Knowing Animals Creators & Guests

Philosopher interested in animal ethics, politics, and food. @ShefUniPolitics postdoc, @ShefAnimals member, @Knowing_Animals host, @politicsanimals sec editor.

Dr. Siobhan O’Sullivan is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. She has interests in animal welfare policy and environmental ethics, and is the author of three books, including: Getting Welfare to Work (2015) and Animals, Equality and Democracy (2011). Siobhan is also well known for her podcast ‘Knowing Animals’ which you can find on the iROAR – an animal focused podcast network she launched. If you would like to find out more about Siobhan and her work, you can see a list of her publications here and you can follow her on Facebook and Twitter (@so_s).

Animal studies anthropologist•teacher•caregiver Bateson Prize winning book Saving Animals: Multispecies Ecologies of Rescue and Care.

Charlotte E. Blattner is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Public Law, University of Bern. She earned her PhD in international law and animal law from the University of Basel, Switzerland, as part of the doctoral program Law and Animals. From 2017-2018, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Philosophy at Queen’s University, Canada, working on animal labour as part of Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics (APPLE). From 2018-2020, Blattner was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Program, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, to explore critical intersections of animal and environmental law. She is the author of Protecting Animals Within and Across Borders (2019, available open access here) and Animal Labour: A New Frontier of Interspecies Justice? (2020, coedited with Will Kymlicka and Kendra Coulter), both published by Oxford University Press. Blattner has argued several cases in court, including the “Primate Rights Case” currently pending at the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.

Mylan Engel Jr. is a full Professor of Philosophy at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

Jamie Woodhouse works on developing and building global community around the Sentientism worldview: "Evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings." It's a combination of naturalism (so non-supernatural) and granting moral consideration to all beings capable of experiencing suffering. So far, that's human and non-human animals.

Social Psychologist — Author | Book: Why We Love and Exploit Animals

Host of Morality is Hard podcast | Animal Justice Party NSW youth wing | space science PhD candidate @unsw | effective altruism, animal advocate and vegan

Will Kymlicka is the Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy at Queen’s University, where he has taught since 1998. He has published eight books and over 200 articles, which have been translated into 34 languages. His books include Contemporary Political Philosophy (1990; second edition 2002), Multicultural Citizenship (1995), Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity (2007), and most recently Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights (2011), co-authored with Sue Donaldson. He was awarded the 2019 Gold Medal from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Laura Jean McKay is a writer, novelist, and author of the book The Animals in That Country.

Alex Lockwood is a fiction & non-fiction writer. He is Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Research in Media & Cultural Studies at Uni of Sunderland. He has a PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University & has published stories, essays & journalism in a wide range of magazines, journals & newspapers. He has a particular fascination with how we write about our engagements and relations with the nonhuman world. Alex’s debut non-fiction work, The Pig in Thin Air, was published with Lantern Books in March 2016. Alex was one of the founding team of Animal Rebellion, a director of The Save Movement & a member of the Vegan Society‘s Research Advisory Committee. His “Planting Value” report for @The Vegan Society lays out plans for a transition towards a vegan UK plantingvalueinfood.org.#plantbased #systems report | Vegan | Narrative Framing | Books: #PigInThinAir and #Chernobyl | teach @sunderlanduni

Jo-Anne McArthur (born December 23, 1976) is a Canadian photojournalist, humane educator, animal rights activist and author. She is known for her We Animals project, a photography project documenting human relationships with animals. Through the We Animals Humane Education program, McArthur offers presentations about human relationships with animals in educational and other environments, and through the We Animals Archive, she provides photographs and other media for those working to help animals. We Animals Media, meanwhile, is a media agency focused on human/animal relationships.McArthur was the primary subject of the 2013 documentary The Ghosts in Our Machine, directed by Liz Marshall, and with Keri Cronin, she is the founder of the Unbound Project, which aims to celebrate and recognize female animal activists. Her first book, We Animals, was published in 2013; her second, Captive, was published in 2017; and a third, Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene, which was co-authored with the journalist Keith Wilson, was published in 2020. McArthur has been awarded a range of commendations for her photography and activism, including several commendations in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards and joint first place in the COP26 photography competition.

Ruth Hatten is an animal advocate, animal lawyer, animal nutritionist, and plant-based living coach.

Michael Huemer is a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has defended ethical intuitionism, direct realism, libertarianism, veganism, and philosophical anarchism.

Kim W. Stallwood (born 1955) is a British animal rights advocate, author, independent scholar, and consultant. He is European director of the Animals and Society Institute, an animal rights think tank. He was executive editor of The Animals' Agenda, an animal rights magazine (1993–2002), and is the editor of Speaking Out for Animals (2001) and A Primer on Animal Rights (2002). Stallwood blogs under the name Grumpy Vegan.Stallwood was born and raised in Camberley, Surrey, England.Stallwood is a former national director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (1987–1992), campaigns officer for the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (1981–1985), and national organizer for Compassion in World Farming (1976–1978), for which he remains a consultant.He was also the founder of the Animal Rights Network (ARN), the world's largest library on animal rights, which became the Animals and Society Institute.In 2013, Stallwood published his first book, Growl: Life Lessons, Hard Truths, and Bold Strategies from an Animal Advocate, with Lantern Books. The book featured a foreword by Brian May.

Sue Donaldson is a writer and animal advocate. She is a research associate in the Dept. of Philosophy at Queen's University, Kingston, and co-convenor of the Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics research group. She is the author of 4 books, and dozens of articles, primarily focusing on animal rights and politics. Questions of political community, political agency, and doing democracy with animals are central to her current work, and her most recent publication is "Animal Agora: Animal Citizens and the Democratic Challenge" in Social Theory and Practice.