People

Dr Steve Cooke

Associate Professor of Political Theory

School/Department: History Politics and International Relations, School of

Email: smc77@leicester.ac.uk

Profile

I completed my undergraduate degree in Politics at the Open University. I have a Master’s Degree in Human Rights and a PhD in Politics from the University of Manchester. In 2012 I 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. My main area of research focuses on duties to nonhuman animals and the ethical status of protest and political disobedience carried out for their sakes.

Research

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. 

 

Publications

Cooke, S. (2024) ‘Cultured meat as a transitional step towards inter-species justice?’, Moral Philosophy and Politics, Ahead of Print / Just Accepted.

Cooke, S. (2023) ‘Bearing witness, animal rights and the slaughterhouse vigil’, European Journal of Political Theory, OnlineFirst.

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

(2021) 'Cosmopolitan Disobedience', The Journal of International Political Theory, 17:3, pp.222-239.

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

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.

Supervision

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

Teaching

I convene the following undergraduate political philosophy modules: 

  • PL1011: Political Concepts
  • PL2027: Contemporary Political Philosophy: theories of justice 
  • PL3155: Animals and the Environment

I also teach on:

  • PL7095: Global Ethics in Practice (MA)
  • PL1019: Introduction to Politics

Press and media

Contact me for expertise in:

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

 

 

Awards

During Summer 2024 I was a senior fellow of the Forum Basiliense centre for interdisciplinary dialogue, University of Basel, Switzerland, where I worked with Dr. Angela Martin on the project 'Animal Liberation and Humans’ Freedom in Liberal Societies'. 

In 2013, I was the Society For Applied Philosophy's 30th Anniversary Research Fellowship for a project on animal rights and environmental terrorism.

In 2009, I was awarded a PhD studentship by the University of Manchester to work on the ethics of animal liberation.

Media coverage

 

Selected blogs, media appearances, podcasts, etc.:

 

Qualifications

  • 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
 

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