Research

My research is situated at the culture/nature nexus, and focuses on the perpetration of harms (criminal and otherwise) by humans against other animals and the environment. Below is a list of current funded projects and recent publications.

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.

Books Authored

Fitzgerald, Amy J. 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, The Animal Turn Series.

Fitzgerald, Amy J., Animal Abuse and Family Violence: Researching the Interrelationships of Abusive Power, Mellen Press, 2005, Mellen Studies in Sociology.

Books Edited

Kalof, Linda; Fitzgerald, Amy, The Animals Reader: The Essential Classic and Contemporary Writings, Berg, 2007.

Second, updated edition, coming soon!

Published Articles

Fitzgerald, Amy; Barrett, Betty; Gray, Allison. 2020. The connection between animal abuse, emotional abuse, and financial abuse in intimate relationships: Evidence from a nationally representative sample of the general public, Journal of Interpersonal Violence.  doi.org/10.1177/0886260520939197.

Fitzgerald, Amy; Spencer, Dale. 2020. Governmentality and Environmental Rights: Regulatory Failure and the Volkswagen Emissions Fraud Case, Critical Criminology, 28: 43-63.

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. Republished in The Intersectionality of Critical Animal Studies: A Historical Collection, edited by Anthony J. Nocella II, Amber E. George, and Sean Parson. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

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.

Published Chapters

Fitzgerald, Amy; Barrett, Betty; Stevenson, Rochelle; Fritz, Patti, Domestic violence and animal abuse. 2021. In Routledge Handbook of Domestic Violence and Abuse, Routledge. Edited by: Devaney, John; Bradbury-Jones, Caroline; Holt, Stephanie; Macy, Rebecca; and Øverlien, Caroline.

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, 285-306, Carolina Academic Press, 2016, Editors – Brewster, Mary; Reyes, Cassandra, 2nd ed.

Fitzgerald, Amy; Taylor, Nik, The Cultural Hegemony of Animal Products and the Animal Industrial Complex, The Rise of Critical Animal Studies, 165-182, Routledge, 2014, Editors – 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, Editors – 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, Editors – 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, Transformative Justice.

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 HumanAnimal Relationships, 337-345, Greenwood Publishing, 2007.

Reports

Fitzgerald, A. J., Wilson, A., Bruce, J., Wurdemann-Stam, A., & Neufeld, C. 2021. Canada’s proposed prison farm program: Why it won’t work and what would work better. Evolve Our Prison Farms.

Coulter, Kendra; Fitzgerald, Amy. 2016. Difference Makers: Understanding and Improving Animal Cruelty Investigation Work at the OSPCA.