While I was blasting out twitter updates at the Conference I had a couple people ask for a review of the Confernce. Here goes.

Disclaimer: There is only so much one can see at a two day Conference of this size. At some points there were 3-4 consecutive panels running at the same time and I definitely missed out on a lot of speakers I would have really liked to see; Jodey Castricano, Jovian Perry, Keri Cronin, Adam Weitzenfeld, Kimberly Costello, Aaron Bell, Lauren Corman, Jenny Grubs and Stefan Hnat, etc. That is just to name a few. I tabled a ton (Vegan Police, Arissa Media, Niagara Vegan Baking Militia, Live Free, Brock Animal Rights Club, Institute for Critical Animal Studies) so I was also locked in position at Pond Inlet for most of the Conference. So, what all of this means is that if I don’t speak glowingly or omit someone it is probably not because I think their talk sucked, it’s much more likely that I fail at breaking the space/time continuum. If others have written reviews, or would like to write a review, please let me know and I will add a link, or post the material here. Also, I encourage anyone who sees something they are interested in to contact the person presenting. The vast majority are willing to share and love to talk about things they are passionate about.

The Beginning: One of my favorite highlights of the Conference was the introduction from Professor John Sorenson. John has organized four of these Conferences over the last decade and was the leading force in creating the Critical Animal Studies concentration at Brock University. For John, every single moment of the Conference is a direct representation of years of protracted struggle within academia. When John went up for the introduction everyone was expecting something low-key, as John is a very low key person, however, at the end of the introduction John graced everyone with a statement from Ronnie Lee, founder of the Animal Liberation Front. My jaw dropped. Some may not have grasped the importance, but for me it is a clear statement in support of direct action on the part of (CAS). Academia has been a site where direct action has been contested in recent memory, with some, within and outside of the movement, going as far as to paint all those who support those tactics as “violent terrorists.” For a conference that also featured a panel on Government repression, the statement was clear; direct action is a part of Animal Liberation and (CAS) will not be moved by those who wish to drive a wedge between the two.

Capitalism and Exploitation Panel – David Nibert, Zipporah Weisberg, Julia Gutjahr & Marcel Sebastian, Richard Twine. I was lucky enough to chair for this panel. Zipporah’s and I met at the ICAS Conference last year and I was already a pretty big fan of her work. Richard I hadn’t met yet (we were facebook pals!) but I had known of his work and was also a fan. David is most likely not on facebook, but I had also enjoyed his writing. The only panelists I didn’t at least know of were Julia and Marcel.

David started off with a presentation on “Domesecration,” Expansionism and Capitalism. I can’t stress how important this talk was as far as setting the tone for the rest of the Conference. Domestication was a re-occurring theme at the Conference and David’s concept provided the perfect lens for destroying the convenience of human-centered ideas around “pets.” I felt horrible trying to push David along with the time constraints because his presentation covered such a large swath of human history and his concepts were so important, he didn’t mind though. As the Conference went on I talked quite a bit with David, sharing ideas on other presentations and just small talk. Aside from being a really great academic, he is also a really nice and humble guy. I look forward to reading more of his work and seeing him at more events in the future.

Zipporah Weisberg gave a talk on Techno capitalism that you really had to be there to understand. I think it is a pretty easy call at this point to say that Zipporah is going to be considered one of the most important and influential animal rights theorists within the next decade.

Julia and Marcel gave a great presentation expanding on the ideas of the Frankfurt School. I don’t want to fetishize or exoticize accents, but it was extremely nice to hear some accents at this years Conference and see the expanding reach of CAS and ICAS. Julia and Marcel (as well as Stefan) were a breath of fresh air throughout the Conference, giving numerous talks that were original and engaging. Julia’s talk on the Meat/Gender panel directly after this panel was a great application of ideas around masculinity and meat culture, updating that analysis to the 21st Century and expanding on it without some of the crummy stuff that sometimes comes along with it.

Richard Twine refused to look at my notes as I pressed him to wrap up! He gets let off though because he went the extra mile to locate his presentation and talk about genetic engineering animal enterprise companies here in Southern Ontario. That alone was a pretty big highlight for me. That is something most don’t think about when traveling to new places and he gave a talk that was arguably the most accessible to activists and academics at the Conference.

Meat/Gender – Julia Guthjar, Steve Romanin, Anthony Nocella

I already talked about Julia’s great presentation on this panel. Things got off to a bit of an odd start as two panelists didn’t show, however, Steve managed to push it along and his presentation on Masculinity was a great application of analysis to not just masculinity within “meat culture” but also accepted normative values of masculinity within vegan communities. Anthony topped this panel off with an impromptu throw down on masculinity in straight edge, hip hop and the A.L.F, advancing a critique to place all of those things back within a liberatory context. It was a bit of a bummer that the panelists who was to present on Queer(y)ing Veganism did not make it as I think that presentation really would have solidified this as an amazing panel.

Critical Theory and Animal Liberation Book Launch – I saw John Sanbonmatsu at the ICAS Conference last year at SUNY Cortland and I was blown away. He has a natural speaking ability, a toolbox that is heavy influenced by Marxism and existentialism and he has that self deprecating humor that endears me to people. We both commiserated over the fact that his book was priced out of the range of a lot of people at the Conference and I squeed a bit. Anyways, this panel was great. John Sorenson, Zipporah, Dennis Soron, Aaron Bell, John, etc. Standout was easily Vasile Stanescu. Vasile has some pretty unique speaking skills and I have been a huge fan since I read his piece on locavorism in a JCAS Journal. Vasile gave another great talk later that night on the Green Scare panel. I encourage everyone to really read and support his work as well keep an eye out for things he is doing on the horizon.

Green Scare – I labelled this “The Kids Will Have Their Say” Panel. I don’t know if anyone got it. It was so nice to see a panel of people in their 20’s and 30’s bridging activist and academic communities. Everyone knows I love Will Potter’s work and you can expect a gushing review of his book very soon on the site. Michael Loadenthal and Carol Glasser both did a really good job of putting things into perspective (and into graphs!). I really hope they work together moving forward because I think there is a lot of strength and legitimacy in what they are doing.

DAY ONE OVER.

DAY TWO

I was happy to catch the tail end of Sherri and Co. talk about Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary. If you follow the site you know that is where our current t-shirt fundraiser is for. I really respect their approach and love how motivated they are to really get out and tell the story of the primates that they care for. I also got to see my good friend Catharine Brigantino talk on the same panel about what happened last year locally at the Happy Ralph’s Petting Zoo. Again, for people who follow the site you probably know about the time and energy I put into writing about the issue and it was great to see that be carried on and given a really great analysis.

Next up was my panel. I talked a bit about abolitionist history and appropriation. Expect to read a lot more about that on this site in the near future. Kristen Hardy also gave a really great paper on this panel about Fatphobia in the Animal Rights Movement.

Colin Salter. Colin may be heading back to Australia soon and if that happens he will be sorely missed. He gave a great paper on disruption masculinist either/or binary thinking towards animals and instead using and/both as a framework. I really look forward to the completion of all the projects Colin is currently working on because I know they are going to be really groundbreaking stuff. PLEASE STAY!

Ran fast to catch my boy Paul Hamilton give a paper on Canada, Japan and the Whale and Seal Hunts. It was a really great panel (missed the first speaker) and I think a lot of people came away from that panel with a much better understanding of how and why the seal hunt exists and how we can end it.

Last panel! – This panel was a highlight for me because of the paper given by Sarat Colling and the talk given by Gwen Dunlop. Sarat extending a critique of slaughterhouses as a site of contention for thinking about non human animals, but also criminalized and marginalized humans. Her talk about “space” and “normativity” was a really great end to a conference that didn’t broach those topics as much as it should have.

Gwen Dunlop had me in tears when she talked about the vigil she has been keeping now for years outside of a slaughterhouse in Toronto. It was without question the most powerful presentation of the two days and I know I will take Gwen’s presentation with me.

For people who want to see the schedule in its entirety, you can find it here.

Overall it was a great two days that spilled over to a third. I want to thank everyone who organized for the Conference, namely, Lauren Corman, John Sorenson, Nikita Cox, Kimberly Costello and Sarat Colling. I also want to thank the caterers, Rise Above Bakery and Brooklyn’s Restaurant, for providing really great vegan food throughout the Conference. Lastly, I want to thank Will Potter for giving his talk at the NAFA Potluck on Friday night, as well as to everyone who came to the Anti-Seal Hunt Demo on Saturday and/or Anthony Nocella’s book release “Call to Compassion.” It was an amazing time and I hope to really continue on with the spirit of those days until we all meet again.

UPDATE: For people looking for more content on the conference our friends at Animal Voices have posted some of the talks from the Conference, including awesome people like David Nibert, Zipporah Weisberg, Vasile Stanescu and more. Go here and enjoy!