The Biology of Dignity: Animal Life and Unionization
From The Observatory
Date
October 23, 2025
Location
Aaron Burr Hall, Princeton University
Pricing
In-person
—
Free
Area
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Alexander Blanchette is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies at Tufts University. Blanchette's research is concerned with the politics of industrial labor and life in the post-industrial United States. His first book, Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm (Duke University Press 2020), is an ethnography of work within some of the world's largest meat corporations, one that follows the making of the modern pig across every facet of its existence from genetics to 1,100 post-death commodities. It examines the transformations to human existence — in terms of living arrangements, the value of labor, biological embodiment, and senses of identity — necessary to sustain contemporary qualities and quantities of industrial animal life in the rural United States.
Key Speaker: Alexander Blanchette
Participants
Princeton University Department of Anthropology
Organizer, Host | Homepage
We take an interpretive approach to the study of culture - an approach that requires intensive ethnographic fieldwork, deep engagement with critical social theories, and historical analysis. In addition to teaching foundational texts, our department is interested in conceptual innovations in the use and organization of evidence and modes of ethical engagement. Our department specializes in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, but we also offer undergraduate courses in biological anthropology, including evolution, epigenetics, adaptation, race, forensics and death.
