The Animal Turn

Animals are increasingly at the forefront of research questions – Not as shadows to human stories, or as beings we want to understand biologically, or for purely our benefit – but as beings who have histories, stories, and geographies of their own. Each season is set around themes with each episode unpacking a particular animal turn concept and its significance therein. Join Claudia Hirtenfelder as she delves into some of the most important ideas emerging out of this recent turn in scholarship, thinking, and being.

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The Animal Turn

S1E4: Personhood with Maneesha Deckha

April 22, 2020 • Claudia Hirtenfelder • Season 1 • Episode 4

In this episode Maneesha Deckha explains the legal concept of personhood, why animal advocates are trying to include animals within the category and the potential of a different concept, ‘Legal Beingness’, to side-step some of the challenges of Personhood as a concept.

Date recorded: 2 April 2020

Guest: Maneesha Deckha is Professor and Lansdowne Chair in Law at the University of Victoria. Her research interests include critical animal studies, animal law and legalities, postcolonial feminist theory, and reproductive law. She is widely published and has received multiple grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and other funding bodies. She has also held the Fulbright Visiting Chair in Law and Society at New York University. Her book project on feminism, postcolonialism and critical animal law entitled Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders is forthcoming from the University of Toronto Press. She serves as the Director of the Animal Studies Research Initiative at the University of Victoria and is a Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network Fellow. Read more about Maneesha Deckha here.

Host: Claudia Hirtenfelder is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University and is currently undertaking her own research project that looks at the historical relationships between animals and cities. Connect with her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne)

Featured readings/speeches: Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders by Maneesha Deckha (forthcoming, Fall 2020), Best Actor Speech by Joaquin Phoenix / We are completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler.

Bed Music created by Gordon Clarke (Instagram: @_con_sol_)

Podcast Logo created by Jeremy John (Website)

Sponsored by Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics – A.P.P.L.E (Website)

Part of

Nature Disturbed
Mother Nature is one weird lady

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A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

iROAR Network
iROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals.

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The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.