feminisms in fast-forward
aNNOUNCEMENT:
dR. jANARA'S kEYNOTE hAS BEEN CANCELLED. wE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING HER BACK TO THE U OF A SOON!
pLEASE CHECK OUT HER WORK IN THE sepT. 2015 issue of the canadian journal of political science
In a timely, novel, and thought-provoking approach to our conference theme, Dr. Laura Janara (Political Science, University of British Columbia) will discuss her current critical-theoretical work on the political relationships between human and non-human animals and its implicit grounding in feminist philosophy. Engaging anew notions of politics, power and subjectivity, this sort of research contributes to the future of the field, prompting fresh questions and possibilities for research and politics. For instance, will new developments in the critical philosophy of human and non-human animals impact the way we think about gender, race, ability, class, and colonialism? Dr. Janara’s keynote has broad appeal for those interested in gender and politics, political philosophy, the Canadian state, university studies, food and environmental politics, and animal rights.
Laura Janara’s book Democracy Growing Up: Authority, Autonomy and Passion in Tocqueville’s Democracy in America received the American Political Science Association’s Foundations of Political Thought Best First Book Award; and her article “Democracy’s Family Values” won the John McMenemy Prize for the best article published in the Canadian Journal of Political Science Volume 34. This work forms part of her critical study of the language of family within modern political discourse. She has also received a Killam Teaching Prize. Her recent attention to the politics of human-nonhuman relations led her with a group of her students to organize a series of interdisciplinary scholarly panel discussions at UBC’s Green College on the use of nonhuman animals in university teaching and research. Reflecting her ongoing concern with language and also with concrete material practice, she is presently writing about the governance of “human-nonhuman” animal relations at the Canadian university.