This book develops critical feminist animal and multispecies studies across various societal and environmental contexts. The chapters discuss timely questions broadly related to food and eating, stemming from connections drawn between critical animal studies, feminist theory, and multispecies studies. The themes explored include trans-inclusive ecofeminism, decolonial perspectives to veganism, links between the critique of ableism and animal exploitation, alternatives to dominant Western masculinities invested in meat consumption, and the politics of sex and purity in factory farming. The book explores responses to interlinked forms of exploitation by focusing on sites such as sanctuaries, educational institutions, social media, and animal advocacy.
Kadri Aavik (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of Gender Studies at Tallinn University, Estonia. She works in gender studies, critical animal studies and vegan studies—and their intersections. Her current research focuses on vegan men and masculinities.
Kuura Irni (Ph.D.) works as University Lecturer in Gender Studies at University of Helsinki. They have published among others, in
Signs,
EJWS,
NORA,
Body and Society, and
Humanimalia. Their interests include queer, trans, and decolonial feminisms, and critical multispecies studies.
Milla-Maria Joki (MA) is a Doctoral Researcher in Gender Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She studies at the Doctoral Programme in Gender, Culture, and Society (UH).
Editors’ Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Critical Feminist Animal and Multispecies Studies
Kuura Irni, Kadri Aavik and Milla-Maria Joki
PART 1: Geographies, Boundaries and Relationality
1 Naive Boars and Dummy Sows: Porcine Sex and the Politics of Purity
Marianna Szczygielska and Agata Kowalewska 2 Eating with a Cow: Feminist Multispecies Ethnography in the Kitchens of the Black Sea High Pastures of Turkey
Ezgi Burgan
PART 2: Negotiating Dependency and Care
3 Care in a Time of Anthropogenic Problems: Experiences from Sanctuary-Making in Rural Denmark
Marie Leth-Espensen 4 Negotiating Disability in Celebrity Cat Lil BUB’s Eating Videos
Milla-Maria Joki
PART 3: Revisioning the Potential of Education
5 Pedagogy of the Consumed: an Integral Feminist Lens on Veganism in Higher Education
Alka Arora 6 Human Children, Nonhuman Animals, and a Plant-Based Vegan Future
Maneesha Deckha
PART 4: Trans-Formations in Ecofeminist Theory
7 Revisiting Ecofeminist Genealogies: towards Intersectional and Trans-inclusive Ecofeminism
Kuura Irni 8 Ecofeminist Critique of the Milk Industry: from Mammal Mothers to Biocapitalist Bovines
Sanna Karhu
PART 5: Veganism and Possibilities for Resistance
9 Men’s Veganism: a Pathway towards More Egalitarian Masculinities?
Kadri Aavik 10 Staying with the Trouble in Cat Advocacy: Donna Haraway, Vegan Politics, and the Case of Cat Food
Kuura Irni 11 Fractured Locus: Resistances in the Global South and a Decolonial Ecofeminist Anti-Speciesist Praxis
Daniela Rosendo, Fabio A. G. Oliveira and Tânia A. Kuhnen
PART 6: Intersectional Animal Activisms
12 Toward Trans-Sensitive and Vegan-Intersectional Feminisms
An Interview with Panda Eriksson 13 The Future is Queer and Vegan!
An Interview with Özge Özgüner
Index
The book is targeted at academics and students in gender studies, critical animal studies, multispecies studies, sociology, food and sustainability studies and environmental humanities, and animal advocates and feminist activists.