Dinesh Wadiwel

Dinesh Wadiwel
Born	Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Western Sydney
Influences	Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, and Achille Mbembe
Academic work
Discipline	Social theory, political theory
Sub-discipline	Disability studies, critical animal studies
Institutions	University of Sydney
Notable works	The War Against Animals

Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel is an Australian social and political theorist who is presently an associate professor in Human Rights and Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Sydney. His work addresses critical animal studies, the rights of disabled people, and theoretical perspectives on violence.

Career

Wadiwel worked for 15 years in the third sector, including with the Australian Council of Social Service. He completed his doctorate in Political Philosophy and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Sydney in 2006. He subsequently moved to the University of Sydney, where he is now (as of 2023) an associate professor.

Wadiwel is the author of the 2015 monograph The War Against Animals, published by Brill. In the book, he argues that humans are in a state of (literal) war with animals. The primary philosophical influence is the work of Michel Foucault, though other important influences include Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, and Achille Mbembe. For Wadiwel, mainstream approaches to animal ethics (including the classic works of Peter Singer and Tom Regan, and more recent works of Donna Haraway as well as those of Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka) are insufficient for failing to appreciate the near-complete internalisation of a human belief in sovereignty over animals; indeed, he argues that the works reinforce them. Drawing upon Foucauldian notions of biopower, governmentality, and counter-conduct, Wadiwel argues for the existence of, and examines the detail of, the war against animals. He argues that capitalism is complicit in the war, and that the commodification of animals is an inherently violent act. Wadiwel calls for resistance against the war. This resistance includes veganism and other pro-animal practices, but also a truce, even if only (initially) for a day.

Wadiwel was a part of The Human Animal Research Network Editorial Collective that edited the 2015 Sydney University Press collection Animals in the Anthropocene: Critical Perspectives on Non-human Futures. He also co-edited the 2016 collection Foucault and Animals with Matthew Chrulew. In 2023, Wadiwel's book Animals and Capital was published by Edinburgh University Press.

Select bibliography

• Wadiwel, Dinesh, and Carrie Hayter (2010). Communicating Difference: Understanding Communications Consumers from Non English Speaking Backgrounds (NESB). Sydney, Australia: Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Wadiwel, Dinesh (2015). The War Against Animals. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
  • Japanese translation (現代思想からの動物論. 戦争・主権・生政治) published by Jimbun Shoin in 2019.
• Human Animal Research Network Editorial Collective (eds.) (2015). Animals in the Anthropocene. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
• Chrulew, Matthew, and Dinesh Wadiwel (eds.) (2016). Foucault and Animals. Human-Animal Studies. Vol. 18. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Wadiwel, Dinesh (2023). Animals and Capital. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Further reading

External audio
"Episode 1: Locke, Derrida and Violence against Animals with Dinesh Wadiwel" Wadiwel as the guest on episode 1 of the Knowing Animals podcast (2015)
"Episode 116: The War Against Animals with Dinesh Wadiwel" Wadiwel as the guest on episode 116 of the Knowing Animals podcast (2019)

• Wadiwel, Dinesh, and Chloë Taylor (2016). "A conversation of the feral" (PDF). Feral Feminisms (6).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Wadiwel, Dinesh (4 January 2017). "Can we stop the slaughterhouse for at least one day?". Animal Liberation Currents. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
• Weetzel, Vera (2017). "Who is left out?". Angelaki. 22: 263–66. doi:10.1080/0969725X.2017.1322848.
• McCorry, Seán (2016). ""Thus, I Give Up the Spear!": Sovereignty and Violence against Animals". Humanimalia. 7 (2): 174–7. doi:10.52537/humanimalia.9680.
• Bekoff, Marc (26 February 2022). "Human-Animal Relationships: Power, Justice, and Fairness". Psychology Today. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
• O'Key, Dominic (2022). Creaturely Forms in Contemporary Literature: Narrating the War Against Animals. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781350189638.
• Banwell, Stacy (2023). The War Against Nonhuman Animals: A Non-Speciesist Understanding of Gendered Reproductive Violence. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783031304293.