More

Dr Erika Cudworth

Job: Senior Lecturer in Education

Faculty: Health and Life Sciences

School/department: School of Applied Social Sciences

Address: Hawthorne 0.04, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH

T: 0116 366 4622

E: erika.cudworth@dmu.ac.uk

 

Close all sections
Open all sections

Personal profile

Erika joined the Education team at DMU in February 2020. Prior to joining DMU she worked in Social Sciences at the University of East London where she was Professor and taught in politics and international relations.

Erika’s research expertise lies in the areas of human/animal studies, gender, the environment and posthumanism. She is particularly interested in questions of intersectionality and the persistence of complex inequalities considered at various levels from grounded empirical studies in localities, to the theorizing of global dynamics. Her empirical research has sought to examine the patterns which may be found in examining both cultural forms and material practices/institutions. Erika’s published work includes the books Developing Ecofeminist Theory (2005) and Social Lives with Other Animals (2011), and with Steve Hobden, Posthuman International Relations (2011) and The Emancipatory Project of Posthumanism (2018). She is currently working on a new book project looking at relationships between people and dog companions and their everyday practices.

Erika’s teaching over the years has involved an extended reflection on the nature of political power and the relationship between different kinds of state and publics. She has worked extensively in the teaching of research methods, and the politics and sociology of the environment and gender.

Research group affiliations

  • Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development
  • Institute for Research in Criminology, Community, Education and Social Justice
  • Centre for Research on Urban Austerity

Publications and outputs

  • Most farmers prefer Blondes: The Dynamics of Anthroparchy in Animals’ Becoming Meat
    Most farmers prefer Blondes: The Dynamics of Anthroparchy in Animals’ Becoming Meat Cudworth, E. There are varied social formations that contemporary human-animal relations assume, but the dominant interaction which most of us in wealthy regions of the globe have with domestic animal species, is that we eat them. This paper argues that the animals we eat are framed by the symbolic regimes and material contexts of their becoming-meat. The placing of animals as food suggests an ontology of species, and this paper draws out elements of such an ontology with reference to an empirical British study of the institutional sites and practices of farming, slaughter and butchery through which animals are transformed into meat. It is not only species relations which are present in animals’ becoming-meat however, and an emergent theme in the empirical material is the way in which gendered and natured (and other) narratives coalesce. Domestic food animals have, of course, varied histories of bio-sociality with ‘humans’. Yet despite this co-constitution, the paper argues that many non-human animals are subject to a complex system of natured domination which privileges the human. Despite the dynamic qualities of contemporary formations of natured domination, the becoming-meat of animals can be understood as a network of institutions, processes and practices and can be evidenced in particular social forms. Social relations are complexly intersectionalised however, and this paper explores some of the entanglements of gender and nature in the conceptions, lives, deaths and dismemberments of meat animals. open access journal
  • The Recipe for Love? Continuities and Changes in the Sexual Politics of Meat
    The Recipe for Love? Continuities and Changes in the Sexual Politics of Meat Cudworth, E. Our eating of animals and animal products is a key tenet of human-animal relations in late modernity, and the popular culture of food, in wealthy regions of the globe, is infused with images of animals as flesh for human consumption. This paper suggests, drawing particularly on the feminist conception of the ‘absent referent’, that such images can tell us something about both human-animal relations, and intra-human relations. Some sociologists have seen the postmodernization of human-animal relations in the changing content of the cultural texts of meat. Drawing upon an empirical study of the presentation of animal food in British food magazines and advertising in the 1990s, and discussing some images of meat food as cultural texts, this paper argues that the narratives which frame such images coalesce in overlapping discursive formations of gendered and natured power and difference. The paper takes the view that the postmodernization thesis is overstated, and that the cultural texts of meat tell us a story which still reflects both social hierarchy and the human domination and exploitation of the animals we consume as ‘food’. open access journal
  • Killing animals: sociology, species relations and institutionalized violence
    Killing animals: sociology, species relations and institutionalized violence Cudworth, E. Influential voices have argued for a sociology which acknowledges the way we are co-constituted with a range of non-human species as part of the condition of life on this planet. Despite this, sociology has generally retained a conception of the social that is centred on the human. This paper argues for the inclusion of non-human animals in sociological agendas, focusing on the emerging field of the sociology of violence. It examines the institutions and processes through which non-human animals are subjected to different forms of violence, most notably, mass killing.The practice of killing animals is routine, normative, institutionalized and globalized. The scale of killing is historically unprecedented and the numbers killed are enormous. The paper argues that this killing of non-humans raises questions around inequalities and intersectionality, human relations with other species, the embedding of violence in everyday practices and links between micro and macro analyses. These are questions with which the new sociology of violence might engage. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • Posthuman Community in the Edgelands
    Posthuman Community in the Edgelands Cudworth, E. This paper draws on a study of companion animals in human households and public spaces, deploying material gained by ethnographic observation and interviews with dog walkers in urban and rural contexts. The communities which are the subject of this study frequent public places that might be described as ‘edgeland’ space where dogs and ‘dog people’ meet. The paper argues that the relationships between cross-species packs of people and dogs develop over time in the routine practice of walking are micro-communities inclusive of both dogs and their human companions. It is suggested that these might be understood as posthuman social forms with particular characteristics of inclusivity, diversity and reconstitution. Human members of such communities are also invested in, and defensive, of edgeland spaces and engaged in practices of care for both human and canine walkers. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • Muddied Living: making home with dog companions
    Muddied Living: making home with dog companions Cudworth, E. Purpose Focusing on everyday lives and relationships within the household, this paper suggests that the quality of ‘home’ is altered by the presence of animal companions. Conceptions of home as a haven have been critiqued on grounds of the elision of power relations, yet home has also been understood as a place of resistance to, and refuge from, an exploitative and exclusionary public world. Acknowledging differentiated relations of power and understanding homemaking as a process, this paper investigates the playing out of species relations within home space. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on empirical material from a study of companion species in households and public spaces, deploying ethnographic material gained through extended observation and semi-structured and often mobile interviews with dog ‘owners’ in urban and rural contexts in the UK. Findings Dogs transform domestic space through muddying human lives. This process is twofold. First, life in posthumanist households problematizes boundaries between humans and other creatures in terms of relationships, behaviour and use of space. Second, muddied living involves breaching and maintaining domestic order. Muddied living is characterised by tension, power and compromise. Homes are posthuman not just by including non-human animals, but through elements of dog agency in how home is made. Originality Little has been written of ‘home’ within sociology, despite ‘home’ capturing a range of social practice. Sociologists examining human-animal companion relations have not considered how relations play out in home space. This paper investigates home as a shared space of multispecies interaction, making the case for a posthuman sociology of home. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • A Sociology for Other Animals: Analysis, advocacy, intervention
    A Sociology for Other Animals: Analysis, advocacy, intervention Cudworth, E. Sociology has come late to the field of Human Animal Studies (HAS), and such scholarship remains peripheral to the discipline. Early sociological interventions in the field were often informed by a critical perspective, in particular feminism but also Marxism and critical race studies. There have also been less critical routes taken, often using approaches such as actor-network theory and symbolic interactionism. These varied initiatives have made important contributions to the project of animalizing sociology and problematizing its legacies of human-exclusivity. As HAS expands and matures however, different kinds of study and different normative orientations have come increasingly into relations of tension in this eclectic field. This is particularly so when it comes to the ideological and ethical debates on appropriate human relations with other species, and on questions of whether and how scholarship might intervene to alter such relations. However, despite questioning contemporary social forms of human-animal relations and suggesting a need for change, the link between analysis and political strategy is uncertain. This paper maps the field of sociological animal studies through some examples of critical and mainstream approaches and considers their relation to advocacy. While those working in critical sociological traditions may appear to have a more certain political agenda, this article suggests that an analysis of 'how things are' does not always lead to a coherent position on 'what is to be done' in terms of social movement agendas or policy intervention. In addition, concepts deployed in advocacy such as rights, liberation and welfare are problematic when applied beyond the human. Even conceptions less entrenched in the liberal humanist tradition such as embodiment, care and vulnerability are difficult to operationalize. Despite complex and contested claims however, this paper suggests that there might also be possibilities for solidarity. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • Now, where were we? The highs and lows of hunting data with a research pack
    Now, where were we? The highs and lows of hunting data with a research pack Cudworth, E. The boundaries of the social have been stretched by recent scholarship in sociological animal studies. Empirical work has begun to open up to the presence of the myriad other creatures that make up social worlds. Yet much of this research relies on standard practices and human-centred methods. This paper reflects on a piece of research characterised by such contradiction drawn from a project investigating everyday lives with canine companions via observation and interviewing. What was methodologically distinctive, was that the majority of interviews involved dogs being present and most were undertaking while walking with dogs. An ethnographic diary was also kept in one field site mapping events, interactions and routines of dogs, humans and others in the space of ‘dog walking’. How might non-humans intervene in data collection and be reflected in the data? What is lost and gained by researching (literally) in the field with a multi-species research pack? The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • Complexity Theory and the Sociology of Natures
    Complexity Theory and the Sociology of Natures Cudworth, E. The natural environment is characterised by incredible difference, yet its complexity is often homogenised in sociological understandings. This paper will argue that social formations are ecologically embedded in inter-species networks, and that sociological work needs to reflect this more strongly. Despite this co-constitution of the 'social' and the 'natural', the paper also argues that human nature is subject to a complex system of domination which privileges the human. Despite the dynamic qualities of the contemporary formations of natured domination, intimations of a 'posthuman condition' are very much over drawn. This paper examines the burgeoning work on systems thinking in both the natural and the social sciences, and suggests how some scientific models have developed conceptualisations that might usefully be deployed in the understanding of relatively contained social formations, and in the analysis of systemic relations between non-human communities, non-human species and environmental contexts. It proposes a concept of 'anthroparchy', a complex social system of natured domination which can be understood as a network of institutions, processes and practices that can be evidenced in particular social forms. Within a complexity frame however, 'anthroparchy' cannot stand alone. Rather, specific formations of social natures are emergent as a result of the interplay of a range of systems of domination. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • Climate Change, Industrial Animal Agriculture and Complex Inequalities
    Climate Change, Industrial Animal Agriculture and Complex Inequalities Cudworth, E. This paper examines changes in agricultural practices, focusing on developments in meat production. There are a number of interlinked processes and practices that will be examined: the key changes in animal food production, and the impact of very recent developments in animal food production on local, regional and global environments. The current scale of animal farming is intense, and there has been an incredible increase in the populations of farmed animals. The production of animals and animal feed crops has had a significant impact on localised food production systems, and the intensive production of stock is set to become the model for agricultural development in poor countries. Animal based food is seen as a solution to food poverty and helping to eliminate food insecurity. Yet this paper will suggest that the establishment of Western intensive production and the promotion of Western eating habits are more likely to increase social inequalities. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • For a Critically Posthumanist Sociology in Precarious Times (Special Issue Editorial)
    For a Critically Posthumanist Sociology in Precarious Times (Special Issue Editorial) Cudworth, E. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.

Click here to view a full listing of Erika Cudworth's publications and outputs.

Key research outputs

ORCID identifier 0000-0002-5687-5581

Books

1. (2018) The Emancipatory Project of Posthumanism (with Stephen Hobden) Interventions Series, Routledge, pp.180. ISBN 9781138673250, https://www.routledge.com/The-Emancipatory-Project-of-Posthumanism-1st-Edition/Cudworth-Hobden/p/book/9781138673250

2. (2018) Posthuman Dialogues in International Relations (ed. with Stephen Hobden and Emilian Kavalski), Routledge, pp. 295. ISBN 978-1-3156-1347-5 https://www.routledge.com/Posthuman-Dialogues-in-International-Relations-1st-Edition/Cudworth-Hobden-Kavalski/p/book/9781409461913

3. (2015) Anarchism and Animal Liberation: Essays on Complementary Elements of Total Liberation (ed. with Anthony J. Nocella and Richard White) McFarland, pp.244. ISBN 978-0-7864-9457-6,  https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/anarchism-and-animal-liberation/

4. (2013) Technology, Society and Inequality: New Horizons and Contested Futures (ed. with Peter Senker and Kathy Walker) Peter Lang, pp.215. ISBN 978-1-4331-1042-9 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Technology-Society-Inequality-Contested-Formations/dp/1433119706

5. (2011) Social Lives with Other Animals: Tales of Sex, Death and Love, Palgrave, pp. 220. DOI 10.1057/9780230302488, https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230241510

6. (2011) Posthuman International Relations: Complexity, Ecologism and Global Politics, (with Stephen Hobden) Zed Books, pp.256. ISBN 978-1-780322216,  https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/posthuman-international-relations/

7. (2007) The Modern State: Theories and Ideologies, Edinburgh University Press (with Tim Hall and John McGovern), pp.322. ISBN 978-0-7486-2176-7, https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-modern-state.html

8. (2005) Developing Ecofeminist Theory: the Complexity of Difference, Palgrave, pp. 218. DOI 10.1057/9780230509276, https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781403941152

9. (2003) Environment and Society, Routledge, pp.232. DOI 10.4324/9780203994900. 

Journal articles

1. (2019) ‘Muddied living: making home with dog companions’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, pre-print https://doi.org/10.11.08/IJSSP-08-2019-0165

2. (2018) “Now, where were we?’ The highs and lows of hunting data with a research pack’, Journal of Sociology special issue A Sociology of Multi-Species Relations? 54. 4: 488-503. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1440783318816761

3. (2018) ‘Anarchism’s Posthuman Future’ (with Stephen Hobden) Anarchist Studies 26, 1: 79-104. ISBN 978-1-912064-92-2

4. (2017) ‘Posthuman Community in the Edgelands’ Society and Animals, 25, 4: 384-403. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-12341452

5. (2017) ‘Anthropocene, Capitalocene and Liberal Cosmopolitan IR: A Response to Burke et al’s, ‘Planet Politics” (with David Chandler and Stephen Hobden) Millennium Journal of International Studies 46, 2: 190-208 https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0305829817715247

6. (2016) ‘A Sociology for Other Animals? Analysis, advocacy and intervention’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 36, 3/4: 242-257. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-04-2015-0040

7. (2015) ‘The Posthuman Way of War’ (with Stephen Hobden) Security Dialogue. 46, 6: 513-529. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0967010615596499

8. (2015) ‘Killing Animals: Sociology, species relations and institutionalised violence’ The Sociological Review, 63, 1: 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12222

9. (2015) ‘Liberation for Straw Dogs? Old materialism, new materialism and the challenge of an emancipatory posthumanism’ (with Stephen Hobden) Globalizations, Special Issue ‘Occupying Subjectivity: Being and Becoming Radical in the Twenty-First Century’, 12, 1: 134-148. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2014.971634

10. (2014) ‘Civilization and the Animal’ (with Stephen Hobden) Millennium Journal of International Studies, 42, 2: 746-766. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0305829814540355

11. (2014) ‘Analyzing Change: complex rather than dialectical?’ (with Stephen Hobden) Globalizations, Special Issue ‘Dialectics and World Politics’, 11, 5: 627-642.  https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2014.940247

12. (2013) ‘Of Parts and Wholes: International Relations Beyond the Human’ (with Stephen Hobden) Millennium Journal of International Studies, 41, 3: 430-450.  https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0305829813485875

13. (2013) ‘Complexity, Ecologism and Posthuman Politics’ (with Stephen Hobden), Review of International Studies, 39, 3: 643-664.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210512000290

14. (2012) ‘Foundations of Complexity, and the Complexity of Foundations: Beyond the Foundation/Anti-Foundational Debate’ (with Stephen Hobden) Philosophy of Social Sciences, 42, 2: 163-187. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0048393110388038

15. (2012) ‘Securança do que e para quem? Desquilades mứltiplas e complexas e a polίtica envolvida na securançe ambiental na Europa’, (with Stephen Hobden) Interfacehs, 6, 3: 117-131 (‘Securing What for Whom? Multiple Complex Inequalities and the Politics of Environmental Security in Europe’ (with Stephen Hobden), Interfaces)

16. (2011) ‘Walking the Dog: Explorations and Negotiations of Species Difference’ Philosophy, Activism, Nature, 8: 14-22. ISSN 1443-6124

17. (2011) ‘Climate Change, Industrial Animal Agriculture and Complex Inequalities’ The International Journal of Science in Society, 2, 3: 323-334.  https://doi.org/10.18848/1836-6236/CGP/v02i03/51257

18. (2011) ‘Beyond Environmental Security: Complex Systems, Multiple Inequalities and Environmental Risks’, (with Stephen Hobden) Environmental Politics, 20, 1: 42-59.*  https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2011.538165

19. (2010) ‘Anarchy and Anarchism: Towards a Theory of Complex International Systems’ (with Stephen Hobden) Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 39, 2: 399-416. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0305829810384677

20. (2010) “The Recipe for Love’? Continuities and Changes in the Sexual Politics of Meat’ The Journal for Critical Animal Studies, 8, 4: 78-99. ISSN 1948-352X

21. (2009) ‘The Politics of Arts and Events: Social Capital and “Community Cohesion” in East London’, (with Judith Burnett) Rising East Online: The Journal of East London Studies 9a, 15.

22. (2009) ‘More than a Metaphor: Complexity Theory in the Social Sciences’, (with Stephen Hobden) The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 4, 4: 59-69. https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1882/CGP/v04i04/52886

23. (2008) ‘The Good Citizen: Problematising Citizenship in the Social Sciences Curriculum’, (with Judith Burnett) Learning and Teaching: the International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences Winter 2008 1, 3: 67-88. https://doi.org/10.3167/latiss.2008.010305

24. (2008) ‘Archipelagic Nations: Situating Citizenship in Education’, (with Judith Burnett) The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 3, 4: 145-154.  https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1882/CGP/v03i04/52588

25. (2008) “Most Farmers Prefer Blondes’ – Dynamics of Anthroparchy in Animals’ Becoming Meat’, The Journal for Critical Animal Studies, 6, 1: 32-45. ISSN 1948-352X

26. (2007) ‘Complexity Theory and the Sociology of Natures’, The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 2, 3: 351-358. https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1882/CGP/v02i03/59327

Book chapters

27. (in press 2020) ‘Bringing down the Animal Abuse Industry by Any Means Necessary: state-corporate-media alliance, the fragility of pro-meat propaganda and the possibilities of counter cultural intervention’ with Richard White in Radical Animal Studies ed. Anthony J. Nocella, Lantern Books.

28. (2018) ‘Farming and Food’, in C. Levy and M. Adams (eds) The International Handbook of Anarchism. Palgrave, pp. 641-658. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_36

29. (2017) ‘Breeding and Rearing Farmed Animals’, in H. Pierpoint, J. Maher and P. Beirne (eds) The International Handbook on Animal Abuse Studies. Palgrave, pp: 159-178. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43183-7_8 

30. (2018) ‘Epilogue: Beyond the Anthropocentric Partitioning of the World’, in Posthuman Dialogues in International Relations (ed. with Stephen Hobden and Emilian Kavalski), Routledge. ISBN 978-1-3156-1347-5

31. (2018) ‘Introduction: Framing the Posthuman Dialogues in International Relations’ in Posthuman Dialogues in International Relations (ed. with Stephen Hobden and Emilian Kavalski), Routledge. ISBN 978-1-3156-1347-5

32. (2017) ‘Posthuman Insecurity’ (with Stephen Hobden), in A. Burke and R. Floyd eds. Global Insecurity: Futures of chaos and governance. Palgrave, pp. 65-81. DOI 10.1057/978-1-349-95145-1

33. (2016) ‘On Ambivalence and Resistance: Carnism and Diet in Multispecies Households’, in A. Potts (ed.) Critical Perspectives on Meat Culture. Brill, pp.222-242 https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004325852_013

34. (2016) ‘Liberation for Straw Dogs? Old materialism, new materialism and the challenge of an emancipatory posthumanism’ (with Stephen Hobden) Occupying Subjectivity: Being and Becoming Radical in the Twenty-First Century, Routledge, pp. 133-146. ISBN 13 978-1-138-1206-3

35. (2016) ‘Ecofeminism and the Animal’, in M. Phillips and N. Rumens (eds) Contemporary Perspectives on Ecofeminism. Routledge, pp. 38-56. ISBN 978-1-138-01974-4

36. (2016) ‘Puppy Love? Companion Animals in the Media’, (with Tracey Jensen) in N. Almiron, M.C. Cole and C.P. Freeman (eds) Critical Animal and Media Studies: Communication for Nonhuman Animal Advocacy, Routledge, pp. 185-200. ISBN-13: 978-1-1388-4226-7

37. (2015) ‘Dialectics and Complexity’ (with Stephen Hobden), in S. Brinncat (ed.) Dialectics and World Politics. Routledge, pp.  ISBN: 978-0-4156-2527-2

38. (2015) ‘Human Domination and Other Animals’, in A. J. Nocella, E. Cudworth and R. White (eds) (2015) Anarchism and Animal Liberation: Essays on Complementary Elements of Total Liberation. (eds. with Anthony J. Nocella and Richard White) McFarland, pp. 93-107. ISBN 978-1-4331-1042-9

39. (2015) ‘Complexifying International Relations for a Posthumanist World’, (with Stephen Hobden) in E. Kavalski (ed.) World Politics at the Edge of Chaos: Complexity and Global Life. SUNY, pp. 169-188. ISBN 978-1-4384-5607-2

40. (2014) ‘Beyond Speciesism: Theorizing the Social Domination of Other Animals’ in N. Taylor and R. Twine (eds) The Rise of Critical Animal Studies: From the Margins to the Centre. Routledge, pp. 19-35. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230302488_3

41. (2014) ‘Challenging Systems of Domination from Below’ (with Richard White) in A. J. Nocella, J. Sørenson, K. Socha, and A. Matsuoka (eds) Defining Critical Animal Studies: An Intersectional Social Justice Approach for Liberation. Peter Lang, pp. 202-220. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42982384

42. (2014) ‘„Prezpis na miłość”? Kontynuacje i zmiany w płciowej polityce mięsa’, Śmierć Zwierzęcia: Współczesne Zootanatolgoie, (ed.) Marzena Kotyczka, Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. (“The Recipe for Love’? Continuities and Changes in the Sexual Politics of Meat’, The Death of the Animal: Contemporary Zoothanatologies, University of Silesia, pp. 55-78) ISBN 978-83-226-2381-7

43. (2013) ‘Feminism’ in C. Death (ed.) Critical Environmental Politics. Routledge, pp. 91-100. ISBN: 978-0-4156-3122-8

44. (2013) ‘Climate Change, Industrial Animal Agriculture and Complex Inequalities: Developments in the Politics of Food Insecurity’, in E. Cudworth, P. Senker and K. Walker (eds.) Technology, Society and Inequality. Peter Lang, pp. 47-60. ISBN 978-1-4331-1042-9

45. (2013) ‘Introduction – Contested Futures, Technology, Inequality and Progress’, (with Peter Senker and Kathy Walker) in E. Cudworth, P. Senker and K. Walker (eds.) Technology, Society and Inequality. Peter Lang, pp. 1-16. ISBN 978-1-4331-1042-9

46. (2013) ‘Conclusion – New Horizons and Contested Futures’, (with Peter Senker and Kathy Walker) in E. Cudworth, P. Senker and K. Walker (eds.) Technology, Society and Inequality. Peter Lang, pp. 167-180. ISBN 978-1-4331-1042-9

47. (2011) “Most farmers prefer Blondes’ – Entanglements of Gender and Nature in Animals’ Becoming-meat’, in R. Carter and N. Charles (eds) Human and Other Animals: Critical Perspectives. Palgrave, pp. 153-172. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230321366_8

48. (2010) ‘Complexity, ‘Nature’ and Social Domination: Towards a Sociology of Species Relations’, in J. Burnett, S. Jeffers and G. Thomas (eds) New Social Connections: Sociology’s Subjects and Objects. Palgrave, pp. 85-104. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230274877_6

49. (2010) ‘Educating the Outcast: Policy and Practice in the Education of Gypsy Traveller Children’, (with David Cudworth) in L. Ang, J. Trushell and P. Walker (eds.) Learning and Teaching in a Metropolis. Rodolpi, pp. 27-48. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789042027961_004,

50. (2009) ‘Environmental Insecurity’, (with Stephen Hobden) in H. Fagan, and R. Munck (eds.) The Encyclopedia of Globalization and Security: Volume One- Economic and Political Aspects. Praeger, pp. 79-100. ISBN 978-0-275-99696-3

51. (2009) ‘Nature, Culture, Technology: Myths and Inequalities in the Posthuman Zoo’ in J. Burnett, P. Senker and K. Walker (eds.) The Myths of Technology: Innovation and Inequality. Peter Lang, pp. 131-144. ISBN: 9781433101281

52. (2008) ‘Seeing and Believing: Gender and Species Hierarchy in Contemporary Cultures of Animal Food’ in D. Grummett and R. Meurs (eds.) Eating and Believing: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Vegetarianism and Theology. Continuum/T&T Clark, pp. 168-183. ISBN 978-0-5672-6795-5

53. (2004) ‘Women on Derive: Autobiographical Explorations of Lived Spaces’ (with Judith Burnett and Maria Tamboukou) in 

Research interests/expertise

  • qualitative research methods (particularly mobile methodologies and multi-species ethnography)
  • contemporary political theory (complexity approaches, feminisms, new materialism, political ecologism, critical posthumanism)
  • sociology of difference and intersectional inequalities
  • citizenship and education
  • critical animal studies (companion species, farmed animals, feminist approaches)
  • critical pedagogy (eco pedagogy, new materialism, decolonisation)

Areas of teaching

  • social theory
  • politics of education
  • research methods
  • environmental education

Qualifications

  • PhD Sociology, University of Leeds
  • PGCE Social Studies, Institute of Education (UCL)
  • MSc Political Sociology, LSE
  • BSoc.Sc. Political Science, University of Birmingham

Courses taught

  • EDUC 2229 Research Methods
  • EDUC 2448 New Priorities and Politics of Education
  • EDUC 3304 Dissertation

Membership of professional associations and societies

  • BSA (British Sociological Association)
  • BISA (British International Studies Association)
  • EACAS (European Association for Critical Animal Studies)
  • IPSA (International Political Science Association)

Projects

Erika is currently engaged with three projects.

  • A study of companion animal relations using mobile methods (‘walk and talk’ interviewing and ethnography). She is currently writing up the findings into papers and working up to a book provisionally titled Muddied Living.
  • A co-authored book project with Dr. Matthew Cole from the Open University. The book, Animalizing Sociology, will revisit ‘classical’ social theory with posthumanist lenses.
  • A new project developing further co-authored work with Dr. Steve Hobden from the University of East London on the human-animal-technical assemblages of securitisation and warfare - ‘the posthuman way of war’.

Conference attendance

Select conference papers in the last 5 years include:

1. ‘Bringing down the Animal Abuse Industry by Any Means Necessary: State-corporate-media alliance and the fear of counter-cultural intervention’ (with Richard J. White) Rethinking revolution: non-human animals, antispeciesm and power.  6th Conference of the European Association for Critical Animal Studies, Barcelona, Catalonia, 24th May, 2019.

2. ‘Human uplift and animal oppression – ‘becoming civilized”, Anarchist Studies Network Conference, University of Loughborough, UK, 12th-14th September 2018.

3. ‘For Terraism: excavating multispecies community in a time of extinction’, 5th Annual European Conference for Critical Animal Studies, University of Lund, Sweden, 26th-28th October 2017.

4. “It Smells Good to Me’: Embodied affectivity in the posthuman home’, British Animal Studies Network, ‘Smelling’, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow UK, 20th-21st May, 2016.

5. ‘Posthuman Community in the Edgelands’, British Sociological Association Annual Conference, University of Aston, Birmingham UK, 6th-8th April 2016.

6. ‘Dogs on TV: Class, gender and the disruptive potential of the mongrel domestic’ (with Tracey Jensen), British Sociological Association Annual Conference, University of Aston, Birmingham UK, 6th-8th April 2016.

7. ‘Anarchism’s Posthuman Future’ (with Stephen Hobden), Association of American Geographers Annual Convention, San Francisco, USA, 29th March-2nd April, 2016.

8. ‘Overcoming the Denial of Nature: a Posthuman Perspective’ (with Stephen Hobden) Non-humans and Politics conference, Forschungsinstitut für Philosophie, Hannover, Germany, January 22nd-23rd 2016.

9. ‘The Posthuman Way of War’, (with Stephen Hobden), Posthuman International Relations panel, International Studies Association Annual Convention, New Orleans, USA 18th-21st February 2015.

10. ‘On Ambivalence and Resistance: Carnism and Diet in Multispecies Households’, Minding Animals Conference, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, 13th-20th January 2015.

Current research students

Jana Canavan The Limits of Anthropocentric Liberty: Towards an Inclusion of Other Animals (external supervisor, University of Lund)

Delia Langstone Watching the Animal: Human and Non-Human Animals in the Surveillant Assemblage (external supervisor, University of East London)

Alex Thomas The Politics and Ethics of Transhumanism: Exploring Implications for the Future in Advanced Capitalism (external supervisor, University of East London) https://theconversation.com/super-intelligence-and-eternal-life-transhumanisms-faithful-follow-it-blindly-into-a-future-for-the-elite-78538; https://theconversation.com/eric-cantonas-science-will-make-us-eternal-speech-was-funny-but-he-has-a-point-122735

Professional esteem indicators

Reviewer of book proposals and manuscripts for publishing houses including: Ashgate, Brill, Common Ground, Continuum, Routledge, Palgrave, Peter Laing, Polity and Zed.

Reviewer of papers for academic journals including: Animals, Antipode, Agriculture and Human Values, Configurations, European Journal of International Relations, Food Culture and Society, Gender and Education, Hypatia, International Relations, Millennium, Science and Society, Security Dialogue, Signs, Society and Animals, Social Problems, Sociology, The Sociological Review, Theory Culture and Societyand Women’s Studies International Forum.

Book reviews editor for Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses 2012-18.

Grant assessor for proposals for ESRC, ISRF and Leverhulme

Member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Agroecology and on Vegetarianism and Veganism.

Member of the Academic Consultative Committee of the Vegan Society, UK. 

Keynote and invited talks

Select papers in the last 5 years include:

1. ‘Feminism, animal studies and the intersection between gender and human-animal relations’, Feminism meets animal studies lecture series, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, 25th June 2019.

2. ‘The Posthuman Way of War’, Department of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 25th April 2019.

3. ‘Posthuman Community in the Edgelands’, Department of Political Science, University of Lund, Sweden, 24th April, 2019.

4. ‘Feminism, animal studies and the intersection between gender and human-animal relations’, Department of Media and Communications, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Catalonia, 21st February, 2019.

5. ‘Uplifting the human and dominating the animal: imperialism, violence and the ‘Civilizing Process”, Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna, Austria, 11th April 2018.

6. ‘The emancipatory project of posthumanism’, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Tampere, Finland, 11th December, 2017.

7. ‘Uplifting the human and dominating the animal: imperialism, violence and the ‘Civilizing Process”, 5th Annual European Conference for Critical Animal Studies, Lund, Sweden, 26th-28th October 2017.

8. ‘A Terraist Manifesto: excavating multispecies community in a time of extinction’, Power and the Chthulucene: Humanimal Discussions at the intersections of gender, sexuality, ability and race symposium, University of Uppsala, Sweden, 6th-7th April 2017.

9. ‘Beyond the Imperial Human: towards a creaturely politics’, Department of History, Politics and International Relations, University of Loughborough, 8th February, 2017.

10. ‘Emancipation in Posthuman Times’, at the Human and Nonhuman Animals: Liberation, History and Critical Animal Studies conference, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences/ New University of Lisbon (Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas - Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Portugal, 7th-8th October, 2015.

PhD students

Erika has supervised four projects to completion:

Dr. Maxine Newlands Environmental Direct Action and the Politics of Representation (awarded 2013)

Dr. Mary Lodato Institutional Abuse in Ireland: Survival, Redress and Recovery (2014)

Dr. Alex Williams Complexity and Hegemony: Technical Politics in an Age of Uncertainty (2016)

Dr. Camille Barbagallo The Political Economy of Reproduction: Motherhood, Work and the Home in Neoliberal Britain (2016)