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News Release: Top Scholars Address Religious Ethics and Animal Protection

10th February 2014

More than forty scholars worldwide will be speaking at the Summer School at Oxford in July 2014 to address the role of religion in furthering animal protection.

“There has been so much interest in the Summer School” said Professor Andrew Linzey, “that we have had to arrange parallel sessions to cope with the demand”.

The top scholars include Professor Richard Gombrich (University of Oxford) and Dr Sudhir Chopra (Fellow of the Cambridge Central Asia Forum) on animals in Buddhist Ethics;

Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield (President, The Movement for Reform Judaism) and Dr Khayke Beruriah Wiegand (University of Oxford) on Judaism and animals;

The Rt Revd John Pritchard (Bishop of Oxford), Professor Kurt Remele (Karl-Franzens-University in Graz, Austria) and Professor Daniel Dombrowski (Seattle University) on Christianity and animals;

Dr Tim Winter (University of Cambridge) and Dr John Chesworth (University of Oxford) on Islam and animals;

Professor Clifton Flynn (Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of South Carolina Upstate), Dr Kay Peggs (University of Portsmouth), Professor Chien-hui Li (National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan) and Professor Lisa Johnson (University of Puget Sound) on the historical, sociological and legal analyses of the role of religion.

The Revd Professor Adrian Anthony McFarlane (Vice President, International University of the Caribbean) and Professor Kai Horsthemke (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) on Caribbean and African religions and animals;

Professor Deborah Cao (Griffith University, Australia) on animals and Confucianism; Dr Jagbir Jhutti-Johal (University of Birmingham) on animals and Sikhism, and Dr Kenneth Valpey (University of Oxford) on Hinduism and animals.

In addition, the special Gala Dinner speakers will be Professor Joy Carter, Vice Chancellor of the University of Winchester, and Sir David Madden, formerly British Ambassador to Greece.

“This promises to be the most important event ever on religion and animals”, said Professor Linzey, Director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

The Summer School will be held at St Stephen’s House Oxford on 21-23 July.  The full programme of events will be published in March 2014.  For more details, see here or contact Clair at depdirector@oxfordanimalethics.com.