The possibilities for those who want to write about animal issues seem to be expanding everyday. Academic, as well as not-so-academic, publications are hungry for content. So, if writing is your thing, consider dusting off your pencil and facing that blank piece of paper. The animals need your voice. And even if these ideas aren’t of interest to you, please remember to pass them along to others who might find them of interest.
Here are a few of the opportunities, in a variety of fields, that we’ve noticed of late:
Bowling Green State University is holding its inaugural graduate student workshop in applied philosophy, and the topic that they have chosen to examine is Animal and Environmental Philosophy. Scheduled for November 15-16, the workshop will be geared toward bringing together graduate students in the field for a productive exchange of ideas and debate. Submissions should be in the 4,000 word range and are due on August 30.
There’s a very exciting proposed project in the works called The Disabled Vegan Reader, which is seeking nonfiction essays from vegans who are also persons with disabilities (and possibly also from allies of persons with disabilities).
Specifically, we seek essays that explore moments in which the confluences between the status of animals and of disabled persons – as well as the disjunctures – become apparent. Within the frame of the writer’s personal experience, writers should critically explore ideas that bring dimension and depth to the experiential.
Among the suggested ideas that might work for this anthology are: “a personal experience with confinement (e.g. in a hospital), analyzed for its similarity or dissimilarity with nonhuman animal confinement… the ethical issues a writer faced as a vegan in evaluating treatment options; moments of being othered — or embraced — as a person with a disability and as a vegan by family, friends, activist communities, work supervisors, etc. … [and] analysis of film, literature, or image use through the critical and creative lenses of disability/ableism and speciesism/animal rights.”
Although the project does not yet have a publisher, this is clearly a fascinating subject, and, if sufficient essays of
good quality are submitted, there seems no doubt that this proposed anthology will eventually see the light of day. So why not submit one (by December 31) and help them on their way?
For the legal scholars in the room, The Global Journal of Animal Law has recently published its first issue and is seeking submissions going forward. Among the articles in that first issue are: “A rabbit, is a rabbit, is a rabbit… Not under the Law,” by Joan Schaffner and “Animal Welfare in Switzerland — constitutional aim, social commitment, and a major challenge” by Vanesss Gerritsen. Published (in English) by Åbo Akademi University Department of Law, Finland, the Journal accepts submissions on an ongoing basis.
These are just a few representative samples of the possibilities that exist for those who care about animals to get their voices heard. If these don’t suit you, it’s certain that there are other journals, magazines, anthologies, etc., looking for your unique perspective on animals and their proper place in the world.