Join our conference ‘Promoting Responsible Governance of Animal Protection’

September 19, 2025

The Centre for Animals And Social Justice (CASJ) is delighted to announce details of our forthcoming conference, which will take place at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, on Friday, 21 November 2025. The conference is organised in partnership with The Schweitzer Institute (SI), and is titled: ‘Promoting Responsible Governance of Animal Protection: Policy Reform for an Ethical Future’.

The event follows on from last year’s successful conference, ‘Ecocentric Ethics: Exploring Our Responsibilities to Non-Human Animals and the Environment’, which brought together renowned speakers to discuss the social and political reforms essential to fulfilling humanity’s moral responsibilities to other animals and nature. (The videos and papers from last year’s event are available to view.)

This year’s conference will continue and deepen the debate, focusing on the practical steps needed to embed animal protection and ecocentric ethics within law and governance. This focus on structural change to achieve the institutionalisation of animal protection is the unique and essential heart of our collaboration. Thus, a major theme will be the progress of our joint project with the SI to develop our Governmental Animal Protection Commission proposal.

We have the following speakers lined up:

• Gisella Marinuzzi (The Schweitzer Foundation)
• Dr Dan Lyons (Centre for Animals and Social Justice)
• Prof Allen Thompson (Oregon State University and 2025 Schweitzer Fellow)
• Dr Clare Palmer (Texas A&M University)
• Dr Matthew Sims (Cambridge University)
• Edie Bowles (The Animal Law Foundation)
• Charlotte Flores (Bryant Research)
• Dr. Pablo Magaña Fernández (Trinity College Dublin)

The event will be live-streamed and is also free to attend in person, subject to capacity. To register your attendance, please email director@schweitzer.institute .