Dr. Nicola Taylor
ICAS Oceania Co-Director
Nicola Taylor is the former Executive Director of ICAS. Taylor teaches sociology at Central Queensland University, Australia. Her interests include all aspects of human-animal relationships on a broad level. More specifically her current research links between human directed and animal directed violence; philosophies of animal welfare and animal rights, and, social theories as they pertain to our beliefs about other animals. Having always been interested in animals she was lucky enough to be able to incorporate this into her academic life by completing a PhD on the sociology of animal studies in 2000. Since then she has worked in both the UK and Australia on a number of animal related projects, both academically and community-based. Taylor regularly presents lectures and workshops on human-animal abuse links to various service providers and has been lucky enough to consult with a number of organizations regarding the instigation of numerous projects designed to protect the companion animals of those entering refuges fleeing violence. She believes firmly that in order to secure a better future for all animals (humans included) we need to address broad societal attitudes towards disenfranchised others. This has led to the development of a CD resource called ‘Happy Animals’ aimed at teaching children respect and empathy for animals. This is now regularly used throughout Australia with school children.
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Lara Drew
ICAS Oceania Conference Director
Lara Drew is a final year student completing the Bachelor of Community Education degree at University of Canberra. Her initial interest in counseling has seen a broadening of interest in both human and animal rights. This was strengthened by her developing exploration into the human psyche through art. Lara uses charcoal, pencil and pen to explore the human relationship with the natural world. Lara is active on a range of issues which sees a coalescence of rights issues such as refugees, racism, indigenous Australians, and animal rights. The main focus of her final year project is animal rights and factory farming; and animal rights activism in Australia. She is interested particularly in what dis-empowers activists, what stops people from being active participants in animal rights issues. This links to her interest in human rights as she sees the same reluctance afflicting those involved in this area of concern. As part of her particpatory research she is closely involved with animal activist rescues and factory farming; with a forthcoming project on factory farming of turkeys in Australia. Lara’s other area of interest is in educating the public about Australia’s terrible record of wildlife extinction. She actively campaigns in this area in an attempt to raise people’s awareness of the plight of Australian wildlife.
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Carolyn Drew
ICAS Oceania Co-Director
Carolyn Drew is an academic and animal rights advocate. She currently teaches out of University of Canberra College and University of Canberra . Her main focus is developing critical thinking and writing skills with a twofold purpose. The first is to support access and equity for entry to university for disadvantaged groups. The second, inspired by a Neil Postman and Paulo Freiren approach to education, is to create a learning environment where the student is empowered through nurturing these important skills. Concurrent with this area of interest is her passion for animal rights and activism. Her early experiences showed her the sentience that all life shares, and that the divisions and hierarchies by which we view and organise the world are human constructs. Thus her main focus is the human rupture from the natural world and its basis for the exploitation and abuse of other animals throughout human history. In 2009 she co-authored ‘The Harvest’ with Ray Drew, published in the ‘Southerly’, Australia’s preeminent Australian English Association Journal. ‘The Harvest’ is a faction story based on the 2008 slaughter of 512 kangaroos trapped in a disused Naval Transmission Station in Canberra, Australia. Carolyn has a BA in Communication Honours (Canb) and a Masters in Education in Adult education (UTS).
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Ray Drew is a writer and wildlife photographer. For 25 years he worked with Australian national daily newspapers and magazines as a photographer. This inspired his move into crisis intervention and community development. With the realisation that sentience is shared by all, in the last few years Ray has focussed on wildlife photography and writing. His particular interest is the human dissociation from the natural world; the human-animal split. Focusing on Australian wildlife his photography depicts the familial relationships of the animals exposing the striking similarity to relationships between humans. Further, through the use of ‘faction’, which is non-fiction writing in fiction style, he endeavours to bring the life of animals in crisis and their human counterparts into relief to increase social awareness of animal-human oppression. In 2009 he co-authored ‘The Harvest’ published in the ‘Southerly’, Australia’s preeminent Australian English Association Journal. ‘The Harvest’ is a faction story based on the 2008 slaughter of 512 kangaroos trapped in a disused Naval Transmission Station in Canberra, Australia. He has a BA First Class Honours in Professional Writing and Media (Canb). Ray also has a Masters of Arts (Communication) (Canb) and a Grad Certificate of Psychoanalytical Studies (Deakin).
