Dr Steve Cooke

Dr. Steve Cooke completed his undergraduate degree in Politics at the Open University. He has a Master’s Degree in Human Rights and a PhD in Politics from the University of Manchester. In 2012 Dr. Cooke was awarded the Society for Applied Philosophy’s 30th Anniversary Research Fellowship to research the use of violence in defence of non-human animals and the environment. His main area of research focuses on duties to non-human animals and the ethical status of law-breaking and political violence carried out for their sakes.

My primary research interests are in

• moral and political duties regarding non-human animals
• the ethics of different forms of protest and direct action.

Current research:

My current research projects cover: 

• Moral progress towards justice for nonhuman animals. This research strand includes work on the ethics of lab-grown animal products and on moral psychology.
  
  
• The ethics of animal rights activism. A key strand of this project explores the ethical challenges faced by those with pro-animal rights views in forming and maintaining friendships within societies largely hostile towards their moral commitments.
  
  
• The ethics of animal agriculture. Included in this project is work on the concept animal welfare in agricultural science and the notion of care for nonhuman animals. This research explores how different conceptions of welfare serve to legitimise serious harms to nonhuman animals. 

 

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(2021) 'The Ethics of Touch and the Importance of Nonhuman Relationships in Animal Agriculture', Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 34:12.

(2019) ‘Betraying Animals’, The Journal of Ethics, 23:2, pp.183-200.

(2019) 'Cosmopolitan Disobedience', The Journal of International Political Theory, 17:3, pp.222-239.

With Andrew Futter (2017) 'Democracy verses Deterrence: Nuclear Weapons and Political Integrity', Politics, 38:4 pp.500-513.

(2017) 'Imagined Utopias: Animal Rights and the Moral Imagination', Journal of Political Philosophy, 25:4, pp.e1-18.

(2017) ‘Animal Kingdoms: on habitat rights for wild animals’, Environmental Values, 26:1, pp.53-72.

(2016) 'Understanding Animal Liberation', in Garner, R. and O'Sullivan, S. (eds) The Political Turn in Animal Ethics, London and New York: Rowman & Littlefield International.

with Alasdair Cochrane (2016) '""Humane Intervention"": the international protection of animal rights' Global Ethics, 12:1, pp.106-121.

(2014) ‘Perpetual Strangers: Animals and the Cosmopolitan Right’ Political Studies 62:4 pp.930-944.

(2013) ‘Animal Rights and Environmental Terrorism’ Journal of Terrorism Research 4:2 pp.26-36.

(2011) ‘Duties to Companion Animals’, Res Publica, 17:3, pp.261-274.

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I am interested in supervising PhD topics in any of the following areas:

• Animal rights/animal ethics
• Ethics of activism and protest
• Philosophy of veganism
• Political philosophy in the broad analytic tradition

I presently supervise the following PhD students:

• Nick Schenk 'The moral right to citizenship: a normative theory of just membership for non-citizen stateless persons'
• Susana Pickett 'The Moral Theory and Practice of Veganism’
• Thomas Dowling 'Securitisation Theory from Copenhagen and Paris to Naypyidaw: An Investigation into the Undersecuritisation of Environmental Security in Myanmar Under the National League for Democracy'
• Will Gildea 'Animal Rights and the Welfare they Protect'. 

I convene the following undergraduate political philosophy modules: 

• PL1011: Political Concepts
• PL2027: Contemporary Political Philosophy: theories of justice 
• PL3155: Animals and the Environment (starting in Semester 1 2023/24). 
  This module will introduce students to the philosophy of animal rights and environmental ethics.

I also teach on:

• PL7095: Global Ethics in Practice (MA)

My semester 2, 2022-23 Feedback and Support hours are:

• Tuesday 2-3 p.m., ATT903
• Thursday 3-4 p.m., ATT903

Contact me for expertise in:

• Animal rights
• Animal ethics
• Ethics of protest
• Direct action
• Veganism
• Animal welfare.

 

 

 

Blogs, media appearances, and podcasts:

• 'On vegan friendship', Vegan Society, Expert Series Blog.
• BBC Radio 4 The Moral Maze: Animal Sentience: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000y0kx
• Philosophy 24/7: How should humans relate to animals? https://www.philosophy247.org/podcasts/how-should-humans-relate-to-animals/
• Episode 96: Imagining Animal Rights with Steve Cooke: Knowing Animals: https://knowinganimals.libsyn.com/episode-96-imagining-animal-rights-with-steve-cooke
• 'Debating the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill', University of Leicester, Citizen Writes, Research hot topics blog.
• 'The Relational Rights of Social Non-human Animals', Vegan Society, Expert Series Blog 
• 'Betraying Animals’, Vegan Society, Expert Series blog
• ‘Democracy versus Deterrence: nuclear weapons and political integrity’, Politics Blog (Political Studies Association)
• 'Europe should embrace a cosmopolitan approach to animal rights', LSE EUROPP: European Politics and Policy Blog

• PhD (Politics), University of Manchester
• MA (Human Rights), University of Manchester
• BA (Hons) Open, The Open University
• Diploma in Politics and Government, The Open University
• Diploma in Combined Studies, University of Wolverhampton
• Fellow of Higher Education Academy