Justice Through a Multispecies Lens

The bushfires in Australia during the Summer of 2019–2020, in the midst of which we were writing this exchange, violently heightened the urgency of the task of rethinking justice through a multispecies lens for all of the authors in this exchange, and no doubt many of its readers. As I finish this introduction, still in the middle of the Australian summer, more than 10 million hectares (100,000 km2 or 24.7 million acres) of bushland have been burned and over a billion individual animals killed. This says nothing of the others who will die because their habitat and the relationships on which they depend no longer exist. People all around the world are mourning these deaths and the destruction of unique ecosystems. As humans on this planet, and specifically as political theorists facing the prospect that such devastating events will only become more frequent, the question before us is whether we can rethink what it means to be in ethical relationships with beings other than humans and what justice requires, in ways that mark these deaths as absolute wrongs that obligate us to act, and not simply as unfortunate tragedies that leave us bereft

Establishment of porcine and human expanded potential stem cells.

We recently derived mouse expanded potential stem cells (EPSCs) from individual blastomeres by inhibiting the critical molecular pathways that predispose their differentiation. EPSCs had enriched molecular signatures of blastomeres and possessed developmental potency for all embryonic and extra-embryonic cell lineages. Here, we report the derivation of porcine EPSCs, which express key pluripotency genes, are genetically stable, permit genome editing, differentiate to derivatives of the three germ layers in chimeras and produce primordial germ cell-like cells in vitro. Under similar conditions, human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells can be converted, or somatic cells directly reprogrammed, to EPSCs that display the molecular and functional attributes reminiscent of porcine EPSCs. Importantly, trophoblast stem-cell-like cells can be generated from both human and porcine EPSCs. Our pathway-inhibition paradigm thus opens an avenue for generating mammalian pluripotent stem cells, and EPSCs present a unique cellular platform for translational research in biotechnology and regenerative medicine

AHC interview with Susan Eckersley.

November 30, 20170:00:17-0:01:05, 0:04:38-0:04:44 Growing up in Vienna0:01:12-0:02:30, 0:04:06-0:04:34, 0:11:05-0:11:20 Parental home0:02:35-0:04:05 Family members0:04:51-0:06:2, 1:15:32-1:16:50 Religion0:06:26-0:06:57 School in Vienna0:07:06-0:07:26 Friends in Vienna0:07:31-0:08:10, 0:23:42-0:24:25 Brother Norwen Knecht0:08:11-0:10:20 Childhood memories0:10:22-0:11:03 Maccabi gymnastics group0:11:38-0:12:42 Impact of the “Anschluss”0:12:48-0:13:41 Anti-Semitic encounters0:13:27-0:15:54, 0:17:29-0:18:29 Recollections of the “Anschluss”0:16:01-0:16:49, 0:20:45-0:22:40 Parents trying to obtain papers0:16:51-0:17:28 Brother’s emigration route0:18:31-0:19:25 Recollections of “Kristallnacht”0:19:33-0:20:41 Apartment in Vienna0:22:47-0:23:02, 0:24:29-0:27:21, 0:29:09-0:30:10 Kindertransport to England0:23:06-0:23:40 Add in the Manchester Guardian0:27:21-0:29:04 Correspondence with parents through the Red Cross0:30:15-0:32:11 Arriving in England0:32:15-0:33:35, 0:49:50-0:50:45 Family in England0:33:38-0:36:07; 0:43:03-0:43:55 School in England0:36:10-0:38:47 Parents’ last letter0:38:52-0:43:00; 1:08:25-1:10:31 Relation to Mrs. Harvey0:44:20-0:45:20 Staying in contact with brother0:47:12-0:48:25 Going to Quaker meetings and observing Jewish holidays0:51:35-0:59:15 Midwifery program and arrival in the US1:00:55-1:08:25; 1:11:35-1:12:10 Going back to Austria1:13:40-1:14:35 Austria’s dealing with its NS-past1:17:25-1:18:15 How war has shaped identity1:20:08-1:25:16 Thoughts on Holocaust educationSusan (Susi) Eckersley née Knecht was born on May 5, 1928 in Vienna, Austria. She grew up with her parents Antoinette née Rittel and Adolf Knecht, her older brother and a maid in an apartment in Pramergasse 12 in Vienna’s ninth district. She attended elementary school in D'Orsaygasse and one year of high school (Gymnasium) in Börsegasse. Her parents placed an ad in the Manchester Guardian for someone to take her in. Out of several responses a Quaker family, the Harveys, was chosen. Susan left Vienna on June 11, 1939 and came to England on a Kindertransport. She stayed with her new family in North Yorkshire and went to Harrogate Grammar School. She exchanged letters with her parents through Red Cross until the beginning of 1942, when she got notified that her parents had been deported to the Izbica ghetto. Susan went to nursing school in London, worked at Kendall Hospital and obtained her full midwifery certification. In 1954 she arrived in Philadelphia, PA and worked at Pennsylvania Hospital through an exchange program of the International Council of Nurses. She then had a permanent job as a nurse in Philadelphia. She went to university and completed her degree in New Mexico. In 1961 Susan moved to Washington State.Austrian Heritage Collectio

Ecological Crises and Ecopolitics Research in Australia

It is difficult to exaggerate the scale of contemporary ecological crises. These challenges, particularly climate change, necessitate new modes of politics and policy, even potentially new institutions, that seem anathema to the emphases of traditional accounts of environmental political science. In this paper, we explore contemporary ecopolitics research in Australia that is attempting to come to terms with the reality of ecological crises and the geological epoch of the Anthropocene. Showcasing a range of scholarship in this area, we argue that contemporary Australian ecopolitics research identifies and engages with a wide range of sites of politics and a significant number of (consequential) political actors. It recognises the need to engage directly with key institutions while also extending our gaze to the environment movement, community groups, financial institutions, local governments, and consumers. It acknowledges that sites of politics extend from the way ecological crises are framed in public debate to policy management, practices of private corporations and even to individual patterns of consumption. And it argues for an expansive conception of ethics beyond currently living human communities, a vision which arguably better meets the reality of ecological crises and the Anthropocene epoch.</p