Respecting Otherness
From Wolves to All Animals
Francisco Santiago-Ávila, PhD is a Fellow and board member of PAN Works, as well as a staff member at both Project Coyote and The Rewilding Institute, two organizations working for a more wild and caring world.
In this webinar, Fran discusses the entwined injustice of anthropocentrism and social prejudice among humans, drawing our attention to the need for a shift in human consciousness. Rooted in an eco-feminist approach and paving the way for value paradigms like multispecies justice, Fran explains what it means to live compassionately with one another and with other species. We learn that all oppression stems from a particularly violent form of human exceptionalism, available only to the most-privileged humans.
As an expert in nature ethics and a researcher focused on moral inclusivity and rewilding, Fran lifts up our collective need for an ethic of care as we endeavor to prioritize the claims of other animals through a mixed-moral communities lens. This is a worldview anchored in metaphysics and urging empathy, understanding, respect, and compassion. Working from this foundation, our interpretations and understanding at large — of other beings and of our spaces in the natural world — have the power to uplift and sustain thriving mixed communities of people, animals and nature. As we learn and feel into how we ought to live in harmony with wolves, Fran helps us think about how reciprocity with other beings demands a shift in how we view ourselves and others — and the accompanying moral imperative of human behavior change.
We are sure you will find this webinar fascinating and timely, and this work a hopeful salve for a more-just world. We also look forward to introducing you to Fran more closely in the near future!
Kim Hightower is the communications specialist for PAN Works.
Please visit PAN Works for more about our work on ethics and animal wellbeing.
