Education for Total Liberation

Education for Total Liberation is a collection of essays from leaders in the field of critical animal pedagogy (CAP). CAP emerges from activist educators teaching critical animal studies and is rooted in critical theory as well as the animal advocacy movement. Critical animal studies (CAS) argues for an interdisciplinary approach to understanding our relationships with nonhuman animals. CAS challenges two specific fields of theory: (1) animal studies, rooted in vivisection and testing on animals in the hard sciences and (2) human-animal studies, which reinforces a socially constructed binary between humans and animals and adopts abstract theoretical approaches. In contrast, CAS takes a progressive and committed approach to scholarship and sees the exploitation of nonhuman animals as interrelated with oppression of humans based on class, gender, race, ability, sexuality, age, and citizenship. CAS promotes the liberation of all animals and challenges all systems of domination. Education for Total Liberation is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate level readers (and beyond) who wish to learn from examples of radical pedagogical projects shaped by CAS and critical pedagogy. Contributing to this collection are Anne C. Bell, Anita de Melo, Carolyn Drew, Amber E. George, Karin Gunnarsson Dinker, Sinem Ketenci, John Lupinacci, Anthony J. Nocella II, Sean Parson, Helena Pedersen, Ian Purdy, Constance L. Russell, J.L. Schatz, Meneka Repka, William E. Shanahan III, and Richard J, White.

The editors and contributing authors in this book are activist educators from around the globe and represent diverse critical perspectives contributing to Critical Animal Studies and the emerging and connected Critical Animal Pedagogies. Anthony J. Nocella II, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Salt Lake Community College. Carolyn Drew holds a M.Ed. in adult education and is Director of Regions of the Institute of Critical Animal Studies. Amber E. George, Ph.D., is Executive Director of Finance of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies. Sinem Ketenci, MSW, is a social worker and a co-founder of the vegan clubs at Ryerson and Canterbury Universities. John Lupinacci, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor at Washington State University. Ian Purdy is a co-organizer of the open lecture series Animal Rights Academy at the University of Toronto. J.L. Schatz is Lecturer in English and Feminist Evolutionary Theory at Binghamton University.