It’s time for me to spill the beans. It is with abiding excitement, eager anticipation, bursting pride, and a few flitting butterflies, that I would like to tell you some very big news for Mariann and me, and — of course — for Our Hen House. This fall, the esteemed Lewis & Clark Law School’s Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS), in none other than Portland, OR, is expanding its lineup to include an impressive visiting professor whom you may have heard of. Her name is Mariann Sullivan, but I like to call her “sweetheart.” She’s my partner, Our Hen House’s other founder (the official brains behind our organization), and, at a handful of law schools here in NYC where we reside, she teaches animal law. This summer, we’re packing up our juicer and our pit bull, driving cross-country, and making Portland our temporary home — the Pacific Northwest satellite office for Our Hen House. From July until December, we will either be on the road or in The City of Roses (appropriate, given our dog, Rose, who has always wanted to see the West Coast, and fully expected that wherever we landed would be a city all about her).
We’re going on the road.
Mariann will be teaching two classes, “Animals in Agriculture: Law and Policy” (which she is particularly excited about since farm animal issues have her heart) and “Animal Law Fundamentals” (which she currently teaches at Brooklyn Law School, Columbia Law School, and Cardozo Law School). These courses will enhance CALS’ cutting-edge advanced LLM program in animal law (the first program like that in history!), and they will also be available as part of the regular law school curriculum. CALS is at the foreground of animal law, helping to pave the way for other animal law programs to become a mainstay at law schools far and wide — there are well over 100 in the U.S. that now offer a class in animal law! Mariann is nothing short of gobsmacked about the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join their esteemed team.
While on the road, we will of course be blogging, podcasting, tweeting, and scheming. Once in Portland, we expect to gain a whole new angle on our coverage of animal activism opportunities and ideas, and we’re also looking forward to some thrilling collaborations with CALS. For those of you back here on the East Coast, don’t cry for me, NYC, because we will be back for speaking engagements and visits more times than you’ll want to hear about (including Wesleyan University’s “Finding a Niche for ALL Animals: A Conference Honoring the Ecofeminist Work of Marti Kheel,” and “BlogHer’s 8th Annual Conference“).
But for now, I guess I need to focus on the logistics of getting there in the first place. New Yorkers like us don’t have things like cars, let alone baggage (except the emotional variety, most of which is already packed). Stay tuned for our podcast this weekend where we will ruminate all about the trip, which, holy shitzu, is coming up much sooner than we think. Does anyone have a hybrid we could borrow? Or a mixed tape? (People still listen to those on road trips, right?)
Portland, here we come!
Read the press release for more information on Our Hen House’s big move!