Upcoming Talks

(No Upcoming Talks)

Keynotes, Plenaries, Guest Lectures, & Workshops

Invited Speaker, “Animal Law: Can Animals Go to Court” (co-presented) in the Children’s University Series (“KinderUni”) at the University of Zurich at ETH, Irchel Campus (presented in German to over 600 students), March 20, 2023.

Invited Speaker, “Animal Experimentation: an Elite Practice” at the Basel Animal Ethics Research Group at the Philosophy Department of the University of Basel, March 15, 2023

Guest Speaker, “Interface Between One Health and Animal Law: From No to High Regulatory Impact and Positive Results” at the University of Neuchatel, part of the Symposium on One Health Approach in Policy-Making and Regulatory Frameworks, March 7, 2023

Featured Speaker, “Replacing Animals’ Property Status,” as part of the Swiss-Japan Panel of Animal Law at the University of Zurich, March 5, 2024

Convener, Symposium and supplementary scholarly workshop on Accelerating Replacement: Toward Animal-Free Science Research at Swiss Universities, February 27-28, 2024

​Featured Speaker, New York State Bar Association, “The Legal Landscape for Animals in Canada: Recent Developments Challenging the Status Quo,” February 6, 2023

Featured Speaker, the Victoria Secular Humanist Association, “Animal Rights, Climate Change, Zoonotic Pandemics: What Are the Links?” February, 2023

Featured Speaker, the W̱SÁNEĆ Law Reunion Event, on monograph Animals as Legal Beings, February 2023

Panelist, “Animalizing and Decolonizing Law: Enculturating Collaborative Law Reform Framings,” Global Animal Law Workshop, Harvard Law School, April 5, 2022.

Featured Series Speaker, “Animals as Legal Beings,” Harvard Law School, March 22, 2022.

Featured Series Speaker, “Animals as Legal Beings,”  Virtual Event, presentation to the Law, Ethics, & Animals Program at Yale Law School. February 3, 2022. View video (Youtube)

Guest Lecturer, “Animals as Legal Beings,” Faculty of Law, Northwestern University, February 3, 2022.

Featured Series Speaker, “Animals as Legal Beings,” Animal Studies Collective, February 1, 2022.

Guest Lecturer, “Animals as Legal Beings,” Gender Studies, University of Victoria, January 25, 2022.

Featured Series Speaker, “Animals as Legal Beings,” Centre for Constitutional Studies, University of Alberta, October 29, 2021.

Guest Lecturer, “Animals as Legal Beings”, Animal Law, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, October 28, 2021.

Invited Speaker, “Animals as Legal Beings,” A Book Talk with Maneesha Deckha. Virtual Event, Global Research Network, Animals & Biodiversity Think Tank Programme. Live-streamed October 6, 2021. View video (Youtube)

Keynote Panelist, “Personhood, Property or Something New?”, Canadian Animal Law Conference, October 1, 2021.

Panelist, “Critical Animal Studies Law”, Centre for Business and Economic Research, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, September 27, 2021.

Invited Speaker, “Animals as Legal Beings,”Virtual Event, in the Talking Animals, Law & Philosophy series, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law. January 26, 2021. View video (Youtube)

Invited Speaker, “Justice in a Multispecies World,”  Virtual Event, Presentation by Maneesha Deckha, and interview by Mariska Jung (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BE). January 6, 2021. View video (Youtube)

Invited Speaker, “Animals as Legal Beings,”  Virtual Event, Faculty of Law, Western University, November 26, 2020. View video (Youtube)

Invited Speaker, “Animals as Legal Beings: A Feminist Approach to Re-conceptualizing Animals’ Legal Subjectivity,”  Feminism and Animal Rights Webinar, New York Bar Association, November 16, 2020.

Invited Speaker, “Animals as Legal Beings,” Critical Legal Analysis of Law Workshop, Virtual Event, Faculty of Law, Western University, October 29, 2020.

Plenary Speaker, “Educating Children about Animal and Other Alterity: A Critical Foundation for Moving Toward as Plant-based and More Compassionate Society,” Dimensions of Humane Communities Webinar Series, Institute for Human-Animal Connection, University of Denver, July 1, 2020.

Speaker, “Educating Children about Animal and Other Alterity: A Critical Foundation for Moving Toward a Just and More Compassionate Society,”, Faculty of Law Summer Speaker Series, University of Victoria, June 24, 2020.

Invited Speaker, “(Human) Children and Humane-Washing in Prisons, Detention Centres, and Zoos and Aquaria,” Against Cages: Carceral Logics, Sturm College of Law, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, November 22, 2019.

Invited Speaker, “What’s Wrong with Personhood,” Faculty Speaker Series, Sturm College of Law, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, November 21, 2019.

Guest Lecturer, “Law, Culture, Animals: Theoretical Formations,” Graduate Law & Society Seminar, University of Victoria, November 15, 2019.

Keynote Speaker, “Inroads or Crossroads: Recent Developments North of the Border,” Animal Law Conference, Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland, OR, October 26, 2019.

Guest Lecturer, “Law’s Anthropos: More than Speciesism,”, Animal Law Seminar, Allard School of Law, University of Victoria, October 11, 2019.

Guest Lecturer, “Intersectionality and Law’s Anthropos,” Social Justice Studies Theory Seminar, University of Victoria, October 10, 2019.

Plenary Speaker, “Law’s Anthropos: More than Speciesism,” Inaugural Canadian Animal Law Conference, Schulich School of Law, Halifax, NS, October 5, 2019.

Invited Speaker, “Decolonization, Reconciliation, and Animal-Use Industries,” Animal Law Symposium, Lewis & Clark Law School; Portland, OR, March 15, 2019.

Invited Speaker, “Something to Celebrate?: De-listing Dairy in Canada’s National Food Guide,” Centre for Feminist Legal Studies Speaker Series, Allard School of Law, UBC, Vancouver, January 22, 2019.

Invited Speaker, “What is Critical Animal Studies (and what does it have to do with Animal Law?),” Animals & Society Research Initiative Lecture Series, University of Victoria Faculty of Law, Victoria, BC, January 17, 2019.

Invited Speaker, “Animal Rights, Civil Rights: A Co-operative Framing,” Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, January 4, 2019.

Keynote Speaker, “Law, Animals and Culture: Exploring the Intersections Through Critically-Oriented and Interdisciplinary Research,” November 5, 2018.

Guest Lecturer, “Becoming a Feminist Animal Law Professor,” October 18, 2018.

Guest Lecturer, “Animals, Law and Vulnerability,” Animals, Feminist Studies and Social Justice, Department of Gender Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, October 1, 2018.

Speaker, “Something to Celebrate?: De-listing Dairy in Canada’s National Food Guide,” Eggs, Milk and Honey: Law and Global Bio-Commodities, Western Sydney University, Sydney, September 6, 2018.

Speaker, “Dairy and Decolonization: Illuminating the Continuities between Vegan and Indigenous Worldviews through a Postcolonial Feminist Framework,” University of Sydney, September 5, 2018.

Conference Papers

and Other Academic Presentations

Faculty Lecture, Animalization and Dehumanization Concerns: Another Psychological Barrier to Animal Law Reform, Universite Pompeu Fabeu, Barcelona, April 24, 2024.

Faculty Lecture, Race and Animals, Universidad Computense, Madrid, April 23, 2024.

Commentator on  Panel, “Are we Smarter than the Phyloplankton?” addressing the interface of veganism and climate change crisis at the Collegium Helveticum, ETH. Zurich, March 25, 2024

Speaker, “Veganism, Dairy, and Decolonization,” Canadian Animal Law Conference, Virtual Event, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto September 11, 2020.

Speaker, “Educating Children about Animal and Other Alterity: A Critical Foundation for Moving Toward a Just and More Compassionate Society,” Faculty of Law Summer Speaker Series, University of Victoria, June 24, 2020.

Commentator, Dairy Tales Workshop Faculty Panel and Closing Remarks Sessions, University of Arizona School of Law, Tucson, AZ, November 8, 9, 2019.

Discussant, “Mathilde Cohen: Interspecies Right to Breastfeed,” Dairy Tales Workshop, University of Arizona School of Law, Tucson, AZ, November 8, 2019.

Speaker, “Rule of Law, Animal Vulnerability, and Industry Self-Regulation,” Inaugural Canadian Animal Law Conference, Schulich School of Law, Halifax, NS, October 5, 2019.

Speaker, “Reconciliation, Legal Precedent and Animal Advocacy: Harnessing Indigenous legal subjectivities for animals to transform the colonial classification of animals as property,” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, UBC, Vancouver, BC, June 8, 2019.

Speaker, “Farmed Animal Suffering: Can Law Bear Witness?,” Law and Society Association International Meeting, Toronto, ON, June 8, 2018.

Speaker, “Farmed Animal Suffering: Can Law Bear Witness?,” Summer Seminar Series, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, May 23, 2018.

Podcasts & Media Appearances

Martin’s Act at 200: Exploring the Past, Present and Future of the Animal Protection Movement

On July 22, 1822, the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act, sponsored by the Irish Member of Parliament Richard “Humanity Dick” Martin, was signed into law by King George IV. The Act is widely considered to be the first piece of animal welfare legislation from a Western political body. Through a radio documentary, interviews, and essays, this website tells the story of Richard Martin, and the Act’s legacy over two centuries of animal advocacy.

Sponsored by the Culture & Animals Foundation and Martin Rowe, and directed by writer Alex Lockwood, chart2050 and the Martin’s Act at 200 radio documentary offer a critical examination of learning from the past to conceive of a better future. Join us on the journey.

View Episode List and play

“Et Tu, Brute? The Case for Human Rights for Animals“

Outside/In Podcast, New Hampshire Public Radio. June 2, 2022.

Featured in Zena Olijnyk, “Practice of animal law gives pets, domestic animals and wildlife a ‘voice’ conference attendees told,” Canadian Lawyer, April 18, 2022.

Interview, “Animals as Legal Beings”, New Books Network, June 4, 2021.

In Tune to Nature Podcast: Animals as Legal Beings Rather than Persons or Objects

with Law Professor Maneesha Deckha, University of Victoria
Host: Carrie Packwood Freeman
(Wednesday, January 20th, 2021)

Legal scholar Maneesha Deckha explains her novel category of “beingness” to raise the legal status of animals, in her new book Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders (Univ of Toronto Press, 2021). In this 25-minute interview on In Tune to Nature, hosted by Carrie Freeman, Professor Deckha (Univ of Victoria, BC, Canada) explains how feminism, postcolonialism, and critical animal studies informs her less exclusionary and more universal notion of a legal “being” as opposed to some ideal and limiting legal notion of an independent, rational “person.”

The Animal Turn Podcast

Personhood with Maneesha Deckha (S1 E4)

In this episode Maneesha Deckha explains the legal concept of personhood, why animal advocates are trying to include animals within the category and the potential of a different concept, ‘Legal Beingness’, to side-step some of the challenges of Personhood as a concept.

Date recorded: 2 April 2020

External link: https://iroarpod.com/s1e4-personhood-with-maneesha-deckha/

Part of iROAR, an Animals Podcasting Network and the CFRC Podcast Network