Newcastle Animal Ethics and Sustainable Food Policy

Conference announcement and programme
Newcastle Animal Ethics and Sustainable Food Policy Conference. A 'Minding Animals International' Pre-conference

1. Date and venue
Friday 2 December 2011; 9.30-17.00 hrs
Newcastle University, Baddiley-Clark Building, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK

2. Objectives of the conference
This conference will provide an opportunity to bring together the best scholars working on the intersections between animal ethics, sustainability, and food policy, and to develop further capacity and stimulate community action in this field.
The focus of the conference will be on the following question:

'How should the UK Government regulate the consumption of animal products?'

Conference papers will be disseminated to delegates before the event.

3. Conference programme
9.30-10.00: Welcome and coffee
10.00: Introduction to the day (Cristina Fernandez-Garcia, Newcastle University)
10.15: Agriculture, animal welfare and climate change: an analysis of sustainable intensification and radical naturalism as responses to the impending perfect storm (Steven McCulloch, The Royal Veterinary College)
11.10: An exploration of animal abuse in the increased scale and industrialisation of pig farming. (Tanya Wyatt, Northumbria University)
12.05: Lunch and social break
13.30: Given the strong causal link between the consumption of animal products and ill health, how can the UK government use its health and farming policies to reduce the intake of animal products? (Maureen Robertson and Keith Robertson, The Scottish School of Herbal Medicine)
14.25: A case for legislation against wild meat (Tony Milligan, University of Aberdeen)
15.20: Coffee and social break
16.05: A reflection on the day and an introduction to the UK vegan project (Jan Deckers, Newcastle University)
17.00: Closure of formal programme and opening of informal discussion over dinner.

4. Academic organising committee
*       Jan Deckers (conference chair, Newcastle University)
*       Cristina Fernandez-Garcia (Newcastle University)
*       Jonny Anomaly (University of North Carolina and Duke University).
*       Rod Bennison (CEO, Minding Animals International)

5. Registration
Early registration is recommended as places are limited. To register, please complete the booking form at http://forms.ncl.ac.uk/view.php?id=1993

Participants are advised to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements. Options for accommodation include: Premier Inn Newcastle Central, Newbridge Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8BS; Premier Inn Newcastle City Centre (Millennium Bridge) City Road, Quay Side, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2AN; Royal Station Hotel, Neville Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5DH; Jurys Inn Newcastle, Scotswood Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4AD.

6. An expression of thanks
The organising committee is grateful for the support provided by the following organisations: Beacon North East, Fuse, the Institute of Health and Society, Minding Animals International, and NIReS (Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability).

CALL FOR PAPERS: ―Environmental Humanities & the Challenge of Multidisciplinarity, Cyprus

April 15, 2012
Theme
Environmental issues are typically framed within public discourse as problems that require empirical information and technological solutions. This paradigm holds not only scientific but also philosophical assumptions, most importantly that the real world is the one described by natural science, the world of scientific realism. In this worldview, all other disciplines (such as ethics, the qualitative social sciences, and politics and policy) are assimilated as ―tools in the toolbox‖ used to solve the problems previously defined by Western science. The intensity of current environmental crises—especially global climate destabilization—energizes this focus on practical problem-solving and on technological and policy solutions within existing institutional, economic, and political frameworks. However, this approach fails to recognize that the humanistic disciplines, including philosophy, literature, and the arts, both construct and express knowledge of nature that exceeds the bounds of problem-solving and the ontology of scientific realism. Further, claims about nature that appeal to the authority of Western science, though masked as objective, are frequently deployed to undergird ideological constructions about race, class, gender, and nation; the authority to make claims about nature is inseparable from political power.
Underlying this default position of the natural sciences is the unexamined assumption that environmental problems are encountered independently of any context, values, history, or disciplinary biases. Humanities scholars in the emerging fields of ecocriticism, environmental art, environmental philosophy, and related areas of inquiry vigorously challenge this assumption, arguing that our environmental problems are inescapably ethical, historical, and political. The very definitions of environmental problems at any given moment are a function of human ideas and negotiations that have a particular cultural location and history and that reflect specific concepts of ethical responsibility and justice. Consequently, the methods of the natural sciences, although necessary for meeting our environmental challenges, cannot replace the interpretive, critical, and artistic methods of the humanities. The emergence of the ―environmental humanities,‖ as a multidisciplinary site of convergence within academic scholarship, responds to this need.
This workshop will engage with the emerging disciplines of the environmental humanities to pose a series of questions, including:
1. How are the methods and epistemology of the humanities distinct from those of the empirical sciences?
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2. What would a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to questions of the environment look like, and how can this be negotiated within current institutional limitations?
3. What impact can the humanities have on public discourse and political will in specific areas, such as environmental justice and climate change?
Submission Procedure
Please submit two-page abstracts by email in Word format to the workshop organizers. Each presenter will have 20 minutes and is asked to present rather than read a paper. Abstracts of accepted presentations will be circulated to the participants in advance of the conference.
Conference Proceedings
Final versions of the papers (not to exceed 3,000 words, or 10 double-spaced pages, including notes) will be reviewed by the workshop organizers for possible publication in the conference proceedings.
The Conference
This workshop is planned under the auspices of the 13th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, on the theme ―The Ethical Challenge of Multidisciplinarity: Reconciling ‗The Three Narratives‘—Art, Science, and Philosophy.‖ For more information, visit ISSEI‘s website at http://issei2012.haifa.ac.il/.
The Venue
The workshop will be held at the University of Cyprus – Main Campus, Kallipoleos Avenue 75, Nicosia 2100 Cyprus.
Contacts . CALL FOR PAPERS: ―Environmental Humanities & the Challenge of Multidisciplinarity.‖ Workshop at the 13th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, ―The Ethical Challenge of Multidisciplinarity: Reconciling ‗The Three Narratives‘—Art, Science, and Philosophy.‖ University of Cyprus, Nicosia, July 2 – 6, 2012 ALL 2011 27  Janet Fiskio Environmental Studies Oberlin College jfiskio@oberlin.edu  Ted Toadvine Philosophy and Environmental Studies University of Oregon. toadvine@uoregon.edu

European Network for Environmental Ethics

 

The  European network for environmental ethics was formally established at a assembly on June 16, 2011, at the  conference Old World-New World Perspectives in Environmental Philosophy, that was held in Nijmegen, Netherlands,

Aim of the network is to provide a platform for all those working in the field of (academic) environmental ethics and philosophy in Europe to meet, exchange ideas and cooperate on new projects. ENEE will have a 'light' organizational structure, and will work together with the International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE) and the International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP). 

The ENEE network will first and foremost be a platform for individual environmental philosophers and ethicists in Europe, and for national and regional groups of environmental ethicists.  Our hope is that this network will help to promote European environmental philosophy, and stimulate cooperation and exchange between European environmental philosophers. The aim for the not-too-distant future is to organize substantial activities in environmental ethics and philosophy, such as organizing international conferences every two years.

The network has just started. This wiki-website is meant as a platform where we can meet and exchange ideas. The wiki-form makes it possible that the network grows organically, 'from bottom up' as it were, and prevents that one single person has to bear all the workload involved. Many hands will make light work. 

This wiki page is hosted by Louke van Wensveen and Martin Drenthen, but all European environmental ethicists / philosophers are invited to join and help transform this website into a flourishing web community.

We envision that this site will hold of a list of environmental ethicists and philosophers working in Europe (we primarily want to address those who are seriously involved in academic environmental ethics/philosophy (broadly conceived), pages where individual member present there line of research, and a calendar listing all interesting happenings (lectures, workshops, conferences) in Europe in the field of environmental ethics.

A note on the wiki format
The wiki format enables all those with the proper privileges to add new content to this site. I hope that all you will feel free to add to the success of this site, for the success of our network depends on it to a large degree.  Please add yourself to the list of members (at least with your name and affiliation, country, contact address, and a short description of your research interests). We hope you will also contribute to the calendar by adding lectures, workshops, conferences in Europe that you believe could be of interest to your fellow environmental ethicists. 
But you can also add radically new sections to the page (e.g. a special page in your own language), start a discussion, or add something new that others have not yet thought of...  All who wish to contribute to this wiki page should contact the administrators of the site, to grant you access.

There also exists two shorter URL's for this website: (http://eegroup.pbworks.com/w/page/41657492/European-Network-for-Environmental-Ethics)
http://tinyurl.com/EUEnvironmentalEthics  and http://tinyurl.com/EUNetworkEnvironmentalEthics).

International Conference

Fifth Latin American (Inter-American) Environmental Philosophy
Conference 2013

13 to 17 March 2013

 

“The Fifth Latin American (Inter-American) Environmental Philosophy Conference” will be held in Puerto Natales, Chile, on 13 to 17 March 2013. The conference will be preceded by an International Course (4 to 13 March 2013) on "Biodiversity and Conservation: Integrating new ecological understanding and ethical foundations," coordinated by Drs. Juan Armesto and Dr. Ricardo Rozzi.
Post-conference optional field trips will include visits to the Senda Darwin Biological Station (Chiloé Island) to learn about long-term ecological research on forest biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and plant-animal interactions in rural landscapes, and to the Omora Ethnobotanical Park to learn about the field environmental philosophy program, sub-Antarctic ecotourism and biocultural conservation in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.
The course and the conference are co-organized by the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB - Chile) and the Universidad de Magallanes (UMAG) in collaboration with the University of North Texas (UNT), the Center for Environmental Philosophy (CEP), and the Group of Environmental Thinking “Augusto Angel Maya” led by Dr. Patricia Noguera at the Department of Human Sciences and the Institute of Environmental Studies (IDEA), Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Campus Manizales.
For more information, contact mailto:ieb.umag.conf@gmail.com.

Journal Animals: New Issue-Περιοδικό Animals: Νέο Τεύχος

Journal Animals: New Issue-Περιοδικό Animals: Νέο Τεύχος

http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/1/3/