The following are currently my principal projects. There are also some shorter pieces, such as articles for encyclopedias, edited collections, and various print and internet-based media.
The Animal Invitation. This is an analysis of the extraordinary number of ways in which nonhuman animals invite us to consider their realities. The focal points here are animals' invitations as manifested in our science, religion, law and ethics. The book will be published by Columbia University Press in 2009.
Education and Other Animals. This is an integrated series of reflections related to my teaching in the "Animals and Public Policy" program at the Center for Animals and Public Policy during the 2008-2009 school year. I focus particularly on the personal growth that any student undergoes when she immerses herself in careful, rigorous education about the human-animal intersections one finds in different cultures. The book also engages the consequences of both past and present denials of academic freedom for those who would inquire openly about the moral significance of nonhuman animals. This graduate program, in which 10 select graduate students seek a Master of Science degree in Animals and Public Policy, was developed systematically over years. It is different from regular education about "animals"-- my understanding of traditional education about nonhumans can be summed by Theodore Roszak's observation, "let us admit that the academy has rarely been a place of daring." Most education about animals, particularly as it takes place against a range of virulent human-centerednesses that dominate today's university-level education as fully as they dominate business, politics and contemporary law, testifies to the truth of what David Orr once observed: "the truth is that without significant precautions, education can equip people merely to be more effective vandals of the earth." My experiences in this program have led me to recognize the astonishing importance of both academic freedom and creativity in ethics-sensitive and science-literate teaching about nonhuman animals.
