Animals and Politics: The State, Authoritarianism and Multispecies Assemblies
What does it mean to include nonhuman animals in politics? How to think about animal representation, citizenship, and deliberation? During this event, speakers will evaluate traditional and alternative political concepts and practices from the standpoint and needs of other animals.
Recently, there has been a growing interest in political models of representation, citizenship and deliberation that are expansive enough to include animals as constituents. Tonight, Dinesh Wadiwel and Eva Meijer will each reflect on the possibilities, challenges, and limits of multispecies politics. They will evaluate liberal democratic frameworks of the State from the standpoint of animals, and suggest transformative ways of living amongst and with other species. They are joined by Carolina Trujillo who will read a column. Moderation: Yolande Jansen.
Speakers
Dinesh Wadiwel is an Associate Professor in human rights and socio-legal studies, with a background in social and political theory. He is author of The War against Animals (Brill 2015) and Animals and Capital (Edinburgh University Press 2023), and co-editor, with Matthew Chrulew, of Foucault and Animals (Leiden: Brill, 2016). Dinesh is also a disability rights researcher and was part of a team who produced two reports for the Australia Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.
Eva Meijer is a philosopher, visual artist, writer and singer-songwriter. They write novels, philosophical essays, academic texts, poems and columns, and their work has been translated into over twenty languages. Recurring themes are language including silence, madness, nonhuman animals, and politics. Meijer’s latest book, Antropofacisme, Voorbij de echte mens is published in October 2026.
Carolina Trujillo is a novelist and writes columns for NRC. Her latest novel, De instructies, focuses on a group of animal activists who prepare to burn down a slaughterhouse.
Yolande Jansen (moderator) is Associate Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the UvA.
