Animals in Our Midst: The Challenges of Co-existing with Animals in the Anthropocene

Bernice Bovenkerk is assistant professor of philosophy [from June 1, 2019 hopefully associate professor] at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Her research and teaching deal with issues in animal and environmental ethics, the ethics of climate change, and political philosophy. Current topics are the moral status of animals and other natural entities, with a particular focus on fish and insects; animal agency; the ethics of animal domestication; animal (dis)enhancement; animals in the wild; and deliberative democracy. 

She has obtained both a VENI and a VIDI innovative research grant from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research. The VENI dealt with animal domestication, in particular discussions around the justification of animal captivity, and changing animals’ genomes. In particular, she did research on the ethics of pedigree dog breeding. The VIDI deals with animal agency under Anthropocene conditions.

Bernice received her PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia, on a dissertation titled The Biotechnology Debate. Democracy in the face of intractable disagreement. She received her Master’s title at the University of Amsterdam on a thesis titled Pluralism in Environmental Ethics. Together with Jozef Keulartz, she has edited the Springer volume Animal Ethic in the Age of Humans. Blurring boundaries in human-animal relationships. Her homepage is bernicebovenkerk.com.

Jozef Keulartz is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Philosophy at the Radboud University Nijmegen, and senior researcher Applied Philosophy at Wageningen University and Research Centre. He has published extensively in different areas of science and technology studies, social and political philosophy, bioethics, environmental ethics and nature policy. His books include Die verkehrte Welt des Jürgen Habermas [The Topsy-Turvy World of Jürgen Habermas, 1995] and Struggle for Nature—A Critique of Radical Ecology (1998). He is co-editor ofPragmatist Ethics for a Technological Culture (Kluwer, 2002), Legitimacy inEuropean Nature Conservation Policy (Springer, 2008), New Visions of Nature(Springer, 2009), Environmental Aesthetics. Crossing Divides and BreakingGround (Fordham University Press, 2014), and Old World and New WorldPerspectives in Environmental Philosophy (Springer, 2014).