Current Projects
- Dissertation – “Humans and Animals in Early Modern Social Theory”: Analyzes the relation between the concepts of human and animal in early modern social theory through a study of three primary texts: Charles Butler’s The Feminine Monarchie, or A Treatise Concerning Bees and the Due Ordering of Them, John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, and Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. I study three sets of relations that are constructed between humans and animals; viz., similarity between humans and animals, the denial of human animality, and the domination of animals as a marker of humanity. The final chapter relates the core of the dissertation to contemporary debates, focusing upon the work of ethicist Peter Singer and political philosopher Giorgio Agamben, arguing that humans and animals alike are trapped between two equally dubious phenomenon: bioethics and biopolitics. The underlying argument in my analysis is that the distinction between human and animal has been and continues to be fundamental to any other social or political concept. Ultimately, I argue that the distinction should be abolished as it is both theoretically unhelpful and ethically pernicious.
- Chapter for Foucault and Animals, edited by Matthew Chrulew and Dinesh Wadiwel, “Apum Ordines: The Order of the Bees and the Order of the Humans in Seventeenth Century Apiary Text”: A spin-off from the dissertation chapter on Butler’s The Feminine Monarchie. Broad overview the apiarists commentary on society and politics with an eye towards the development of what Michel Foucault calls government.
- Article – “What’s So Critical About Critical Animal Studies?”: An intervention into the residual humanism and anthropocentrism of much theorizing and activism in the burgeoning field of critical animal studies.
- Article – “True Blood and the Politics of Consumption”: Short piece of the structural homology between tofu and the artificial blood product from which the television draws its name. In effect, “True Blood” dramatizes the food choices we must make every day.
- Article – “John Locke, Animals and Property”: Presents an analysis of the fundamental role played by Locke’s interpretation of the donation of domination, that is, of human domination and ownership of animals and the natural world, for his theory of property, which in turn is fundamental for his views on politics and society.
Review Essays
“Empirical Insights and Theoretical Confusions,” review of Michel Foucault and Power Today (Alain Beaulieu and David Gabbard, eds) in International Journal of Baudrillard Studies Volume 3, Number 2 (July 2006) [html]
“Paolo Virno’s ‘New Seventeenth Century,’” review of A Grammar of the Multitude (Paolo Virno) in International Journal of Baudrillard Studies Volume 3, Number 1 (January 2006) [html]
Presentations
“Object–Oriented Animals? On Living Non-Anthropocentrically,” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Indiana University, Bloomington (June 2011)
“Critical Animal Studies Beyond Animal Rights,” Thinking About Animals, Brock University, St. Catharine’s (March 2011)
“What Happened and Why When the Ontario Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals OSPCA Raided the Toronto Humane Society (THS),” Thinking About Animals, Brock University, St. Catharine’s (March 2011)
“Commentary on Adaptation: Between the Species,” The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (July 2010) [notes]
“What’s So ‘Critical’ About Critical Animal Studies?” Animals and Animality Across the Humanities and Social Sciences, Queen’s University, Kingston (June 2010) [notes]
“Law and the Inhumanities: The Case of Animals,” Canadian Initiative in Law, Culture and the Humanities, Ottawa (October 2009)
“The ‘Human Question’ in Recent Social Theory,” Canadian Sociological Association, May 2009, Carleton University [paper] [notes]
“John Locke, Animals and Private Property,” Canadian Sociological Association, May 2009, Carleton University
“Thomas Hobbes and the Theologico-Political Problem,” Canadian Initiative in Law, Culture and the Humanities, October 2007, Carleton University
“The Impossibility of Humanity as a Political Concept: Reflections on Battlestar Galactica,” November 2006, Carleton University [notes]
Session chair and convener, “Pirate (And Other Nomad) Studies,” Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, May 2006, York University
“Counter-Sovereignty,” March 2006, Carleton University [notes]
“‘Our Fathers the Germans’: Montesquieu on Force, Law and the War of the Races,” Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, May 2005, University of Western Ontario
Occasional Writings
Bibliographies
“Carl Schmitt in English,” bibliography of Carl Schmitt’s works translated into English, updated November 1, 2008 [pdf]
Long Sunday Symposia
“Introduction: Carl Schmitt” and “The Two Politicals” for the “Long Sunday Symposium on Carl Schmitt’s ‘Theory of the Partisan’” (June 2006)
“Eating at Gayatri’s” for the “Carnival of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak” (April 2006)
“Refusing to Engage” for the “Long Sunday Symposium on Tronti’s ‘Strategy of Refusal’” (March 2006)
“The Three Names of Power” for the “Long Sunday Symposium on Benjamin’s ‘Critique of Violence’” (December 2005)
