Amy Fitzgerald

Amy J. Fitzgerald, PhD, MA, BA (Hons)
Professor & Undergraduate Chair 
Department of Sociology and Criminology

Research:

Dr. Fitzgerald's research is situated at the culture/nature nexus and focuses on the perpetration of harms (criminal and otherwise) by humans against the environment and nonhuman animals. She has interrogated this broad area of inquiry vis-à-vis several topical areas, including the coexistence of animal abuse and intimate partner violence; industrialized animal agriculture; sport hunting culture; the pet food industry; the animal advocacy and environmental movements; animal cruelty laws and investigations; and environmentally-mediated human health risks.

Her work is interdisciplinary, although she draws from and contributes most specifically to the fields of green criminology, (critical) animal studies, environmental sociology, and gender studies.

Education:

• PhD, Michigan State University, Sociology
• MA, University of Windsor, Sociology, specializing in Criminology
• BA Honours, University of Windsor, Criminology

Fellowships:

• Animal Law and Policy Program, Harvard Law School, 2020.

Ongoing Funded Projects:

• 2019-2024: Amy Fitzgerald (PI). The intersection of violence against women and animals in Canadian homes: Developing much-needed research-informed programs and policies. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, $195,000.
• 2019-2024: Daniel Heath (PI). Environmental DNA (“eDNA”), metabarcoding and transcriptional profiling to improve sustainability of freshwater fisheries and fish culture. Genome Canada, $4,000,000.
• 2019-2023: Kendra Coulter (PI). Analysis of Public Investment in Animal Cruelty Investigation Work. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, $75,000.

Recent and Key Publications:

Books:

• Fitzgerald, Amy, Animal Advocacy and Environmentalism: Understanding and Bridging the Divide, Polity Press, 2018.
• Fitzgerald, Amy, Animals as Food: (Re)connecting production, processing, consumption and impacts, Michigan State University Press, 2015.
• Kalof, Linda; Fitzgerald, Amy (editors), The Animals Reader: The Essential Classic and Contemporary Writings, Berg, 2007.
• Fitzgerald, Amy J., Animal Abuse and Family Violence: Researching the Interrelationships of Abusive Power, Mellen Press, 2005.

Articles:

• Fitzgerald, Amy; Spencer, Dale, Governmentality and Environmental Rights: Regulatory Failure and the Volkswagen Emissions Fraud Case, Critical Criminology, forthcoming.
• Gray, Allison; Barrett, Betty; Fitzgerald, Amy; Peirone, Amy, Fleeing with Fido: An Analysis of What Canadian Domestic Violence Shelters are Communicating via their Websites about Leaving an Abusive Relationship When Pets are Involved, Journal of Family Violence, 34(4), 287-298, 2019, April, 10.1007/s10896-018-0023-z.
• Fitzgerald, Amy; Barrett, Betty; Stevenson, Rochelle; Cheung, Chi Ho, Animal maltreatment in the context of intimate partner violence: A manifestation of power and control?, Violence against Women, 2019, February, https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801218824993.
• Taylor, Nik; Fitzgerald, Amy, Understanding animal (ab)use: Green criminological contributions, missed opportunities, and the way forward, Theoretical Criminology, 22, 402-425, 2018, August, Invited.
• Chiles, Robert M.; Fitzgerald, Amy J., Why is meat so important in Western history and culture? A genealogical critique of biophysical and political-economic explanations, Agriculture and Human Values, 35, 1-17, 2018, February.
• Barrett, Betty; Fitzgerald, Amy; Peirone, Amy; Stevenson, Rochelle; Cheung, Chi, Help-seeking among abused women with pets: Evidence from a Canadian sample, Violence and Victims, 33(4), 604-626, 2018.
• Coulter, Kendra; Fitzgerald, Amy, The Compounding Feminization of Animal Cruelty Investigation Work and Its Multispecies Implications, Gender, Work, and Organizations, 2018.
• Barrett, Betty; Fitzgerald, Amy; Stevenson, Rochelle, Animal maltreatment as a risk marker of more frequent and severe forms of intimate partner violence, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2018, Article first published online:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517719542.
• Stevenson, Rochelle; Fitzgerald, Amy; Barrett, Betty, Keeping pets safe in the context of intimate partner violence: Insights from shelter staff in Canada, Affilia, 33(2), 236-252, 2017.
• Fitzgerald, Amy; Barrett, Betty; Shwom, Rachael; Stevenson, Rochelle; Chernyak, Elena, Standardizing the Measurement of Animal Maltreatment in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence: Development of The Partner’s Treatment of Animals Scale, Anthrozoos, 29(4), 611-625, 2016.
• Spencer, Dale; Fitzgerald, Amy, Criminology, Homo Sapiens, and Animality: Stupidity and the Anthropological Machine, Contemporary Justice Review, 18(4), 407-420, 2015.
• Spencer, Dale; Fitzgerald, Amy, Three Ecologies, Transversality and Victimization: The case of British Petroleum, Crime, Law and Social Change, 59(2), 209-223, 2013.
• Bristow, Lisa; Fitzgerald, Amy J., Global Climate Change and the Industrial Animal Agriculture Link: The Construction of Risk, Society and Animals, 19, 205-224, 2011.
• Fitzgerald, Amy J., Doing Time in a Slaughterhouse: A critical review of the use of animals and inmates in prison labor programmes, Journal of Critical Animal Studies, 10, 12-46, 2011.
• Fitzgerald, Amy, The 'Underdog' as 'Ideal Victim'? The Attribution of Victimhood in the 2007 Pet Food Recall, International Review of Victimology, 17(2), 131-157, 2010.
• Fitzgerald, Amy J., A Social History of the Slaughterhouse: From Inception to Contemporary Implications, Human Ecology Review, 17(1), 58-69, 2010.
• Fitzgerald, Amy, J; Baralt, Lori, Constructing Responsibility for the Production and Mitigation of Environmental Harms: The Case of Mercury-Contaminated Fish, Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 52(4), 341-368, 2010.
• Fitzgerald, Amy J., 'It's a Horrible Coincidence': Corporate Responsibility and the 2007 Pet Food Recall, Critical Criminology, 17, 195-215, 2009.
• Fitzgerald, Amy J.; Kalof, Linda; Dietz, Thomas, Slaughterhouses and Increased Crime Rates: An Empirical Analysis of Spillover from 'The Jungle" into the Surrounding Community, Organization and Environment, 22, 158-184, 2009.
• Fitzgerald, Amy, J, 'They Gave Me a Reason to Live': The Protective Effects of Companion Animals on the Suicidality of Abused Women, Humanity and Society, 31(4), 355-378, 2007.
• Dietz, Thomas; Fitzgerald, Amy; Shwom, Rachael, Environmental Values, Annual Review of Environment and Natural Resources, 30, 12.1-12.38, 2005.
• Fitzgerald, Amy, The Emergence of the Figure of 'Woman the Hunter': Equality or Complicity in Oppression?, Women's Studies Quarterly, 33(1&2), 86-104, 2005.
• Kalof, Linda; Fitzgerald, Amy; Baralt, Lori, Animals, Women and Weapons: Blurred Sexual Boundaries in the Discourse of Sport Hunting, Society & Animals, 12, 237-251, 2004.
• Kalof, Linda; Fitzgerald, Amy, Reading the Trophy: Exploring the Display of Dead Animals in Hunting Magazines, Visual Studies, 18, 112-122, 2003.

Book Chapters:

• Fitzgerald, Amy; Barrett, Betty; Stevenson, Rochelle; Fritz, Patti. Domestic violence and animal abuse. Routledge Handbook of Domestic Violence and Abuse. Devaney, John; Bradbury-Jones, Caroline; Holt, Stephanie; Macy, Rebecca; and Øverlien, Caroline (eds.). Routledge, forthcoming.
• Tourangeau, Wesley; Fitzgerald, Amy, Food crime and Green Criminology, Routledge International Handbook of Green Criminology, Second edition, Routledge, forthcoming.
• Fitzgerald, Amy; Tourangeau, Wes, Crime versus harm in the transportation of animals: A closer look at Ontario’s ‘pig trial’, A Handbook of Food Crime: Immoral and Illegal Practices in the Food Industry and What to Do about Them, 213-228, Policy Press, 2018, Editors – Hinch, Ronald; Gray, Allison.
• Fitzgerald, Amy; Stevenson, Rochelle; Verbora, Antonio, Examining Animal Abuse through a Sociological Lens: Theoretical and Empirical Developments, Animal cruelty: A multidisciplinary approach to understanding, Carolina Academic Press, 2016, Editor(s) - Brewster, Mary; Reyes, Cassandra, 2nd.
• Fitzgerald, Amy; Taylor, Nik, The Cultural Hegemony of Animal Products and the Animal Industrial Complex, The Rise of Critical Animal Studies, Routledge, 2014, Editor(s) - Taylor, Nik, Twine, Richard.
• Fitzgerald, Amy; Pellow, David, Ecological Defense for Animal Liberation: A Holistic Understanding of the World, Defining Critical Animal Studies: An Intersectional Social Justice Approach for Liberation, 28-48, 2014, Editor(s) - Nocella, Anthony; Sorenson, John; Socha, Kim; Matsuoka, Atsuko.
• Fitzgerald, Amy; Stevenson, Rochelle; Verbora, Anthony, Sociological theories of animal abuse, Animal Cruelty and the Criminal Justice System, Carolina Academic Press, 2013, Editor(s) - Brewster, Mary P; Reyes, Cassandra L..
• Fitzgerald, Amy, Imprisoning Nature In Kaltefleiter, Caroline; Nagel, Mechthild; Nocella, Anthony, Prison Abolition: Unchaining Ourselves from U.S. Imperialism, Arissa Media Group, 2012.
• Fitzgerald, Amy J., No Longer a Bastion of White Masculinity(?): The Recruitment of -Women and People of Colour into Sport Hunting In Bekoff, Marc, Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships, 975-980, Greenwood Publishing, 2007.
• Fitzgerald, Amy J., The Animal Question in Sociology In Bekoff, Marc, Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships, 955-961, Greenwood Publishing, 2007.
• Fitzgerald, Amy J., Where are the Animals in Environmental Sociology? In Bekoff, Marc, Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships, 337-345, Greenwood Publishing, 2007.

Website:

https://amyfitzgerald.wordpress.com/

Hobbies and Interests:

Running, cycling, vegan cooking and culture.