Julius Kapembwa

Julius is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Applied Ethics at the University of Zambia. He studied as a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Reading, England, where he obtained his PhD in Philosophy in 2017.  His PhD thesis was titled “Wildlife Rights: Human Obligations”. The thesis advances a thoroughgoing moral rights theory for wildlife and teases out human obligations in various scenarios at the human-wildlife interface. He researches and publishes within animal ethics and interdisciplinary social science as well. He is currently researching on subsistence hunting and on human-nonhuman animal conflict while working on a monograph based on his PhD work. Julius is also a founding member of Animals in the Room, an international network of academics, practitioners, and activists fostering new ways for enhancing representation of the interests of animals in democratic institutions. He is a member of the Lusaka Animal Welfare Society (LAWS) in which he participates as a member of the Anti-Cruelty Committee as well as in fundraising initiatives for food and medical requirements at the LAWS animal shelter. His personal and professional passion is the vulnerable and underrepresented such as gender/sexual minorities, women, and animals. He is currently part of the technical team spearheading a one-year project: “Voices of Change: Empowering Youths and Women in Local Governance and Democracy”, funded by the United States Embassy in Zambia.