Terike Haapoja and Steven Wise in conversation

About

In a 2015 court case that became a rallying point in the ongoing conversation surrounding the concept of non-human rights, Wise served as the legal representative for a pair of chimpanzees held in captivity at Stony Brook University. Wise argued that the chimpanzees should have the same basic rights to freedom from imprisonment that humans do. Wise and Haapoja will discuss the case and recent developments in the non-human rights movement, as well as Haapoja’s art practice, which often considers non-human legal personhood. 

Steven M. Wise is President of the Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc. He holds a J.D. from Boston University Law School and a B.S. in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary. He has practiced animal protection law for 30 years throughout the United States and is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. Wise teaches “Animal Rights Jurisprudence” at the Vermont, Lewis and Clark, University of Miami, and St. Thomas Law Schools, and has taught “Animal Rights Law” at the Harvard Law School and John Marshall Law School. He is the author of Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals (2000), Drawing the Line: Science and the Case for Animal Rights (2003), Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Human Slavery (2005), and An American Trilogy: Death, Slavery, and Dominion Along the Banks of the Cape Fear River (2009).

Terike Haapoja is a Finnish visual artist based in New York. Haapoja’s large-scale installation work, writing, and political projects investigate the mechanics of “othering” with a specific focus on issues arising from the anthropocentric world view of western modernism. Haapoja represented Finland in the 55th Venice Biennale with a solo show in the Nordic Pavilion, and she has been awarded numerous grants and prizes, including the Finnish Art Association’s Dukaatti prize (2008), a nomination for the Ars Fennica prize (2011), the Kiila prize for her project The History of Others (2013) and the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art (2016). Haapoja contributes to journals and publications internationally and is the co-editor of the publications Altern Ecologies – Emergent Perspectives in the 55th Venice Biennale (Frame 2015), History According to Cattle (History of Others, 2015), and Field Notes – From Landscape to Laboratory (The Finish Bioart Society, 2013), among others.