Queer Assimilation and Mutant Supremacy: The X-Men as Ideological Statecraft

Presenter on “Heteronormativity and Queer Assimilation” panel

Queering Liberation and Victimhood: The Reappropiation of Intersectionality & Violence

Presented on panel entilted, "Direct Action as Queer Action: The Liberatory praxis of Operation Splash Back! and DARTT"

The following panel advocates the inclusion of queer thought in the articulation of total liberation. The papers in this panel examine different modes of direct action in the animal liberation movement, a communique and home demonstrations respectively, and the ways in which they advance total liberation through queer thought. Although the presentations focus on specific case studies, their implications are examined within the larger movements seeking to resist speciesism, as well as those undermining State sovereignty and capital accumulation.

Killer Whales & Violent Queers: Intersectionality Queered Through Appropriated Violence

Panel title: Queer Counterpublics

“If A Tree Falls” Dinner, Movie & Discussion Forum

Co-presented with Jennifer Grubbs and Paul Gorski

The School for Conflict Analysis's Environmental Conflict Working Group is featuring a night of film, food and discussion surrounding issues of radical environmentalism, terrorism and the politics of political violence. Please join us for heaps of vegan snacks, one amazing film and a discussion following the movie. We will be watching "If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front," and will be joined by academics and activists who stand in solidarity with these movements as they help to answer questions about these controversial movements in defense of the Earth. We have three confirmed presenters:

- Paul Gorski (George Mason Universty professor and founder of EdChange)
- Jennifer Grubbs (American University professor and ELF/ALF scholar & supporter)
- Michael Loadenthal (Georgetown University professor and ELF/ALF scholar & supporter)

From a ‘matrix of domination’ to ‘total liberation’: The contributions of neo-Insurrectionist Queers to the Liberatory Discourse

Queer communiqués: Operation splash back and the challenge to speciesism

Operation Splash Back!: Queering Animal Liberation Through the Contributions of Neo-Insurrectionist Queers

Later published in the Journal for Critical Animal Studies special issue on Queer theory.

The Queer, neo-insurrectionist network known as Bash Back! has contributed to the queering of the animal liberation discourse through the publication of their 2010 communiqué entitled, “Bash Back!ers in Support of Autonomous Animal Action Call For Trans-Species Solidarity With Tillikum.” The politic developed by the neo-insurrectionist Queer movement, as exemplified by Bash Back!, has served to disrupt anthropocentric notions of human-liberator, animal-captive that form the centerpiece of the animal liberation discourse. Through their appropriation of an attack wherein an orca whale killed its trainer at SeaWorld, Bash Back! problematizes not only the normalized domestication of non-human animals for entertainment, but also the discourse used to critique such enslavement. Through satirical posturing and a liberatory framework, Bash Back! attempts to draw intersectional connection between the systems of domination that enslave both non-human animals and non-heterosexual Queers. Through a queering of this understanding of liberation, Bash Back! serves to shift the animal liberation discourse away from the human centric “total liberation” framework, and towards an anti-speciest framework proposed herein, termed “total solidarity."

One Man’s Terrorist is another Man’s Cop: Dangerously Evading Grand Juries and Targeted Assassinations

Investigating respondents actively engaged in criminality presents challenging dilemmas to researchers attempting to gain respond trust and simultaneous avoid repressive State security forces.  In this discussion, I will examine two venues in which this difficult navigation surfaced: ethnographically investigating Palestinian armed fighters, and interviewing clandestine Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activists.  In both situations, respondents sought to remain “underground” while simultaneously providing rich analytical data.  While the Palestinian fieldwork involved incidents of direct violence with military, police, and intelligence forces (including my eventual deportation), complexities emerged when Israeli ‘terrorist amnesty’ policies changed the State’s recognition of respondents—allowing yesterday’s terrorist to become tomorrow’s civil servant.  For the UK, the challenge was different, as international efforts to produce arrests within the ALF network has forced numerous academics engaged in such inquiries to appear on Grand Juries or face jail time.  These two research projects have presented divergent, yet intersectional concerns regarding not only the safety of the researcher, but also of the respondents.

Operation Splash Back!: Queering Animal Liberation Through the Contributions of Neo-Insurrectionist Queers

The Queer, neo-insurrectionist network known as Bash Back! has contributed to the queering of the animal liberation discourse through the publication of their 2010 communiqué entitled, “Bash Back!ers in Support of Autonomous Animal Action Call For Trans-Species Solidarity With Tillikum.” The politic developed by the neo-insurrectionist Queer movement, as exemplified by Bash Back!, has served to disrupt anthropocentric notions of human-liberator, animal-captive that form the centerpiece of the animal liberation discourse. Through their appropriation of an attack wherein an orca whale killed its trainer at SeaWorld, Bash Back! problematizes not only the normalized domestication of non-human animals for entertainment, but also the discourse used to critique such enslavement. Through satirical posturing and a liberatory framework, Bash Back! attempts to draw intersectional connection between the systems of domination that enslave both non-human animals and non-heterosexual Queers. Through a queering of this understanding of liberation, Bash Back! serves to shift the animal liberation discourse away from the human centric “total liberation” framework, and towards an anti-speciest framework proposed herein, termed “total solidarity.

Direct Action, Animal Advocacy & Eco-Justice: ‘Eco-Terrorists’ Challenging State Capitalism

delivered via Skype

Eco-Terrorists Unite!: Reclaiming the Commons through Public Performance

Co-presented with Jennifer Grubbs

Green Anti-Capitalism & Animal Liberation: The erosion of State power through direct action

Co-presented with Jennifer Grubbs

In this panel, we will explore the relationship between capitalism, the green scare, and political repression. Bringing together a quantitative analysis of direct action activism and a theoretical analysis of performative power, the panel will shed light on a larger discourse surrounding mechanisms of social change. These analyses defend the earth and animal liberation movements (AELM), utilizing a Marxist-Anarchist lens to illustrate how these non-State actors provide powerful critiques of the State-Corporate Industrial Complex. Specifically, the panelists examine how State-sanctioned violence against the AELM represents a return to what Foucault refers to as Monarchical power. The qualitative analysis begins with the movement's history of largely avoiding violence against human life. This history will be used to argue that the movement does not qualify as "terrorist," and will allow for a discussion of the Statecraft concerning the defaming and disruption of these groups. Paying particular attention to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, the rhetoric of the "green scare" has been used to redefine the criminality of actions as "terrorism". This year began with the exposure of three key government-hired infiltrators that had been deceiving earth and animal advocates for years. All three had engaged in sexual relationships with the very activists they were building a case against. The latter half of the panel discussion will focus on the performance of power between the radical left and the corporate-government industrial complex. Specifically, the various forms of political repression, including: the use of grand juries, CMU’s, terrorism enhancements, and the ways in which infiltrators use sexuality. We argue that these repressions represent not only the capitalist allegiances between government and industry, but also a sense of desperation. The government is taking such unconstitutional measures because they actually fear the revolutionary potential of these movements’ ideology.

Eco-terrorists Unite: Negotiating Power Through Public Performance

Co-presented with Jennifer Grubbs

Sexuality, Surveillance, and Government Infiltrators: Fragmenting the radical left through the terrorization of animal advocacy

Co-presented with Jennifer Grubbs

This collaborative project explores the repressive State practices of the Green Scare, examining the connections between sexual manipulation by informants and inter-movement self-policing. Specifically, we are looking at the role of sexuality in government infiltrations of the animal and earth liberation movements. We use Foucault to examine the ways in which public performance (both direct action activism and state repression through anti-terrorism laws) demonstrate a return to monarchical power. Sexuality, however, complicates this through a new type of self-discipline that polices not only how one interacts with the State but also who one sleeps with. A domestication of the panopticon. In situating this exchange between State and Non-State actors, we utilize Michael's quantitative analyses of tactics through a range of government databases/primary documents. These data sets interrogate the construction of "terrorism" in relation to the capital-fused "green scare".

Sexuality, Surveillance, and Government Infiltrators: Fragmenting the Radical Left Through the Terrorization of Animal Advocacy”

Co-presented with Jennifer Grubbs

SHORT VERSION:

Revolution is brewing, and the radical left is gaining recognition through increased access to the media. The internet has provided an international platform to expose corporate-government corruption and publicize events, demos, and post-action communiqués. The government has historically taken extreme measures to fragment, silence, and even murder activists within radical left movements. Today’s edition of this systematic repression has been called the “Green Scare.” This year began with the exposure of three key government-hired infiltrators that had been deceiving anarchist, earth liberationists, and animal advocates for years. All three had engaged in sexual relationships with the very activists they were building a case against. During this session we will examine the performance of power between the radical left and the corporate-government industrial complex. Specifically, we will examine various forms of political repression and the ways in which infiltrators use their sexuality to deceive.

LONG VERSION:

In this panel, we will explore the relationship between capitalism, the green scare, and political repression. Bringing together a quantitative analysis of direct action activism and a theoretical analysis of performative power, the panel will shed light on a larger discourse surrounding mechanisms of social change. These analyses defend the earth and animal liberation movements (AELM), utilizing a Marxist-Anarchist lens to illustrate how these non-State actors provide powerful critiques of the State-Corporate Industrial Complex. Specifically, the panelists examine how State-sanctioned violence against the AELM represents a return to what Foucault refers to as Monarchical power. The qualitative analysis begins with the movement's history of largely avoiding violence against human life. This history will be used to argue that the movement does not qualify as "terrorist," and will allow for a discussion of the Statecraft concerning the defaming and disruption of these groups.
Paying particular attention to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, the rhetoric of the "green scare" has been used to redefine the criminality of actions as "terrorism". This year began with the exposure of three key government-hired infiltrators that had been deceiving earth and animal advocates for years. All three had engaged in sexual relationships with the very activists they were building a case against. The latter half of the panel discussion will focus on the performance of power between the radical left and the corporate-government industrial complex. Specifically, the various forms of political repression, including: the use of grand juries, CMU’s, terrorism enhancements, and the ways in which infiltrators use sexuality. We argue that these repressions represent not only the capitalist allegiances between government and industry, but also a sense of desperation. The government is taking such unconstitutional measures because they actually fear the revolutionary potential of these movements’ ideology.

The Rhetoric of Terrorist Labeling: The case of the Animal Liberation Front

Throughout its 38 year history, the radical animal and earth liberation movement has been successful in advancing a strategy of economic sabotage through vandalism, animal liberations, arson and a number of tactics collectively known as sabotage. Despite the movement's history of largely avoiding violence against human life, many global governments have classified these movements, embodied in the Animal Liberation Front, as "terrorists." Contained in this rhetoric is the State's justification for a police strategy that includes the use of aggressive surveillance, agent provocateurs, paid informants and malicious sentencing. This talk will examine the history of these movements focused on their tactics and strategies. This history will be used to argue that the movement does not qualify as "terrorist," and will allow for a discussion of the Statecraft concerning the defaming and disruption of these groups. We will examine how this movement challenges State control in regards to the production of violence, and we will examine how it challenges capitalism's promise of protected private property. These themes will allow us to discuss the conclusion that while the movement clearly does not use terrorism, it does advocate a radical anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, anti-speciest politic that challenges State capitalism.

Preforming Power: The Fragmenting of the Radical Left Through Political Repression

Co-presented with Jennifer Grubbs

A Foucauldian Analysis of the Sexualized Infiltration of Leftist Movements

Lavender Language Activism

We Can “Bash Back!”: Towards the Development of a Radically Queer Praxis and Analysis

The decentralized, Queer, direct action network known as Bash Back! (BB!) has emerged in North America as a militant force that is serving to redefine political praxis while offering an emergent identity politics challenging the dissmissive tendencies located in reformist, and often assimilationist, LGBT movements such as the Human Rights Campaign. Through transparent internet-based discussion boards, semi-regular regional gatherings, and the publishing of political communiques, the BB! network has developed a rhetoric that seeks to expand the sphere of inclusivity beyond a gay/straight, male/female binary, offering an intersectional, transformarive model of revolutionary struggle informed by not only Queer/gender/feminist studies, but also by anti-authoritarian insurrectionist movements challenging State power. This expanded model offered by BB! seeks to advance a fight for Queer liberation, not "gay rights." The autonomous cells affiliated with BB! have spoken critically of LGBT-movement campaigns to repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell", as well as campaigns to advance gay marriage. BB! activists have claimed that Queer persons should not seek State recognition through such legalistic reforms, and instead should work to challenge the heteronormativity of State-sanctioned marriage , and the connections between military policy, structural violence, and the regimenting of Queer bodies. Through acts of political violence and the production of a revolutionary discourse, BB! has served to redefine social struggle, asserting that the liberation of Queer persons is an act of anti-assimilationist "social war" positioned as an opposition to not only the State, but the larger discourse of binaries, sexes, genders and the disciplining of bodies.

Militant Not Terrorists: How the Radical Animal and Earth Liberation Movement Challenges the State and Capitalsim

"Eco-terrorism” as a Challenge to Capitalism

Network Analysis & Social Movements

Gender Roles in Zones of Armed Conflict

Foreign nationals in the Palestinian, non-violent resistance movement

Research & Activism: Bolivia, Lithuania and Israel/Palestine

There is a need to develop strategies allowing for critical 
academics to provide necessary support for politically 
contentious activism and vice versa.

Through discussion, we can examine how academics can use their privilege and status to assist "on the ground activists," and how activists can lend support to academics under fire.

Israeli Policy & International Law

The Role of Internationals in Zones of Conflict

http://www.american.edu/ocl/kay/

Facilitating anti-authoritarian, horizontalist volunteer collectives

Picture Balata and the Palestinian youth photography project

The Palestinian Resistance: Armed, Non-Violent & International

Legal Access Workshop

Radio corespondent providing weekly reports on Middle Eastern politics

Reproducing a Culture of Martyrdom: The Role of the Palestinian Mother in Discourse Construction, Transmission, and Legitimization

In the Name of God and Country: The Islamic Resistance Movement and its Influence on Community Morals

Armed Islamists & Conflict Resolution: Case Studies in Iraq & Palestine

Guest lecturer for graduate level seminar

Female Involvement and Gendered Propaganda in Pan-Arab Militant Groups

This workshop will provide an overview of female involvement in a multitude of Arab and Muslim conflicts. The presentation will focus on female involvement in conflicts spanning the Muslim world, focusing on Palestine, Iraq, Chechnya, Lebanon and Turkey. This workshop should help to advance the discussion surrounding women in militant social movements by examining often overlooked examples of non-Western territories.

Gender Roles in Zones of Conflict

Guest lecturer for undergraduate class

The Roles Played by Women in Contemporary Arab/Islamic Armed Conflicts

Rastafari, Race and Cultural Hybridity

Understanding World Bank and IMF Structural Adjustment Programs

Teach-in preceding bi-annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund protests