in: Nel nome di Lazzaro. Saggi di storia della scienza e delle istituzioni scientifiche tra il XVII e il XVIII secolo, edited by Centro Studi Lazzaro Spallanzani, Bologna, Edizioni Pendragon, 2014, pp. 207-220.

Scholarship on the Pearl-poem has seen a significant jump in recent years, due largely to the influx of eco-critical readings throughout Medieval studies. Gillian Rudd’s recent book Greenery: Ecocritical Readings of Late Medieval English Literature explores a new and exciting reading of the poem’s natural environment, claiming that the rose met…[Read more]

Syllabus for an undergraduate course on Erving Goffman.

Syllabus for an undergraduate course on Erving Goffman.

A syllabus for an undergraduate animal studies course.

A syllabus for an undergraduate animal studies course.

This essay offers a short story about long distance trade during the “global” middle ages. It emerges as a response to two seemingly unrelated puzzles: one, the role of walrus ivory in the Norse Atlantic economy; the other, the origins of a mysterious material known in Arabic sources as khutu. Although debated within distinct specializations, the…[Read more]

An MA thesis discussing the role of vegetal offerings in Roman religion, and the shift in attitudes towards them in the first centuries CE

including readings of Joseph McElroy, Tolkien, Norman Rush, Sartre, and others

on vivisection at Ryerson University, and academic freedom

review of Andrew F. Smith, A Critique of the Moral Defense of Vegetarianism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)

on systems intelligence, foundations of math, and else

on animals in literature, film

The promulgation of pollution control regulations governing factory farms has led to a striking new way of representing and intervening in the bodies of farmed animals: the body is being represented as a source of pollution, and various technological interventions, from genetic engineering to dietary changes, are being deployed to reduce pollution…[Read more]

The promulgation of pollution control regulations governing factory farms has led to a striking new way of representing and intervening in the bodies of farmed animals: the body is being represented as a source of pollution, and various technological interventions, from genetic engineering to dietary changes, are being deployed to reduce pollution…[Read more]

This article examines Farm Sanctuary’s failed effort to save the Enviropigs. In the Spring of 2012, after losing the main source of funding for its Enviropig project, the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, killed the last sixteen members of this line of transgenic pigs, despite Farm Sanctuary’s offer to place them in permanent homes. The…[Read more]

This article examines Farm Sanctuary’s failed effort to save the Enviropigs. In the Spring of 2012, after losing the main source of funding for its Enviropig project, the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, killed the last sixteen members of this line of transgenic pigs, despite Farm Sanctuary’s offer to place them in permanent homes. The…[Read more]

An examination of taxonomic bias in the field of animal studies.

An examination of taxonomic bias in the field of animal studies.

Roadkill is disgusting. Many people just want it removed from the roads as quickly as possible, and they don’t care where it goes. In Pennsylvania, most of the deer carcasses that are collected from the roads end up in landfills. But is this a respectful way to treat the dead? And what about the vultures and other scavengers who would otherwise e…[Read more]