A.F.A.R.
Wednesday July 29th, 2020 with Carolyn
This week, Professor Vasile Stanescu returns to the show to discuss the connections between speciesism and other forms of oppression. He also explains why vegan activists should oppose capitalism.

This week, I am pleased to present my second interview with the Critical Animal Studies scholar Vasile Stanescu (https://mercer.academia.edu/VasileStanescu). Vasile is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and the director of the Program in Speech and Debate at Mercer University. He is also a co-Senior editor of the Critical Animal Studies book series and former co-editor of the Journal for Critical Animal Studies. He has written more than twenty peer-reviewed publications about Critical Animal Studies and the environment. In this interview, Vasile explains what Critical Animal Studies is, and he challenges us to reconsider our use of the term "nonhuman animal". He also speaks about how speciesism is connected to other forms of oppression, why animal rights activists should be opposed to capitalism, how the animal agriculture industry is funding disinformation about the effects of animal agriculture on climate change, and why there is no such thing as humane or sustainable animal agriculture. Additionally, he points out that animal rights activists should work with (and not against!) other social justice movements. It's a fascinating interview! During the discussion, Vasile spoke about his academic journal article titled "'White Power Milk’: Milk, Dietary Racism, and the ‘Alt-Right'" (https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1373&context=asj), and his open letter to Peter Singer (https://animalliberationcurrents.com/an-open-letter-to-peter-singer/), both of which you can read for free online. He also mentioned the Animals & Society Institute video in which he explains what Critical Animal Studies is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5w073Pv5po.