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By Meredith Dault, Senior Communications Officer

A recent book by Queen’s professor Will Kymlicka has won the Canadian Philosophical Association’s top book prize. Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights, which he co-authored with his spouse, writer Sue Donaldson, won the 2013 Biennial book prize. It takes a new approach to animal rights, exploring the ways in which animals are members of our communities.

“It’s a departure from the usual debates around animal rights,” says Dr. Kymlicka, Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy. “We’re asking about the possibility of including animals in our ideas of citizenship and democratic community – certainly a big step beyond the old question, which was that if animals can feel pain, what do we owe them?”

Inspired in part by the book, an anonymous donor recently stepped forward to fund the Abby Benjamin Postdoctoral Fellowship in Animal Studies. The first fellow, Zipporah Weisberg, took up her year-long position on July 1, and will be working closely with Dr. Kymlicka. Ms. Weisberg, wrote her PhD dissertation at York University on the links between animal domination and human alienation in late modernity.

As part of her fellowship, Ms. Weisberg will be teaching a second-year course on animal ethics in the winter term that will be open to students from a variety of disciplines.