Animal Subjects: An Ethical Reader in a Posthuman World (WLU Press, 2008) challenged cultural studies to include nonhuman animals within its purview. While the “question of the animal” ricochets across the academy and reverberates within the public sphere, Animal Subjects 2.0 builds on the previous book and takes stock of this explosive turn. It focuses on both critical animal studies and posthumanism, two intertwining conversations that ask us to reconsider common sense understandings of other animals and what it means to be human.
This collection demonstrates that many pressing contemporary social problems—how and why the oppression and exploitation of our species persist—are entangled with our treatment of other animals and the environment. Decades into the interrogation of our ethical and political responsibilities toward other animals, fissures within the academy deepen as the interest in animal ethics and politics proliferates.
Although ideological fault lines have inspired important debates about how to address the very material concerns informing these theoretical discussions, Animal Subjects 2.0 brings together divergent voices to suggest how to foster richer human–animal relations, and to cultivate new ways of thinking and being with the rest of animalkind. This collection demonstrates that appreciation of difference, not just similarity, is necessary for a more inclusive and compassionate world. Linking issues of gender, disability, culture, race, and sexuality into species, Animal Subjects 2.0 maps vibrant developments in the emergent fields of critical animal studies and posthumanist thought.

Jodey Castricano is an associate professor in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia (Okanagan) and has long been an advocate of animal rights. Research concerns extend to the history of ideas in the nineteenth century, particularly in the context of Darwinian theory and the development of psychoanalysis. Previous publications include Cryptomimesis: The Gothic and Jacques Derrida’s Ghost Writing (2001). and Gothic Subjects: Literature, Film, and Psychoanalysis (2010). She is the editor of Animal Subjects (WLU Press, 2008).

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Lauren Corman is an associate professor of sociology at Brock University. She hosted the animal advocacy radio program and podcast Animal Voices, a show linking human and other animal issues, from 2001–2009. She has taught critical animal studies courses over the past six years. Her publications focus on critical animal studies pedagogy, intersectional feminism, and contemporary social theory.

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