The Canadian philosopher Will Kymlicka, who’s work has been translated in 32 languages, delivers this years prestigious Frederik van Eeden-lecture. He will talk about the political status of animals. The Van Eeden-lecture was given previously by Francis Fukuyama, Martha Nussbaum, Frans de Waal, Peter Sloterdijk and Patricia Churchland. Kymlicka is one the most influential political thinkers of our times. Hij wrote multiple books on nation building en on the way different nations can live together in a single state. In the groundbreaking book Zoopolis, a Political Theory of Animal Rights, that Kymlicka wrote with Sue Donaldson, the authors expand the ideas on multiculturalism to our living together with animals.
Will Kymlicka is the Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy in the Philosophy Department at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, where he has taught since 1998. His research interests focus on issues of democracy and diversity, and in particular on models of citizenship and social justice within multicultural societies. He has published eight books and over 200 articles, which have been translated into 34 languages, and has received several awards, most recently, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, and Honorary Doctorates from the University of Copenhagen in 2013 and KU Leuven in 2014.
He is the co-director, along with Keith Banting, of the Multiculturalism Policy Index project, which monitors the evolution of multiculturalism policies across the Western democracies. The MCP Index project is designed to provide information about multiculturalism policies in a standardized format that aids comparative research and contributes to the understanding of state-minority relations – see www.queensu.ca/mcp.