animal rights

Animal Rights

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What are my rights?

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Sociologists explore multiple dimensions of people’s relationships with non-human animals, including urbanization, decolonization, animal welfare, humane jobs, agribusiness, and the environment.

Research Resources

Animals and Society Research Initiative

Animals and Society Institute

Critical Animal Studies at Brock University

Research by Sociologists

Ahuja, N., Belcourt, B. R., Calarco, M. R., Corman, L., Dave, N. N., Deckha, M., … & Wolfe, C. (2019). Messy eating: Conversations on animals as food. Fordham Univ Press.

Carter, B., & Charles, N. (2018). The animal challenge to sociology. European Journal of Social Theory, 21(1), 79-97.

Corman, L. (2020). Animal cultures and anti-colonial politics. Colonialism and Animality: Anti-Colonial Perspectives in Critical Animal Studies.

Jerolmack, C. (2013). The global pigeon. University of Chicago Press.

Kessler, A., Parkins, J. R., & Huddart Kennedy, E. (2016). Environmental harm and “the good farmer”: Conceptualizing discourses of environmental sustainability in the beef industry. Rural Sociology, 81(2), 172-193.

McMahon, M. (2011). Standard fare or fairer standards: Feminist reflections on agri-food governance. Agriculture and Human Values, 28(3), 401-412.

McMahon, M. (2020). Farmed and dangerous: Sheep and the politics of nature. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 31(1), 15-33.

Todd, Z. (2018). Refracting the state through human-fish relations. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 7(1), 60-75.

Whelan, G., & Gond, J. P. (2017). Meat your enemy: Animal rights, alignment, and radical change. Journal of Management Inquiry, 26(2), 123-138.

Sociology Courses at UVic

If you would like to explore animal rights and related issues in more depth, the Department offers a number of courses you might be interested in:

SOCI100A – Introduction to Sociology: Understanding Social Life
SOCI100B – Introduction to Sociology: Understanding Contemporary Society
SOCI202 – Constructing Social Problems
SOCI207 – Ecology, Society and Global Change
SOCI307 – Moral Panics
SOCI309 – Contemporary Social Theorizing
SOCI313 – Sociology of Law
SOCI316 – Social Movements
SOCI318 – Social Change
SOCI331 – Politics and Society
SOCI355 – The Corporation, Capitalism, and Globalization
SOCI388 – Sociology of Food and Eating
SOCI436 – Issues in Sociology and Social Justice
SOCI437 – Issues in Environmental Sociology and Climate Change
SOCI438 – Issues in Contemporary Sociology
SOCI439A – Community Engaged Sociology I
SOCI439B – Community Engaged Sociology II