The SSEA is excited to hold a one-day mini-conference on August 5, 2026, immediately prior to the Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (RoME) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Online attendance is welcome.
August 5, 2026. CU-Boulder. Eaton Humanities 135. All times Mountain Daylight Time (UTC-6)
Zoom: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/93662141511
9:00-9:30: Welcome – coffee, vegan donuts, etc.
Session 1. Chair: Benjamin Hole
9:30-10:10: Vikas Beniwal, Sentience Is Neither Necessary Nor Sufficient for Moral Standing
10:10-10:50: Matthew Perry, How (Not) to Anthropomorphise Other Animals
10:50-11:05: Break
Session 2. Chair: Avram Hiller
11:05-11:45: Russ McIntosh, The Separateness of Animals
11:45-12:25: Nishok G U, How Not to Intervene: Two Objections to Interventions for Wild Animal Suffering
12:25-2:00: Lunch break
Session 3. Chair: Dayton Martindale
2:00-2:40: David M. Peña-Guzmán (Online), The Question Is Not “Can They Reason?” but “Can They Alleviate Their Own Suffering?”
2:40-3:20: Mary Antoinette Weigel (Online), Good Friendships with Companion Animals?
3:20-3:35: Break
Session 4. Chair: Mylan Engel
3:35-4:15: Michael Carrick, Desiring Idealized Animals?
4:15-4:55: Joe Gurrola, Animal Freedom and Its Importance in the Lives of Persons
2025 Mini-conference program:
August 6, 2025. CU-Boulder. Eaton Humanities 135. All times Mountain Daylight Time.
8:30-9:00: Welcome – coffee etc.
9:00-9:50: Frauke Albersmeier (Münster), "Sentience Denial – What It Is and Why It Matters". Comments by Anton Skretta (Rice). Chair: Mylan Engel (NIU).
10:00-10:50: Arshia Batra (University of Washington), "Becoming-inanimate, Becoming-human, Becoming-animal: The Objectification and (de)Familiarization of Captive Animals in Photography". Comments by Joel MacClellan (Loyola, New Orleans). Chair: Cheryl Abbate (UNLV).
11:00-11:50: Sabina Schrynemakers (Cornell), "The Misallocation Problem and Incommensurable Values". Comments by Ben Hole (College of Lake County). Chair: Dayton Martindale (CU-Boulder).
11:50-1:30: Lunch break
1:30-2:20: Panel: Animal Law. Stephen Hernick (Friends of Animals) and Steve Silverman (CU-Boulder). Chair: Ramona Ilea (Pacific).
2:30-3:20: Dayton Martindale (CU-Boulder), "A Social and Political Case for Veganism". Comments by Ramona Ilea (Pacific). Chair: Alexander Christian (Heinrich Heine).
3:20-3:50: Short coffee break
3:50-5:00: Panel: Animal Ethics: Recent Trends and Future Directions. Cheryl Abbate (UNLV), Yolandi Coetser (The North-West University), Bob Fischer (Texas State), Oscar Horta (Santiago de Compostela), Alastair Norcross (CU-Boulder). Moderator: Avram Hiller (Portland State).
Papers from the 2025 conference will be published in a special issue of the open-access journal Essays in Philosophy.