Conclusion and Synthesis

Abstract The conclusion summarizes and draws together the themes that have emerged from the book. It synthesizes what has been found about the ways that “species” functions as a power dynamic intersecting with (respectively) sex/gender, ethnicity/people group, socio-economic/socio-political status, (dis)ability/bodily status, and age/generation. It then returns to the analytic framework established in the first chapter to fill out the five modes of interspecies intersection that have emerged from the book: certain animals are utilized by, are subordinated alongside, become images to represent, interact with, and are tagged by the same identity markers as certain humans. It ends by suggesting some limitations of the project and directions for further research, as well as some broader implications.