“Confined then in Cages like the Feathered Race”: Astell, Wollstonecraft, and the Politics of Domestication

Dr Serrin Rutledge-Prior is visiting Vienna! While here she will be giving a VAS lecture focused on how Mary Astell (1666- 1731) and Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) critiques of domestic(ated) femininity can be extended beyond the human. Dr. Rutledge-Prior is a Postdoctoral Fellow in animal ethics at the Philosophy Department of Queen’s University at Kingston (Katarokwi). In her research, she is concerned with how we can better respond to the interests and agency of animals in political and legal contexts, and how we might reimagine the place of animals within (and beyond) the history of Western political thought. Beyond these topics, she is also interested the role of animal advocates in the public sphere, and when or whether civil – or even uncivil – disobedience on behalf of animals can be justified. Prior to coming to Queen’s, Serrin was a 2024 Visiting Researcher at the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law,…