S2E6: Interspecies Subjectivity with Lauren Corman

Claudia speaks to Lauren Corman about interspecies subjectivity unpacking what subjectivity itself could mean and why it is so important to consider how it is shaped by species. They reflect on threads scholars need to hold in tension when trying to understand experience and using such theoretically dense concepts.

Recorded: 6 November 2020

Dr. Lauren Corman is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Brock University. Hired as the first professor to specialize in critical animal studies, Lauren teaches about animals and contemporary social theory. Lauren previously hosted the Animal Voices radio show, an animal advocacy program dedicated to social justice – which continued to be hosted by collective of scholars when she departed in 2010.  Inspired by her mentors in Environmental Studies (Drs. Leesa Fawcett, Connie Russell, and Cate Sandilands), Lauren continues to interrogate “the question of the animal(s)” from intersectional, decolonial, and anti-capitalist perspectives. Her current foci include trauma, sociality, and interspecies subjectivity. Lauren is the co-editor of Animal Subjects 2.0., as well as a popular piece titled From Wet Markets to Meatpacking: Why Animal Advocacy Fails without Anti-Racism.  She wrote a chapter in Colonialism and Animality: Anti-Colonial Perspectives in Critical Animal Studies, edited by Kelly Struthers Montford, Chloë Taylor, and is working on a book about the complex histories of vilified animals (Twitter @Lauren Corman; Instagram @fugazitarian).

Claudia (Towne) Hirtenfelder is the host of The Animal Turn. She is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning at Queen’s University and is undertaking a research project looking at the geographical and historical relationships between animals (specifically cows) and cities (Twitter @ClaudiaFTowne).

Featured: The Companion Species Manifesto by Donna Haraway; Under Western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses by Chandra Mohanty; Encounters with Animal Minds by Barbara Smuts; Dangerous Crossings by Claire Jean Kim;

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

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