Please join the Animal Law Program as it hosts a webinar that will focus on helping animal lawyers, scholars, and students access and employ information and expertise from the social sciences (sociology, economics, anthropology, comparative psychology, ethology, etc.). This session will serve as an introduction to the basic terms, concepts, and resources used in the social sciences that may be relevant to animal advocacy.

Topics will include assessing different types of social science research; determining the strength of studies and how and when to use social science appropriately in animal advocacy; finding and working with expert witnesses and affiants; critical thinking about scientific claims; the political landscape of the sciences; how to involve scientists early on in strategizing; and more. 

Speakers

Lori Marino is a neuroscientist and expert in animal behavior and intelligence, formerly on the faculty of Emory University.

Lori received her Ph.D. in biopsychology in 1995, and is internationally known for her work on the evolution of the brain and intelligence in dolphins and whales (as well as primates and farmed animals). She has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers, book chapters, and magazine articles on marine mammal biology and cognition, comparative brain anatomy, self-awareness in nonhuman animals, human-nonhuman animal relationships, and the evolution of intelligence.

She is also an expert on marine mammal captivity issues such as dolphin assisted therapy and the educational claims of the zoo and aquarium industry.

In 2001, she co-authored a ground-breaking study offering the first conclusive evidence for mirror self-recognition in bottlenose dolphins, after which she decided against further research with captive animals.

Lori is also the Founder and Executive Director of The Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy, which focuses on bridging the gap between academic research and scholarship and on-the-ground animal advocacy efforts.

She has appeared in several films and television programs, including the 2013 documentary Blackfish about killer whale captivity, Unlocking the Cage, the 2016 documentary on the Nonhuman Rights Project, and Long Gone Wild , the 2019 documentary that picks up where Blackfish left off and the work of the Whale Sanctuary Project begins.

Dr. Jo Anderson is the Research Director at Faunalytics, where she directs a program of social science research designed to help advocates be more successful. In addition, she serves as a co-leader of the RECAP researcher collective, a research advisor to the Food System Research Fund and Good Growth Co., and an Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University.

Kathy Hessler is the inaugural Assistant Dean for Animal Legal Education at George Washington University Law School (GWU), and Director of the Animal Legal Education Initiative (ALEI), working with Joan Schaffner and Iselin Gambert, in a program made possible by generous support from ALDF.

Dean Hessler has been a clinical law professor for 30 years and has been teaching animal law for 22 years. She is the first law professor hired to teach animal law full-time. She received her JD from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary and her LLM from Georgetown University Law Center.

Dean Hessler helped develop the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School (L&C). For fourteen years she taught there and directed the Animal Law Clinic, which was named one of the top fifteen most innovative clinics in 2015. She also created and directed the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative and is the co-founder of World Aquatic Animal Day along with Amy P. Wilson.