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Biography

Maneesha Deckha is Professor and Lansdowne Chair in Law at the Ó£»¨Ó°ÊÓ in British Columbia where she directs the Animals & Society Research Initiative. Her research expertise includes critical animal law, vegan ecofeminist theory, and postcolonial theory. Professor Deckha’s work analyzes the gendered, culture, racialized, and species dimensions of law and she has published widely in law reviews, feminist journals, and edited collections. She is author of Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders and director of the open access documentary series, A Deeper Kindness: Youth Activism in Animal Law and on YouTube: @ASRI-UVic. Professor Deckha is the recipient of multiple research grants for her work on animal law theory and reform, including transitioning away from animal-based farming and food systems as well as animal-based science research. In Spring 2024 she was a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Zurich and a Senior Fellow at the Collegium Helveticum, ETH Zurich. Professor Deckha is a graduate of McGill University, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and Columbia Law School.

Education

• BA (Joint Honours in Anthropology and Political Science), McGill University
• LLB, University of Toronto;
• LLM, Columbia University

Selected books

• Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders

Selected publications

• Deckha, M. (2025). . Journal of Applied Animal Ethics Research, 7(1), 1–4. 
• Deckha M, Michel M, Azilagbetor D, et al. (2025).  — Results of a One-Day Expert Workshop in Zurich, Switzerland. Alternatives to Laboratory Animals, 53(2), 106–118.
• Deckha, M. (2025). Beyond Narratives of Newness, Abandonment, Loss, and Return: An Emergent Discussion between Feminist New Materialisms, Posthumanities and Intersectionality. In New Materialisms and Intersectionality: Making Middles Matter (New York: Routledge), 107–124.
• Deckha, M. (2024). Feminist Legal Systems that Benefit Animals. In Chloë Taylor (Ed.), Routledge Companion to Gender and Animals (Routledge), 218–232.
• Deckha, M. (2023). Sup-Plant-ing Anthropocentric Legalities: Can the Rule of Law Tolerate Intensive Animal Agriculture? In Mathilda Arvidsson & Emily Jones (Eds.), International Law and Posthuman Theory (London: Routledge), 258–278.
• Deckha, M. (2023). Animal (Rights) Law: Fifty Years of Taking Exception to Human Exceptionalism Amidst Enduring Themes. 50:3 Dalhousie Law Journal 339–377.
• Deckha, M. (2023). . 2:2 PHAIR: Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations 1–16, Art e10147. 
• Deckha, M. (2020). Unsettling Anthropocentric Legal Systems: Reconciliation, Indigenous Laws, and Animal Personhood. 41:1 Journal of Intercultural Studies 77–97.
• Deckha, M. (2020). Something to Celebrate?: De-listing Dairy in Canada’s National Food Guide. 16.1 Journal of Food, Law, and Policy 11–46.
• Deckha, M. (2020). Veganism, Dairy, and Decolonization. 11.2 Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 44–67.

Other work

 Open Access Documentary Series: Animal Law & Youth Activism 

Grants

• Senior Fellow Fellowship, “Accelerating Replacement: Toward Animal-Free Science Research at Swiss Universities”, Collegium Helveticum, ETH, Zurich, 10,000 CHF, 2023-2024
• Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network Project Grant, Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law & Policy, US$191,000, 2019-2023
• Internal Creative and Research Project Grant, Ó£»¨Ó°ÊÓ, $8000, Jan to April 2021
• Aid to Scholarly Publications, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, $8000, 2020
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant, “The Rule of Law, Animal Vulnerability, and Animal Agriculture”, $82,495 (principal investigator), 2019-2023

Courses

• Law 104: Legislation and Policy
• Law 301: Administrative Law
• Law380: Bioethics, Personhood, and the Law
• Law 381: Animals, Culture, and the Law

Graduate supervision

• Animal Law and Interspecies Justice
• Feminist Analysis of Law
• Law and Postcolonialism
• Reproductive Rights and Policy
• Rule of Law