Ecoability Collective

ABOUT ECOABILITY COLLECTIVE

The Ecoability Collective, founded in 2012 is a collective of  activists who view the oppression of all Beings interlinked and work to end all forms of oppression by working toward total liberation and social justice. Ecoability Collective provides a forum and a place for people to talk about how ecological destruction intersects with human identity and how discrimination against the disabled body goes hand-in-hand with discrimination against nonhuman animals.

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COLLECTIVE MEMBERS

Dr. Anthony Nocella II:
Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice, Salt Lake Community College
nocellat@yahoo.com

Zach Richter
cyruscyruscyruscyrus8 [at] gmail [dot] com

Dr. Amber E. George
Editor, Journal of Critical Animal Studies

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7th Annual Eco-ability Conference
July 2, 2021

6th Annual Eco-ability Conference
July 11, 2020

10:00AM – 2:00PM (USA Eastern Time)

10:00am
1. Getting to Solidarity: Toward An Interest-Based Conflict Resolution Approach To Resolving The Conflict between Eco-Ability Equity and Animal Equity”
Daniel Salomon

This paper will engage the various ability movements and animal liberation movements to rethink the relationship among abilities, animals and the animal liberation movements from the perspectives of social justice, social equity, the urban context, multiable identities and win-win interest-based conflict resolution. This paper will explore why making certain individuals into super crips, is both hurtful and harmful to the animal and abilities movements alike in an age of isolating like abilities, tokenism, urbanization, social asceticism, institutional animal cruelty, socio-planetary crisis and climate emergency. Getting beyond typical complaining approaches in the ability movements and rigid strategies in the animal liberation movements, this paper will explore the possibility of taking a social justice, social equity, urban contextualized, multiable identities, win-win interest-based conflict resolution approach to animal liberation. An approach based on integrating the full range of human abilities into the animal liberation movements and making movements, communities and lifestyles more inclusive, accessible, accommodating, individualized, culturally appropriate and mutualistic, empowering all human abilities to work towards animal liberation. As someone who is both neurodiverse and intrinsically committed to animal liberation, environmentalism and the socio-planetary struggle, I plan to advocate for the empowerment of peoples of all abilities to be able to engage animal issues and enact animal liberation.    

Daniel Salomon has an MA in Theological Research from Andover Newton Theological School with Graduate Certificate in Science and Religion from Boston Theological Institute, as well as a BS Cum Laude from Salisbury University (with concentrations in Biology, Environmental Studies and Conflict Analysis/Dispute Resolution) and a Naturalist Certificate from the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies. Salomon is author of seven books on the environment and a contributor to the eco-ability field. Salomon’s latest book “God’s Kindness” was reviewed by Ed Langlois in the Catholic Sentinel of the Portland Oregon Archdioceses. Salomon lives in Portland Oregon and is a lifelong vegetarian.

10:30am
2. The Place for Secondary-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Eco-Ability
T.N. Rowan
Increasing recognition of burn out has led some scholars to claim many vegans will develop Secondary-Traumatic Stress Disorder (STSD) as a result of witnessing violence against nonhuman animals. STSD is significant because it both identifies and poses a problem: what nonhuman animals experience as part of their everyday lives is traumatic and that trauma reverberates outwards to those who witness it. STSD takes nonhuman animals seriously while also opening up questions about normalized or commonplace activist practices. Vegan activism and CAS literature are the source of countless texts that bring to the forefront violence against nonhuman animals. Being a scholar and/or activist requires engagement with these texts because there is arguably no way to escape them and remain in these communities. This presentation is guided by the questions: how can activists work with the seemingly incompatible interests of nonhuman animals exposed to violence and humans who cannot bear witness to this violence but still want to do activism and be a part of activist communities? Furthermore, how can an eco-ability framework include STSD without perpetuating ableism? Thus far trauma, STSD, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder have received minimal attention in critical literature on disability. This presentation includes personal activist and scholarly experiences including questionable widespread practices and trauma-informed alternatives such as educating about trauma, using content warnings, and creating alternative spaces and content for accessibility.

T.N. Rowan is a PhD student in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. They are currently researching world building and its potential as an environmental ethics methodology and form of arts-based research. T.N. Rowan is proposing world building can facilitate intersectional activist communities and individuals in identifying and responding to issues that matter to them. They frame world building as an accessible and creative form of critical thinking. T.N. Rowan’s research interests also include naming, identity, violence, and trauma across a variety of boundaries including species, gender, and sexual orientation.

11:00am
3. ADHD, Neuroableism, and White Supremacy “For the Animals”
Julia Feliz

In their chapter, Julia Feliz will draw parallels between the tactics used in the Animal Rights movement in association with the centering of the mainstream white majority, which exclude neurodivergent communities “for the animals.” Exclusion, like most white centered and co-opted social justice movements, is a defining characteristic of the mainstream vegan/Animal Rights movement in which only those that perform according to the supremacist “norms” are allowed a platform within the hierarchy that places nonhuman “animals first” above all other marginalized people. Through their previous work, Julia has been able to trace the path of supremacy within the vegan and (nonhuman) Animal Rights movement as it relates to race and queerness. Similarly, in this chapter, they will attempt to establish a path as it relates to neurodivergence through answers the following: What does the vegan and (nonhuman) Animal Rights movement look like for an ardent neurodivergent Animal Rights activist committed to consistent anti-oppression and guided through an acute awareness of their ADHD? How do unchecked white supremacy and neuroableism work hand-in-hand to ensure that the most privileged humans remain centered above both nonhuman animals and neurodivergent humans? How can neurotypical vegans work to bridge gaps with neurodivergent communities to ensure that nonhumans do indeed come first in their own movement?

Julia Feliz is a resource activist, illustrator, and the author of works, including “Veganism in an Oppressive World (2017),” “Veganism of Color: Decentering Whiteness in Human and Nonhuman Liberation (2019),” and due in 2020, “Queer and Trans Voices: Achieving Liberation Through Consistent Anti-Oppression.” Julia is also the founder and lead content editor of Sanctuary Publishers. They are also the designer and creator of resources, such as NeuroAbleism.com, ConsistentAntiOppression.com,  VeganismOfColor.com, and NewPrideFlag.com. Julia holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in the biological sciences and most recently, was kicked out of Cornell University for their radical and open stance against racism, neuroableism, and nonbinarism in the field of science and beyond.
11:00am

11:30am
4. Fitness and Total Liberation
Anthony J. Nocella II

I co-founded a running club in 2019 to promote, health, physical fitness, friendships, and activism for animal liberation. What we have found is that this club has promoted an inclusive space for those with different abilities for all. This running club is also open to those that want to roll, walk, sit or lay-down, while others do other different activities. After the weekly run and random races such as trail races, Ragnar, and 5K fun runs, the club gathers at local vegan restaurants in Utah to eat together. For social movements to grow and be sustainable it is critical to build community and foster a holistic living – mind, body and spirit, for activism.

Anthony J. Nocella II, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology in the Institute of Public Safety at Salt Lake Community College. He is the editor of the Peace Studies Journal, Transformative Justice Journal, and co-editor of five book series including Critical Animal Studies and Theory with Lexington Books and Hip Hop Studies and Activism with Peter Lang Publishing. He is the National Director of Save the Kids and Executive Director of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies. He has published over fifty book chapters or articles and forty books. He has been interviewed by New York Times, Washington Post, Houston Chronicles, Fresno Bee, Fox, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, and Los Angeles Times.

5th Annual Eco-ability Conference

“Nature, Animals & Disability”
March 4, 2017

12pm to 2pm Eastern Time USA
11am to 1pm Central Time USA
10am to 12pm Mountain Time USA
9am to 11am Western Time USA

Online and Free
Click here to join the conference

Only 25 people can register so sign up quick!

If you have any problems please call Anthony Nocella – 315-657-2911 (cellphone) or nocellat@yahoo.com

If you are at Fort Lewis College or in Durango, Colorado – watch the conference for free and open to the public at – Reed Library Room 67.

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CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

**Each presentation is 20 minutes long with Q and A being 10 to 15 minutes.

1. The Interdependency of Humans and Nature: a Plea for Ecopedagogy and Eco-ability Activism
Sarah Adams, Fort Lewis College
Q and A

2. Justice Among Humans, Animals and the Environment: Investigated Through an Ability Studies, Eco-Ableism, and Eco-Ability Lens
Gregor Wolbring, University of Calgary
Q and A

3. Justice Among Humans, Animals and the Environment: Investigated Through an Ability Studies, Eco-Ableism, and Eco-Ability Lens
Aryn Brianne Lisitza, University of Calfary
Q and A

4. The Rise of Eco-ability Movement and Theory
Anthony J. Nocella II, Fort Lewis College
Q and A

5. (Re)Imaginings of “Community”: Perceptions of (Dis)ability, the environment, and Inclusion
John Lupinacci, Washington State University
Q and A

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CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS – CLOSED

We are looking for papers and presentations concerning, but not limited to, the following topics:

Eco-Ability Intersectional Theories – We are looking for intersectional innovative liberatory theories between dis-ability studies, environmental ethics, critical animal studies, queer studies, critical race theory, transnational feminism, and other radical theories that promote activism.
Activist Stories of exclusion of people with dis-abilities in the animal advocacy movement – What are the problems within the animal advocacy/liberation movement that create tension with dis-abled advocates? How can these problems be resolved? What animal advocacy campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, theories, and practices are exclusionary and ableist to those with dis-abilities?
Activist Stories of exclusion of animal advocacy/liberation in the dis-abilities rights movement – How are animal advocates excluded from discussion within dis-ability rights movement? How can these exclusions be resolved? What effective routes of activism can we take to create more effective coalitions between these two struggles? What dis-ability rights campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, and practices are exclusionary and speciesist to those involved in the animal advocacy movement?
Critiques of Service Nonhuman Animals and Animal Testing/Vivisection – Vivisection and service nonhuman animals are often touted as the “cure” for people with dis-abilities. What does it mean to try to “cure” dis-ability? Is what science does, such as testing on nonhuman animals, while searching for “cures” worth the cost? What is our responsibility to nonhuman animals in relation to people with dis-ability and vice versa?
Activist stories of being included or excluded from the animal, dis-ability, and environmental movements – What are the problems within the animal, dis-ability, and environmental movements that creates tension between the different movements and advocates? How can these problems be resolved? How are these problems being solved? What animal, Earth, and dis-ability campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, theories, and practices are exclusionary?

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4th Annual Eco-ability Conference

2016 15th ANNUAL NORTH AMERICAN
CONFERENCE FOR CRITICAL ANIMAL STUDIES

Senate Room, Student Union
Fort Lewis College
Durango, Colorado, USA
Saturday, November 12 and Sunday, November 13, 2016
#2016NACriticalAnimalStudies
There is an airport – Durango Airport

CLICK HERE FOR PDF OF CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

LIVESTREAMING CLICK HERE

The North American Collective of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS) is calling for presentations by activist-scholars for panels, workshops, trainings, teach-ins, spoken-word sessions, roundtables, documentary showings, and art performances that examine effective, successful activism. All sessions will be 1 ½ hours long. We are very interested in activism that promotes the intersections between speciesism, animal liberation, and the following: anarchism, sexism, racism, colonialism, economic justice, ableism, prison abolition, the war on drugs, green anarchism, youth justice, Hip Hop, punk, Transphobia, LGBTTQQIA, elitism, veganism, vivisection, entertainment, fashion, music, media, imperialism, political prisoner support, total liberation, and the Animal Liberation Front.

ICAS is committed to making sure that critical animal studies is grounded in activism by activists rather than in mere theory by theorists and academics who speak about activism and nonhuman animals from a detached perspective.

The Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS), rooted in animal liberation and anarchism, is an intersectional transformative, holistic, theory-to-action, activist-led organization. ICAS unapologetically examines, explains, is in solidarity with, and part of radical and revolutionary actions, theories, groups, and movements for total liberation. We seek to dismantle all systems of domination and oppression in quest of a just, equitable, inclusive, and peaceful world.

The 15th Annual Conference is a grass-roots, non-funded, fully-volunteer, free event (with donations being requested and welcomed during the conference). As this is a volunteer-led effort, the conference will not cover food, but attendees can eat in the cafeteria, where there will be vegan options. We have no scholarships or funding to pay for lodging or travel of anyone. We also because of our anarchist values will not pay people to speak or provide a plenary panel or keynote to value one over another.

Nestled in the Rocky Mountains, Durango, Colorado is an international vacation destination with hiking, bicycling, camping, skiing, rafting, climbing, art galleries, wonderful restaurants/cafes, and Native American ruins. Durango, Colorado has a local airport, over twenty hotels, public transportation, and is one of the most beautiful mountain towns in the United States. We invite you to not only attend the conference, but save time to enjoy the natural world as well.

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Conference Committee is the ICAS International Collective (International Board):

Anthony Nocella, Fort Lewis College
Sinem Ketenci, Institute for Critical Animal Studies
John Lupinacci, Washington State University
Joe Leeson-Schatz, Binghamton University
Carolyn Drew, University of Canberra
Amber George, Cornell University
Ian Purdy, Institute for Critical Animal Studies If you have any questions please contact:   Sean Parson – Sean.Parson@nau.edu

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ICAS is excited to say that of 2016 ICAS is moving to a working-collective for our Board of Directors. ICAS founded in 2001, is a fully-volunteer organization and since 2013 have begun having collective/board meetings to aid in distributing power equitably. In 2014 we have created working roles for each individual on the collective/board, which in 2015 we defined roles and created a 100+ manual to help build and organize ICAS to be more equitable and effective. Today, the ICAS International Collective is skilled and moving forward as a small collective, not an association or term-limited board of directors. We cannot be everything for everyone and always encourage everyone to help build the field and movement of Critical Animal Studies by building Journals, Conferences, Centers, and other organizations. Thank you again for all the support.

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Fort Lewis College has been selected by the ICAS International Collective after the Call for Location Hosts deadline for a number of important reasons. Fort Lewis College can offer free rooms, free technology, accessible buildings, Department supportive of CAS, students and community supportive of CAS, free use of tables, chairs, desks, wi-fi, local airport, hotels, cheap public transportation, beautiful location, and vegan local restaurants. Almost no university/college can offer all of these needs and so we are honored to have Fort Lewis College host this year’s conference. With all of these wonderful free resources ICAS can offer this conference free to attend for all. As a fully-volunteer organization ICAS cannot manage catering food so we are suggesting all attendees during breakfast and lunch to go to the cafeteria to pick up food, which there is vegan options. Of course donations will be accepted during the conference.

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SPONSORS

Institute for Critical Animal Studies
Peace Studies Journal
Outdoor Empowerments
Save the Kids
Poetry Behind the Walls
Wisdom Behind the Walls
Arissa Media Group
Academy for Peace Education
Academy for Critical Animal Studies
Transformative Justice Journal
Journal for Critical Urban Education
Green Theory and Praxis Journal
Journal for Critical Animal Studies
Durango Hip Hop
Radical Animal Studies and Total Liberation
Durango Prisoner Letter Writing
Youth Empowerment and Leadership
Institute for Hip Hop Activism

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2nd Annual Eco-ability Conference

“Engaging with Eco-ability Conference”
Disability, Animals, and Ecological Justice

July 26th, 2014
1:00pm to 5:00pm Eastern USA Time

#ecoability

#criticalanimalstudies

***Eco-ability is a movement and theory grounded in animal liberation/critical animal studies, disability rights/disability studies, and ecological justice/environmental studies.

Join the Conference here: https://www.anymeeting.com/928-663-319
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SCHEDULE
(each presenter speaks for 15 to 20 minutes)

1:00pm Tina Cubberley

VIDEO PRESENTATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye4kq674k7Y

ABSTRACT: my presentation, entitled ‘the spectrum of perceptions and cure oppression’ has both autobiographical and theoretical elements. It is essentially an intersectional exploration of the struggle against ableism, the vegan anarchist values inherent in and indispensable to that struggle and the politics of normality. It takes the form of a non-linear narrative describing some of the challenges I have faced, on my journey to empowerment and self-belief, as both a person branded and stigmatized as ‘disabled’ and as a justice activist who came to the movement through my passion for feminist values and animal liberation. I relate my own experiences of oppression to the obstacles confronting us as activists for a fairer world, by means of juxtaposing pieces of my journal entries from the time I was confined to a mental hospital with my more resent writing on my developing understanding of intersectionality. I will refer to my beliefs as an anarchist, radical feminist and anit-speciesist campaigner in order to explore and illustrate my theory of ‘ cure oppression,’ and will also use some of my zine writing and design work to explain my thinking about the spectrum of perceptions. an understanding of this last, I argue, is particularly vital in our struggle against the effects of internalized oppression and the devaluation of our subjective experiences of the world by mainstream society. related issues which i hope to touch on in linking and exploring these themes include – healing and self care as forms of resistance. Audre Lorde’s concept of the mythical norm. Cure oppression as it relates to speciesism and finally the threat to socially constructed and disempowering movement boundaries posed by an intersectional understanding of veganism as a movement that embraces us all. In summary – my presentation is about my intersectional vision of justice, explored through various forms of self expression and communication originating from DIY culture.

BIO: I am an anarchist, radical feminist and straight edge animal rights and justice activist. I am also diagnosed with asperger’s syndrome and have experience of the mental health industry. I have spent some time in anarchist organising, volunteering with a local chapter of food not bombs, and also working on the committee of a student animal liberation group which I co-founded while i was in college. I have recently been giving a series of workshops with the vegan information project , an intersectional justice advocacy group based in Dublin Ireland. Among the topics I gave talks and facilitated workshops on were – an anarcha-feminist approach to rights-based animal liberation theory, an intersectional understanding of the anarchist ahd animal rights movements as one and the same the need for the development of a strong autonomous independent media network among activists and oppressed communities and the theory and practice of direct action and civil disobedience. Other projects I am currently working on include – writing an distributing zines on social justice issues (I have previously written a poetry collection entitled anti-speciesist action) and training in women’s self defense, a topic on which i have also given a practical workshop and skill-share .

1:20pm Q and A

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“Lived Objects: Prosthetics, Agency and the Question of Object Oriented Ontology within an Ecological Disability Studies Framework”
1:30pm Zach Richter

VIDEO PRESENTATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3VHR53R408

ABSTRACT: As previous areas of criticism have become outmoded by serially unsatisfied questions concerning being and knowledge, the area of study known as Object Oriented Ontology has jumped to the forefront of cultural studies and philosophy conversations. While scholars such as Kate Barad already take note of ableism and anthropocentrism as formative reasons why abandoning the human as a site of inquiry may turn out to be a viable theoretical move, little has been done to interrogate how the objects which are now granted a form of agency and entanglement within animal and disabled subjectivities become sites of contestation between normalizing and dissident social values. In an attempt to better integrate the object within feminist discourses that prioritize the personal, this essay will consider objects both as living and lived—granting them an existence both figured into the entanglements of humanness and animality as well as pursuing their independent meaning-making trajectories. Phenomenology has long considered the importance of horizons in defining boundaries and encircling aspects of consciousness. The full application of Barad’s theory of entanglement requires thinking boundaries as dotted lines that release bodies and phenomena on the periphery as well as binding them to larger apparatuses. This overlap embodies the paradoxical relation that one hopes to put forward through the concept of the lived object—an object simultaneously prosthetic and agential.

BIO: Zach Richter is a community organizer, debate coach and artist studying in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Disability and Human Development program. He has presented at national conferences including the Queer Places, Practices and Lives Symposium, the Society for Disability Studies, the Institute for Critical Animal Studies and the Pop Culture/ American Culture Association. A second-year graduate student, Zach already has a significant publication history, including one article in the Journal for Critical Animal Studies and chapters forthcoming in three disability studies anthologies. He manages www.didistutter.org, a disability culture website dedicated to dysfluency activism, and blogs about radical disability and queer politics at http://stimstammersandwinks.blogspot.com. He is a co-founder of the Facebook groups NeuroQueer and Autistic Anarchist Internationale and manages the largest anarchist page on Facebook, Anarchist Memes.

2:50pm Q and A

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“Civilization Will Stunt Your Growth: Defending Anarcho-Primitivism from Accusations of Ableism”
2:00pm Ian E. Smith

VIDEO PRESENTATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_jndI7dTs

ABSTRACT: Anarcho-primitivism is frequently described by its critics as being incapable of providing sufficient accommodation for people with disabilities; it purportedly “requires a non-disabled body for its ideal society” and is thus viewed as an inherently ableist position. I will argue, on the contrary, that anarcho-primitivism advocates a society that would provide the fullest flourishing for people with a diverse range of abilities and that civilization itself is a disablizing force. It is civilization that effectively stunts our growth and renders many of us disabled; it is civilization that narrows the range of our senses, shrinks our world and our horizons, and denies us the opportunity to experience the full use of our bodies. The standardization of mass society necessarily defines an increasing number of people as “disabled” if they do not fit a narrowly prescribed form. The “normal range” of human variation is being shrunk and those outside of this range are stigmatized, pathologized, medicated, and manipulated. The civilized solution to living with people of different abilities is to treat large segments of people like broken clocks in need of new parts or regular servicing. This approach is in accordance with the standard operating procedure of civilization to understand every human problem as a technical problem; it allows us to discharge our responsibility to care for those around us by developing new products, offering new services, and building new infrastructure. The need for relationship is erased. In this way, civilization allows us not to care for others who may need assistance, which is to say, it allows others not to care for us when we need assistance. The civilized solution to accommodating people with a diverse range of abilities is worse than the perceived problem. The solution is runaway technological escalation and all of the consequences that come with that.

BIO: Ian E. Smith currently lives in Eugene, Oregon. His academic background is in philosophy having graduated with a Master’s degree from the University of Connecticut in 2006. His writing has appeared in venues such as Philosophy Now, the Journal for Critical Animal Studies, and the recently released volume Animals and War: Confronting the Military-Animal Industrial Complex. Ian blogs at uncivilizedanimals.wordpress.com

2:20pm Q and A

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“What About The Plants: Integrating Ecology into Eco-ability”
2:30pm Kim Socha

VIDEO PRESENTATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srTJhNkAOUs

ABSTRACT: As a contributor to the first book on eco-ability and co-editor of a special issue on eco-ability for the Journal for Critical Animal Studies, I have noticed the difficulty scholars appear to have in integrating the environment proper (what I call “green nature”) into their work. The correlations between human and nonhuman animals with disabilities seem a more natural fit for some, relegating plants, trees, mountains, oceans, etc. to the margins of the theoretical perspective. In this presentation, I will offer ideas as to why this oversight exists and how we as eco-ability scholars can begin to look at “green nature” as an entity under domination as much as are oppressed animal organisms. Therein, I also address an issue that should be of growing interest to animal and environmental activists: the question of plants. Most activists have heard the tongue-in-cheek question about plant sentience within their animal advocacy. But while it is tempting dismiss this red herring question out of hand, I believe we need to give it more serious thought and develop more sophisticated responses to the query, although it is most often asked with flippant indifference. Within those responses are avenues for integrating the seemingly non-sentient environment into a holistic eco-ability theory that benefits both animals and the planet.

BIO: Kim Socha, Ph.D, is author of Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde: A Paradigm for Animal Liberation and is a contributing editor to Confronting Animal Exploitation: Grassroots Essays on Liberation and Veganism and Defining Critical Animal Studies: A Social Justice Approach for Liberation. She is currently working on a monograph entitled Animal Liberation and Atheism: Dismantling the Procrustean Bed. Kim is a professor of English and an advocate for animal liberation and social justice at the Animal Rights Coalition and the Minnesota branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

2:50pm Q and A

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“A Movement of Oppressors: An Eco-ability Perspective on Narcissism and the Savior Mentality in Animal Advocacy”
3:00pm Anthony J. Nocella II

VIDEO PRESENTATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inZSo6UYASM

ABSTRACT: This intersectional presentation arises from an anti-racist, disability studies, and critical animal studies perspective to problematize the animal liberation movement as one comprised wholly of animal oppressors who ironically act to end the oppression of nonhuman animals. Within the history of social justice movements, this paradoxical situation has only occurred once before, in the environmental movement, but even that movement involved concerned with human health and living standards; in other words, it wasn’t fully active for another species. This presentation will look at two consequences of oppressors advocating for the oppressed: rampant narcissism and proliferation of the savior mentality. Narcissism and the savior mentality manifest via a variety of tactics and strategies which reinforce human supremacy. For example, the animal liberation/rights movement has more public personalities and “celebrities” than most other social justice causes. This is a dangerous paradigm that pulls attention away from nonhuman animal suffering. Before being an ally or claiming solidarity with the oppressed, individuals and movements must become aware of the actions and mentalities that perpetuate oppression, domination, and supremacy. Part self-reflection, part critical analysis, this presentation will not merely point fingers at animal advocates in general; rather, I will explain how I have also promoted narcissism and savior mentality within the movement and offer strategies to subvert these tendencies.

BIO: Anthony J. Nocella II, Ph.D., is Senior Fellow of the Dispute Resolution Institute at the Hamline Law School. Nocella received his doctorate in Social Science from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs. He has published more than fifty scholarly articles or book chapters; co-founded eco-ability and critical animal studies; co-founded and is Director of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies; is the editor of the Peace Studies Journal; and has published more than fifteen books. His areas of interest include justice studies, disability studies, Hip Hop, transformative justice, and peace and conflict studies. His website is www.anthonynocella.org.

3:20pm Q and A

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“Animal Advocates Being Allies and in Solidarity with those with Disabilities”
3:30pm Joe Leeson-Schatz

VIDEO PRESENTATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujH64EL9psU

ABSTRACT:

BIO: Joe Leeson-Schatz is a Professor of English and Feminist Evolutionary Studies at Binghamton University where he also serves as the Director of the Speech and Debate Team, which was ranked 1st in the nation in 2008. He has published essays on technology and apocalypse, environmental securitization, disability studies, and the influence of science-fiction on reality.

3:50pm Q and A

“Animal Prostheses as a Site of Transspecies Intimacy: Queering Time and Scale”
4:00pm Lauren O’Laughlin

VIDEO PRESENTATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVNoYkWUhOk

ABSTRACT: The recent attention on eco-ability within critical animal studies has promising implications for our work as justice advocates. Although linking disability and animality has proven to be fruitful, there is not yet much work on the specific intimacies produced through the development and maintenance of prostheses in animals. My paper posits that prosthetic limbs for typically commodified animals constitute a unique language of transspecies intimacy, paying particular attention to how they create understandings of shared precarity and grievability. This project argues that caring for farm animals with disabilities can queer the way we think about time and scale in useful ways. Caring for farm animals with prostheses can create new articulations of non-work time for otherwise commodified animals. Moreover, the need for ongoing surveillance of animals and their prostheses for signs of discomfort acts as a kind of fermata, extending the connection between animals and their caretakers and signifying a commitment on the part of humans to the animals’ wellbeing. Simultaneously, transspecies intimacies can queer scale: by focusing on the small-scale of the individual, caretakers recognize animals’ abilities to indicate their consent for a prosthesis, rather than relying on a top-down approach of treatment. In the process of building transspecies intimacy, caretakers can also re-scale the issue when they recognize that the mistreatment of animals with disabilities, from birth or developed as a result of industrial agriculture, are not merely individual instances of injustice, but part of a system of violence. In order to foster positive queer intimacies between humans and nonhuman animals, these coexisting subversions of time and scale must be analyzed. Consequently, this paper unpacks the unique care ethics emerging from transspecies disability work.

BIO: Lauren O’Laughlin is a doctoral student in the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Department at the University of Washington in Seattle. As a long-time animal justice advocate and a queer feminist, their research follows threads of posthumanism and ecofeminism to look at how both human and non-human animals are constituted as laboring subjects in meat production in the U.S. Lauren specifically focuses on beef production and the way that race and gender are discursively reinforced through the production and consumption process. At the core, they examine how we might queer the concept of the non-human animal as an ontological other.

4:20pm Q and A

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4:30pm Gregor Wolbring

VIDEO PRESENTATION: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmPi2ee21z8

ABSTRACT: Ability privilege describes the advantages enjoyed by those who exhibit certain abilities and the unwillingness of these individuals to relinquish the advantage linked to the abilities especially with the reason that these are earned or birth given (natural) abilities. To link it back to disabled people as the originator of the term ableism. The concept of ableism was developed to question the ability privileges (i.e. ability to work, to gain education, to be part of society, to have an identity, to be seen as citizen) that come with a species-typical body (although they did not use the term ability privilege) [9]. Disablism conceptualized within this meaning of ability privilege suggests that people with expected, normative body abilities are not willing to give up their ability privileges[9]. The cultural phenomenon of Ability privileges, however, can be employed beyond the social group of disabled people and their encounter with the ‘ability normative’ body. Ability privileges can play themselves out between traditionally defined social groups (e.g. race, gender, class). However at the same time social groups are also formed based on ability privileges whereby the social group is defined by whether its members have or don’t have a given ability (the ability-have and the ability-non-have social groups) [9]. Ability privilege also influences how one relates to nature and to animals and shapes one identity [9]. Which ability privilege is classified as earned or unearned constantly changes and is not only culturally constructed, but exhibition and acceptance or rejection of different ability privileges also are one aspect that shapes a culture. These ability expectations lead to the exhibition of various forms of ability privileges [3, 10] leading to various forms of disablement.

BIO: Gregor Wolbring is an Associate Professor; University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine, Community Health Sciences, Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies; Fellow: Institute for Science, Policy and Society, University of Ottawa, Canada; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Faculty of Critical Disability Studies, York University Canada; Part Time Professor Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Canada and Founding Member and Affiliated Scholar, Center for Nanotechnology and Society at Arizona State University, USA. He is the former President of the Canadian Disability Studies Association.

4:50pm Q and A

5:00pm End of Conference

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CONTACT: Joe – debate@binghamton.edu or 607-765-3659
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ASSISTANCE

So the program we’ll be using is called Anymeeting (http://anymeeting.com/). The web-link, where everyone will sign into the chatroom, will be posted on the event page this week.
Anymeeting is an interactive platform, where everyone in attendance can watch & listen to the presentations and then discuss them afterwards. If you have more questions about how this online event will work, please comment or message!

Here are some instructions for attendees:

1. Click on this link to check that your computer and internet connection are ready to use AnyMeeting:
https://www.anymeeting.com/webconference-beta/systemtest/AnyMeetingSystemTest.aspx?presenter=0

2. On the day of the conference, ideally you will want to:
a) be in a quiet space
b) speak slowly (if using your microphone during discussion) and
c) use headphones if you have access to some (unless of course you are planning to watch with one or more friends!).

3. Please, please note your own time zone if you are not in Eastern Standard Time:
http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

4. For any of your additional questions or concerns, check out this link to see the Anymeeting guide for first-time attendees: http://support.anymeeting.com/customer/portal/topics/531626-attendee-guides/articles?b_id=338
As well, here is a link for attendee FAQ when using Anymeeting: http://support.anymeeting.com/customer/portal/articles/1191565-attendee-frequently-asked-questions

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1st Annual Eco-ability Conference

“Engaging with Eco-ability”
University of Binghamton, New York
April 27 and 28, 2013 Theme: A Politics of Disability, Animal Liberation, and Queering CALL FOR PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS The 1st Annual Conference “Engaging with Eco-ability” will be hosted at Binghamton University April 27th & 28th, 2013. The conference will be organized and moderated by Anthony Nocella II and JL Schatz. This conference is to lay the groundwork for an edited book that’s part of the Critical Animal Studies series published by Lexington Books.

TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL: Send an e-mail to ecoability@gmail.com with an abstract of around 300 words of your paper proposal for the conference. Also include a short biography between 100 to 120 words. Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis and are due by NO LATER THAN March 23, 2013. The conference is divided into two days with slightly different, but interlinked, themes. The process of submission for both days are the same. Upon acceptance you will be informed of which day we feel your paper will best fit. Day One: We are looking for papers and presentations concerning, but not limited to, the following 5 topics:

1. Eco-Ability Intersectional Theories– We are looking for intersectional innovative liberatory theories between dis-ability studies, environmental ethics, critical animal studies, queer studies, critical race theory, transnational feminism, and other radical theories that promote activism.
2. Activist Stories of exclusion of people with dis-abilities in the animal advocacy movement – What are the problems within the animal advocacy/liberation movement that create tension with dis-abled advocates? How can these problems be resolved? What animal advocacy campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, theories, and practices are exclusionary and ableist to those with dis-abilities?
3. Activist Stories of exclusion of animal advocacy/liberation in the dis-abilities rights movement – How are animal advocates excluded from discussion within dis-ability rights movement? How can these exclusions be resolved? What effective routes of activism can we take to create more effective coalitions between these two struggles? What dis-ability rights campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, and practices are exclusionary and speciesist to those involved in the animal advocacy movement?
4. Stories About Nonhuman Animals with Dis-Abilities – Increasingly nonhuman animals are finding themselves “put down” for having dis-abilities in a similar way as fetuses are being aborted for being abnormal. How is it that living with others with a dis-ability makes life so difficult that it justifies depriving the other of life? How is it that we define life and dis-ability? What does it mean to be a nonhuman animal with dis-abilities?
5. Critiques of Service Nonhuman Animals and Animal Testing/Vivisection – Vivisection and service nonhuman animals are often touted as the “cure” for people with dis-abilities. What does it mean to try to “cure” dis-ability? Is what science does, such as testing on nonhuman animals, while searching for “cures” worth the cost? What is our responsibility to nonhuman animals in relation to people with dis-ability and vice versa?

Day Two:We are looking for papers and presentations concerning, but not limited to, the following 5 topics:

1. Gender, Sexuality, Race and Eco-Ability Intersectional Theories– We are looking for radical intersectional innovative liberatory theories between dis-ability studies, environmental ethics, critical animal studies, queer studies, critical race theory, and feminism that promote activism, that challenges all domination and oppression.
2. Activist stories of being included or excluded from the animal, dis-ability, and environmental movements – What are the problems within the animal, dis-ability, and environmental movements that creates tension between the different movements and advocates? How can these problems be resolved? How are these problems being solved? What animal, Earth, and dis-ability campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, theories, and practices are exclusionary?
3. Queer, feminist, and critical race activist stories of being included or excluded from the animal, dis-ability, and environmental movements – What are the problems within the animal, dis-ability, and environmental movements that creates tension with women and feminists? How can these problems be resolved? How are these problems being solved? What animal, Earth, and dis-ability campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, theories, and practices are exclusionary to women and feminists?
4. Earth, animal and dis-ability activist stories of being included or excluded from the queer and critical race movements – What are the problems within the animal, dis-ability, and environmental movements that creates tension with women and feminists? How can these problems be resolved? How are these problems being solved? What animal, Earth, and dis-ability campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, theories, and practices are exclusionary to women and feminists?
5. Earth, animal and dis-ability activist stories of being included or excluded from the queer theory, women liberation movements, and critical race theory – What are the problems within the animal, dis-ability, and environmental movements that creates tension with women and feminists? How can these problems be resolved? How are these problems being solved? What animal, Earth, and dis-ability campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, theories, and practices are exclusionary to women and feminists?

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Sponsors: English Department, University of Binghamton, Institute for Critical Animal Studies, Students for Critical Animal Studies, and more to come.