Intersections Videos

Crip Humanimal. Keynote Geertrui Cazaux, EACAS conference, Barcelona

by trudi_bruges
Comments 4

On 22-24 May 2019, the UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) held the 6th Conference of the European Association for Critical Animal Studies (EACAS) at UPF: Rethinking Revolution: nonhuman animals, antispeciesism and power. The program of the conference was very varied and brought together academics and activists with different backgrounds.

On the final day, I gave a keynote presentation about Crip HumAnimal. On ableism, speciesism and inclusiveness in the vegan movement – Geertrui Cazaux. 

Exploring the interconnections between speciesism and ableism, it becomes clear that these systems of oppression operate in similar ways. What repercussions does this have for disabled humans and other animals? What do these connections mean for our movement? The talk also explores points that we must take into account to become an inclusive movement.

[ID: Front of auditorium. Screen has title text: Crip HumAnimal. On Ableism, speciesism and inclusiveness in the vegan movement – Geertrui Cazaux EACAS May 24, 2019 Barcelona – Geertrui and chairman of the session Eze Paez sitting in front behind desk]

One of the slides from my presentation, about the animalisation of disabled persons.

[ID: Title reads: Animalisation of disabled people. On left is an annoucement for a show, with caption: Behold. The tale of Mexico’s Monkey Woman, with in the middle a portret of a woman with facial hair. On the right of the slide is a poster for the movie ‘The Elephant Man’. Caption reads “I am not an animal. I am a human being. I … am … a man!” next to a photo of a man covered in a long coat and his face and head covered with a mask and a hat]

My presentation was filmed by the University and available on YouTube [with automatic generated subtitles in English]

[ID: Front of auditorium. Geertrui and chairman of the session sitting in front behind desk. Large screen behind them. Screen shows projection of image of 19th century ad for exhibition, with the title: What is it? with a person holding a stick in the middle. Right picture shows ad for exhibition about Human Zoos, with several white persons standing behind a black woman and child sitting in front of them]

I am very honoured that the organisors gave me the opportunity to speak about these issues at the conference. The conference was truly inspiring and it felt a bit like ‘coming home’. I so wish there was an organisation like the European Association for Critical Animal Studies when I did my doctoral research twenty years ago. It often felt quite lonely back then.

I posted some photos of the conference talks and impressions from Barcelona in this album on Facebook. Reviews from the restaurants we have visited will become available on my other blog The Bruges Vegan.

 

You can read a report of the Conference on the website of the Universitat de Pompeu, Centre for Animal Ethics: here.

More photos of the conference on this post on the Facebookpage of UPF Centre for Animal Ethics.