- Docente: Deborah Lea Madsen
Women have been active campaigners for the rights of non-human animals for centuries. However, the intersection of patriarchal control and female reproduction was explicitly theorized as “vegan ecofeminism” after two important events -- Françoise D’Eaubonne’s creation of the term “ecofeminism” in “Le Féminisme ou la mort” in 1974 and the establishment of “Feminists for Animal Rights” in 1981 – both occurring amid the Women’s Liberation and Civil Rights movements. This is the starting point for our focus on the strategies by which early vegan ecofeminists, like Carol J. Adams, Josephine Donovan, Greta Gaard, Lori Gruen, Marti Kheel, Karen J. Warren, and others, sought to raise popular consciousness about the treatment of women, animals, and environment under patriarchy. The seminar thus engages one historic approach to ecofeminism: a vegan approach that critiques the systemic objectification, exploitation, and ultimate consumption of beings that are gendered as feminine. In the nearly half-century since, ecofeminism has informed a number of significant developments in the culture of veganism. Of particular interest to us, in the context of intensifying global extractivism, is the emergence of Queer veganism, Veganism of Color, Indigenous Veganisms, and vegan witchcraft. Our reading for the seminar will comprise a wide range of theoretical texts, together with a selection of short stories and films.
TEXTS will be available for download from Moodle.