In 2019, I completed my BSc degree in veterinary medicine at the University of Utrecht. In 2020, I completed my MA degree in Applied Ethics at the University of Utrecht. During both degrees, I concerned myself with reimagining the human-animal-relationship and questioned what is required of individuals and institutions in order to achieve justice for animals.

Since the autumn of 2020, I have been working on my PhD thesis as part of the PRIMA Project “Beastly Politics – a theory of justice for nonhuman animals”. My supervisors are Prof. Dr. Angela Martin and Prof. Dr. Markus Wild.

Animal Ethics, Social Epistemology, Epistemology of Ignorance, Moral Blame, Epistemic Responsibility

Title

Speciesist Ignorance: Bridging animal ethics and the epistemology of ignorance (working title)

Abstract

I explore the concept of ignorance and its role in the political non-responsiveness to animal injustices. The aim is to develop a useful concept of ignorance with which to explore the issue of animal injustice. In order to do so, I frame ignorance as a major obstacle to asserting interspecies justice. This leads me to consider in what way ignorance about animal injustices comes about, as an interplay between individuals and institutions. Moreover, I question whether—and under what circumstances—we can indeed be held responsible for our actions if they come from a place of ignorance. Furthermore, I explore how different actors must discourage the production of ignorance in order to halt its contribution to the continuation of animal injustices.

van den Brandeler, E. L. (2024). Institutional epistemic barriers to anti-speciesist knowledge. In EurSafe2024 Proceedings (pp. 167-172). Wageningen Academic. LINK

van den Brandeler, E.L. (2024). Towards an Epistemology of ‘Speciesist Ignorance’. Res Publica. LINK

van den Brandeler, E. (2023). [Review of the book Protecting Animals Within and Across Borders – Extraterritorial Jurisdiction and the Challenges of Globalization, by C. Blattner]. Studia Philosophica, 83.

van den Brandeler, E. (2021). The political turn of the animal ethical discourse–the need for a virtue ethical approach. In Justice and food security in a changing climate (p. 9). Wageningen Academic Publishers. LINK

The Vonne Lund junior researcher prize 2021 – for the oral presentation and paper: “The political turn of the animal ethical discourse – the need for a virtue ethical approach” Link

HS 2023 Seminar “The Epistemology and Ethics of Ignorance” at the philosophy department, University of Basel. Course design and course coordinator.

Cultivating Epistemic Virtues for Fruitful Animal Politics (conference talk). Political Theory, Applied Ethics, and Animals. Sheffield, England, the United Kingdom. (16-17 Jan 2025)

Institutional Epistemic Barriers to Anti-Speciesist Knowledge (conference talk). EurSafe 25^th Congress on sustainable innovations for ethical food production and consumption, Ede (11-14 Sep 2024)

Epistemic Responsibilities of Public Institutions in the Human-Animal Relationship (conference talk). MANCEPT Workshops in Political Theory. Animals, Equality, and Democracy: Works in memory of Siobhan O’Sullivan. (4-6 Sep 2024)

Institutional Epistemic Obligations and Interspecies Justice: Analyzing Decision-Making in Zoonotic Outbreaks and Climate Policies (conference talk). International Society for Environmental Ethics 21^st Annual Summer Meeting on Environmental Change and Democracy. (24-26 June 2024)

Institutional Epistemic Obligations and Accountability for Democratic Deliberation (conference talk). 6^th Topoi Conference on Social Epistemology and Argumentation. Free University Amsterdam. (29 April-05 May 2024)

Epistemic Barriers of Public Institutions in the Human-Animal Relationship (workshop talk). Rethinking Institutions for Nonhuman Animals. University of Basel (7-8 March 2024).

Institutional Epistemic Duties and Epistemic Violations in Public Health Decision-Making (conference talk). Swiss Society for Biomedical Ethics Annual Winter Seminar. (18-20 Jan 2024)

Ignorance as an individual and institutional strategy to avoid responsibility (conference session). 16^th World Congress of Bioethics in Basel. University of Basel, Switzerland (20-22 July 2022)

Speciesist Ignorance as an Obstacle to Animal Justice (conference talk). Society for Applied Philosophy, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK (29-30 June 2022)

The Political Turn of the Animal Ethical Discourse: The need for a virtue ethical approach. 16^th Eursafe Congress. On Justice and food security in a changing climate (24-26 June 2021). LINK

Two-Day Workshop “Rethinking Institutions for Nonhuman Animals”, co-organized with Prof. Dr. Angela Martin. 7-8 March 2024. University of Basel.

Departmental Academic Writing Retreat. Co-organized with Prof. Dr. Angela Martin and Christian Rodriguez-Perez. 12-14 February 2024. University of Basel.

Graphic design “Philosophische Gesellschaft Basel” for philosophy seminar series (spring semester 2023, autumn semester 2024, and spring semester 2025).

Expert interview in Swiss Online Magazine “Peeps” on animal research committees in Switzerland (2023).

Expert interview in Dutch popular scientific magazine “Quest” on animal ethics (2020).