Dinesh Wadiwel

Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel is an Australian social and political theorist who is presently an associate professor in Human Rights and Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Sydney. His work addresses critical animal studies, the rights of disabled people, and theoretical perspectives on violence.

Career

Wadiwel worked for 15 years in the third sector, including with the Australian Council of Social Service. He completed his doctorate in Political Philosophy and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Sydney in 2006. He subsequently moved to the University of Sydney, where he is now (as of 2023) an associate professor.

Wadiwel is the author of the 2015 monograph The War Against Animals, published by Brill. In the book, he argues that humans are in a state of (literal) war with animals. The primary philosophical influence is the work of Michel Foucault, though other important influences include Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, and Achille Mbembe. For Wadiwel, mainstream approaches to animal ethics (including the classic works of Peter Singer and Tom Regan, and more recent works of Donna Haraway as well as those of Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka) are insufficient for failing to appreciate the near-complete internalisation of a human belief in sovereignty over animals; indeed, he argues that the works reinforce them. Drawing upon Foucauldian notions of biopower, governmentality, and counter-conduct, Wadiwel argues for the existence of, and examines the detail of, the war against animals.