May 25, 2017

Research Themes

The researchers associated with APPLE work on a wide range of issues regarding human-animal relationships, with a particular focus on three broad themes:

  1. What ethical and political principles should guide our relationships with nonhuman animals? How should our ideas of justice and democracy be reconceived for an interspecies society?
  2. How are human-animal relationships governed in our society? What laws, institutions, and social norms regulate the lives of animals? Who decides on these governance relationships, and how are these decisions accountable?
  3. Public attitudes towards animals are notoriously inconsistent, and many commentators argue we must “unlearn” much of what we were taught about animals before we can learn how to develop more just and sustainable relationships. What kind of education and advocacy can contribute to moral progress in human-animal relationships?