno-phallogocentrism” (Jacques Derrida), and “anthroparchy” (Erica Cudworth).

The course explores the intellectual content, theoretical strategies, and methodological tools that cut across and unite gender studies and critical animal studies as two overlapping dimensions of the same critical project for social change. Participants will analyze how the “animal issue” is articulated in gender theory and how theories of gender illuminate critical animal studies in turn. What modes of knowledge, subject positions, power relations, and practices of resistance are generated by this scientific cross-pollination? The students are encouraged to integrate the concepts, theories, and methods discussed during the course in their own research questions and projects.

Course readings:

Acampora, R. (1998). Extinction by Exhibition: Looking at and in the Zoo. Human Ecology Review 5(1), 1–4.

Adams, C.J. (1990). The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. New York: Continuum. 243 p.

Alaimo, S. & Hekman, S. (2008). Introduction: Emerging models of materiality in feminist theory. In S. Alaimo & S. Hekman (Eds.), Material Feminisms pp. 1–19. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Birke, L. (2007). Into the Laboratory. In L. Kalof & A. Fitzgerald (Eds.), The Animals Reader: The Essential Classical and Contemporary Writings pp. 323–335. Oxford & New York: BERG.

Calarco, M. (2004). Deconstruction is not vegetarianism: Humanism, Subjectivity, and Animal Ethics. Continental Philosophical Review 34, 175–201.

Cudworth, E. (2008). “Most farmers prefer Blondes”: The Dynamics of Anthroparchy in Animals’ Becoming Meat. Journal for Critical Animal Studies VI(1), 32–45.

Cudworth, E. (2011). Social Lives with Other Animals. Tales of Sex, Death and Love. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Chapter 3–4; pp. 55–104)

Derrida, J. (1995). “Eating Well”, or the Calculation of the Subject.’ In E. Weber (Ed.) Points Interviews 1974-1994, pp. 255-287. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Emberley, J. (1996). The Libidinal Politics of Fur. University of Toronto Quarterly 65(2), 437– 443.

Franklin, S. (2007): Dolly’s body: gender, genetics and the new genetic capital, in L. Kalof & A. Fitzgerald (red.), The animals reader: The essential classic and contemporary writings pp. 349– 361. Oxford & New York: BERG.

Fudge, E. (2002). A Left-Handed Blow: Writing the History of Animals. In N. Rothfels (Ed.), Representing Animals pp. 3–18. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.

Gaard, G. (2013). Toward a Feminist Postcolonial Milk Studies. American Quarterly 65(3), 595- 618.

Ganetz, H. (2004): Familiar beasts: Nature, culture and gender in wildlife films on television, Nordicom Review 25(1-2), 197–213.

Harper, A.B. (2010). Introduction: The Birth of the Sistah Vegan Project. In A.B. Harper (Ed.), Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society pp. xiii-xix. New York: Lantern Books.

Holloway, L. (2007). Subjecting cows to robots: Farming technologies and the making of animal subjects. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 25, 1041–1060.

Jenkins, S. (2012). Returning the Ethical and Political to Animal Studies. Hypatia 27(3), 504– 510.

Jones, p. (2010). Afterword: Liberation as Connection and the Decolonization of Desire. In A.B. Harper (Ed.), Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society pp. 187–201. New York: Lantern Books.

Kalof, L., Fitzgerald, A. & Baralt, L. (2004). Animals, Women, and Weapons: Blurred Sexual Boundaries in the Discourse of Sport Hunting. Society & Animals 12(3), 237–251.

Kete, K. (2002). Animals and Ideology. The Politics of Animal Protection in Europe. In N. Rothfels (Ed.), Representing Animals pp. 19–34. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.

Kheel, M. (1995). License to Kill: An Ecofeminist Critique of Hunters’ Discourse. In C.J. Adams & J. Donovan (Eds.), Animals & Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations pp. 85– 125. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Levy, D. (1997). Diary of a steak. London: Book Works. 49 pp.

McKay, R. (2006): BSE, hysteria, and the representation of animal death: Deborah Levy’s Diary of a Steak, in The Animal Studies Group, Killing Animals pp. 145–169. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

McCance, D. (2013). Feminist Contributions to Critical Animal Studies. In D. McCance, Critical Animal Studies: An Introduction pp. 87–104. Albany: SUNY Press.

Nocella, A.J., II., Sorenson, J., Socha, K. & Matsuoka, A. (2014). Introduction: The Emergence of Critical Animal Studies. The Rise of Intersectional Animal Liberation. In A.J. Nocella II, J. Sorenson, K. Socha & A. Matsuoka (Eds.), Defining Critical Animal Studies pp. xix-xxxvi. New York: Peter Lang.

Palmer, C. (2001). “Taming the Wild Profusion of Existing Things”? A Study of Foucault, Power, and Human/Animal Relationships. Environmental Ethics 23(4), 339–358.

Parry, J. (2010). Gender and Slaughter in Popular Gastronomy. Feminism and Psychology 20(3), 381–396.

Pedersen, H. (2015). Parasitic pedagogies and materialities of affect in veterinary education. Emotion, Space and Society 14, 50–56.

Socha, K. (2012). Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde: A Paradigm for Animal Liberation. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi. 240 p.

Stevens L., Kearney M. and Maclaran P. (2013). Uddering the Other, Androcentrism, Ecofeminism, and the Dark Side of Anthropomorphic Marketing. Journal of Marketing Management 29(1-2), 158-174.

Wood, D. (1999). Comment ne pas manger – Deconstruction and Humanism. In H.P. Steeves (Ed.), Animal Others: On Ethics, Onthology, and Animal Life pp. 15-35. Albany: SUNY Press.

Wyckoff, J. (2014). Linking Sexism and Speciesism. Hypatia 29(4), 721-737.

Preparation:  Course readings: Some course readings will be available via the organisers’ intra net. Books must be bought or borrowed. More info will be given to the registered participants.  Paper (2–5 pages outlining a research problem related to the participant’s PhD thesis project) to be sent to the local Intergender Course Coordinator, Helena Pedersen (helena.pedersen[at]buv.su.se), AND the Intergender Consortium Coordinator, Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se) AT THE LATEST TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE COURSE STARTS. Remember to mark it with your name and the course name.  All participants are expected to read the paper of their fellow group members before the course and be prepared to offer constructive comments in the group sessions and workshops. The papers will be made available online.

Essay:  Max 15 pages to be handed in no later than 3 months after the course. One copy should be sent to the teacher, who is going to evaluate it, and one to Intergender Consortium Coordinator Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se). The teacher has 3 months to evaluate the essay.  The essay should strike a balance between addressing a theme that has been part of course (lectures, discussions, reading material), and be relevant for participant's own research.  The essay should, moreover, be considered as an exercise in doing a written presentation aimed at an academic readership not familiar with the author’s PhD research. The essay should constitute a whole and explain relevant contexts. Accreditation and examination: 1. 7,5 ECTS credits are given for active participation and a short paper, 2–5 pages (graded pass/fail) sent in as part of the preparatory process. 2. 15 ECTS credits are given for active participation plus an essay (graded pass/fail), The essay should be 10–15 pages. The selected topic shall be related to the course content and readings, and relate to the student's own research area. The essay is to be sent to the teacher as well as to the Consortium Coordinator no later than 3 months after the final day of the course.

InterGender course participants, upon request, receive a certificate of their participation, in which a recommendation is provided regarding the amount of ECTS participants should be accredited by their respective home institution; PhD students are awarded ECTS credits for participation in InterGender certified courses in accordance with each partner higher education establishment’s rules and regulation for accreditation.

Applications should be written in English and include:  name, affiliation, full address, e-mail, phone, fax  name and affiliation of PhD supervisor  brief CV  description of PhD project (1-2 pages)  motivation: why do you want to participate in the course (1-2 pages)  please, indicate if you are in the first/middle/last phase of your PhD research

Information on Admission:

1. Participants have to be registered as PhD students.

2. PhD students from all disciplines and countries are eligible.

3. Participants will be selected on the basis of an evaluation of their CV, project description and a letter of motivation.

4. If there are more applicants who qualify for participation, than there are places, the places will be distributed along the following criteria: a) Students registered as PhD students at Partner Units will be prioritized for a maximum 80 per cent of the places. When the places are distributed among the Partner Units, a good spread between these units will also be ensured. b) Students registered as PhD students in other units at the Partner Higher Education Establishments will be prioritized for 20 per cent of the places. When the places are distributed among the Partner Higher Education Establishments, a good spread between these establishments will also be ensured. If places remain of the 80 per cent prioritized for PhD students registered at the Partner Units, these places will instead be prioritized for PhD students registered at the Partner Higher Education Establishments. c) If the students according to a) and b) do not fill all the places, remaining places will be open for competition between all eligible and qualifying applicants from any higher education establishment. 5. If there are more eligible and qualified applicants for the a selection process will take place, which, in addition to academic quality and motivation/relevance, will use non-discriminatory selection criteria, which will ensure a spread of nationalities, regions, institutions and disciplines.

6. An additional lot drawing procedure will be used, if several eligible and in all respects equally qualified applicants are competing for the limited number of places in the different categories

7. In case of too many eligible and qualifying applicants, a waiting list will also be organized, and places will be offered to applicants on this list, should some of the selected participants have to cancel.

The detailed program of the course: The detailed schedule will be distributed after selection of participants.

Intergender Partners: 1. Higher Education Establishment: Linköping University, Partner Units: Unit of Gender Studies, Department of Thematic Studies, and Division of Gender & Medicine, Coordinating Partner 2. Higher Education Establishment: Blekinge Institute of Techhnology, Partner Unit: Division of Technoscience Studies, Full Partner, 3. Higher Education Establishment: Göteborg University, Partner Unit: Gender Studies, Full Partner, 4. Higher Education Establishment: University of Helsinki. Partner Unit: Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts. Doctoral Programme in Gender, Culture and Society (SKY) and the national Gender Studies Doctoral Programme (GSDP), Full Partner 5. Higher Education Establishment: Humboldt University, Partner Unit: Centre of Transdisciplinary Gender Studies, Full Partner, 6. Higher Education Establishment: Karlstad University, Partner Unit: Centre for Gender Studies, Full Partner, 7. Higher Education Establishment: Luleå University of Technology, Partner Unit: Gender & Technology, Full Partner, 8. Higher Education Establishment: Lund University, Partner Unit: Centre for Gender Studies, Full Partner, 9. The Norwegian National Research School in Gender Studies, Full Partner, 10. Higher Education Establishment: Södertörn University, Partner Unit: Gender Studies, Full Partner, 11. Higher Education Establishment: Umeå University, Partner Unit: Umeå Centre for Gender Studies, Full Partner, 12. Higher Education Establishment: Uppsala University, Partner Unit: Centre for Gender Research, Full Partner, 13. Higher Education Establishment: Utrecht University, Partner Unit: Gender Studies / Netherlands’ research school of Gender Studies, Full Partner, 14. Higher Education Establishment: Örebro University, Partner Unit: Centre of Feminist Social Studies, Full Partner 15. Higher Education Establishment: Stockholm University, Partner Unit: Gender Studies, Full Partner 16. Higher Education Establishment: Paris 8 University, Full Partner