Animals, Community, and Justice Matters in Critical Times

Abstract

In this essay, I explore my story as an activist and my current critical community engagement project, Animal Advocates of Greater Lafayette. Animal Advocates merges my activism and my scholarship. I begin by providing stories of my experience as a student and community activist in Boston in the 1980s. I then discuss my more recent volunteer experiences, which led to the formation of Animal Advocates of Greater Lafayette. I share stories of the early challenges and my experiences with this group and how my activism and my scholarship now simultaneously shape and move each other. Through this discussion, I hope to expand the possibilities for being and acting in the world outside of the academy to engage with the communities where we live, thinking about the multiple ways in which justice matters in critical times.