Closeup of a dog leaning on a fence of an outdoor animal shelter, with other dogs visible in the background.
Michael Edwards

Professors Lori Gruen and Justin Marceau discuss their recent edited volume Carceral Logics: Human Incarceration and Animal Captivity.

Event Overview

Please join us for this Harvard Animal Law Week talk by Professors Lori Gruen and Justin Marceau discussing their recent edited volume Carceral Logics: Human Incarceration and Animal Captivity.

Carceral logics permeate our thinking about humans and nonhumans. We imagine that greater punishment will reduce crime and make society safer. We hope that more convictions and policing for animal crimes will keep animals safe and elevate their social status. The dominant approach to human-animal relations is governed by an unjust imbalance of power that subordinates or ignores the interest nonhumans have in freedom.

In this volume Lori Gruen and Justin Marceau invite experts to provide insights into the complicated intersection of issues that arise in thinking about animal law, violence, mass incarceration, and social change. Advocates for enhancing the legal status of animals could learn a great deal from the history and successes (and failures) of other social movements. Likewise, social change lawyers, as well as animal advocates, might learn lessons from each other about the interconnections of oppression as they work to achieve liberation for all.