Dr. Lisa Kemmerer

Photo by Jo-Anne McArthur

Internationally known for her work in anymal ethics, Dr. Kemmerer (Dr. K for short) is the founder and director of the information-sharing non-profit, Tapestry. With a BA in International Studies (Reed), a Master of Theological Studies in Comparative Religions (Harvard), and a Ph.D. in philosophy (Glasgow University, Scotland), Kemmerer’s education is as wide-reaching as her works. Dr. Kemmerer’s doctoral work focused on interfacing concerns of anymal ethics, exploring philosophy and anymals across disciplines, and was later published as In Search of Consistency. She taught ethics and religious studies at a Montana university for 20 years, and has written thirteen books in the field of anymal ethics, including Vegan Ethics: AMORE (essential to any course in anymal ethics), Animals and World Religions (still the only systematic, comprehensive examination of religious ethics and anymals across the world’s major religions), Sister Species (one of her books on the interface between feminism and anymal activism), and Eating Earth (one of her books on the interface between anymal ethics and environmental ethics). Dr. Kemmerer retired from her university position in 2020 to become a full-time activist with Tapestry.

“We have extended ethics outward from self to family to community to all of humanity. We are now called to extend moral consideration to other species.”  (Kemmerer, In Search of Consistency)

Formative Years

Dr. Kemmerer’s sense of wonder in nature, smallness of self, and simplicity of lifestyle were shaped by a rural upbringing, ample time in the wilderness, and international travels on a shoestring. From her youngest years, Kemmerer was sensitive to suffering, including the suffering of anymals, sufferings that tend to be more visible in rural communities. As a teen, Kemmerer became an avid backpacker and rock/mountain climber, joined search and rescue, and was soon embarking on month-long kayak trips and even longer cycling trips, including a journey from Washington to Alaska. Kemmerer was already taking a stand for anymals and shifting toward vegan.

Always seeking broader and deeper understandings than were the norm, Kemmerer repeatedly walked away from conventional forms of education. Outdoor adventures and exploring the larger world were instrumental in shaping her worldview as an individual, scholar, philosopher, and activist. The path chosen speaks to a tough and rugged spirit and a remarkable resilience that continues to shape her lief as a long-term anymal activist.

“Those who seek greater justice in our world need to work toward a deeper understanding of oppression.”  (Kemmerer, Sister Species)

Dr. K dropped out of college (with a not-yet diagnosed reading disability), preferring to learn by exploring the larger world, and was particularly interested in the world’s religions. To finance overseas travels, she worked as a forest fire fighter and nurse’s aide (in a nursing home). She hitch-hiked and stayed in local homes, which gifted her with an inside understanding of diverse locals, particularly in the Oceana. Kemmerer’s understanding of life and community was reshaped by rural areas of Burma and Bangladesh, by little villages on the high ridges of Nepal, and in the backwaters of India and China, forever shifting her understanding of time, “necessities,” and life choices. Perhaps most importantly, Dr. K came to recognized her way of living and thinking as just one among infinite possibilities.

Travels renewed the young Dr. K’s interest in religious philosophies, cultural conflicts, and the beauty of this planet, and she again signed up for school, this time graduating from a local community college, after which she headed off to Alaska to co-found her first anymal activist organization. She left Alaska to return to school, earning a BA in International Studies at Reed College, where she founded her second anymal activist organization and earned a competitive Watson Fellowship that carried her overseas to explore the place of women and anymals in religions of Asia, Europe, and the Fertile Crescent. She visited remote monasteries and temples in China, spent a month at the Dalai Lama’s school in North India, traveled to remote hermitages in the mountains of Egypt and Turkey, visited holy sites in Israel.

“The world’s great religions provide a moral foundation for anymal liberation.” (Kemmerer, Animals and World Religions)

From tear-gas quelling riots in Kashmir to meeting patients in a West Bank hospital, Kemmerer’s Watson Fellowship brought to the forefront human violence, especially conflicts rooted in religious convictions: How could such beautiful teachings of peace and compassion lead to so much violence? Kemmerer decided to become a teacher in order to foster a wider and deeper peace and compassion. Always tending to sell herself short, her father (a high-school teacher) convinced her to set her sights on teaching at the college level.

Kemmerer doggedly returned to school. Near the close of her doctoral studies, her reading disability was finally diagnosed; she nonetheless managed to earn her doctorate in philosophy with a specialty in anymal ethics, incorporating into her work the interfacing fields of anymal ethics, environmental ethics, and religious ethics. In this book Dr. K shows the breadth of her studies and the depth of her ideas, especially in the chapters that present her own moral theory, the Minimize Harm Maxim. Her research was ultimately published under the title, In Search of Consistency:  Ethics and Animals.

“Letting go of unjust privilege and ending marginalization do not require anything extraordinary or unusual, only that we uphold the most basic human ideals—ethics we learned as children: Be kind, cooperate, and make choices with an eye to the larger community and the long haul. Living up to these basic moral ideals requires that we share equitably and see to the needs of others—all others.” (Kemmerer, Oppressive Liberation)

Professional Life

Dr. Kemmerer taught at university for more than 20 years, writing a dozen books and speaking to tens of thousands of people in venues across North America, in Europe, Africa, and South America. While in Kenya, Kemmerer worked with a small group of activists and scholars to re-envision methods of preserving both wildlife and rural/indigenous communities (reflected in her book, Animals and the Environment). In Peru she scrambled through thick, steep jungles with locals working to protect endangered yellow-tailed woolley monkeys (reflected in Primate People). Kemmerer visited hundreds of sanctuaries and spent time in an elephant and a bear sanctuary in Cambodia (reflected in Bear Necessities). These experiences continued to shape Dr. K’s understandings of people and cultures, animals and the natural world, ethics, violence, cruelty, and the moral importance of compassion.

As her books became popular worldwide, Kemmerer was invited to collaborate with activists and scholars overseas. Eating Earth (Oxford) was translated into Italian (Mangiare la Terra) and Kemmerer was invited on a two-week book-tour, giving talks throughout Italy. She was also invited to publish and lecture with a climate change think-tank in Barcelona. These intense immersions with activists and scholars abroad are among her most treasured experiences as a professor, balanced alongside the day-to-day task of shaping the minds and lives of thousands of students.

“Eating animals is eating earth. . . . Food choices are the number one determinant of an individual’s environmental footprint.  (Kemmerer, Eating Earth)

Tapestry

In 2020 Kemmerer retired from university to become a full-time activist as the founder and director of Tapestry (a registered non-profit). Tapestry envisions a world where all life and the earth itself are free from exploitation—a vegan world where anymals and earth are treated with care, dignity, and respect.

Three strands shape Tapestry—education, work in the field, and the arts. Tapestry academics are at the forefront of discovering, compiling, and sharing well-vetted information with those best-positioned to bring change: scholars and students, activists, and in some cases, religious leaders and people of faith. Tapestry’s (in the field) Hospitality Challenge exponentially increased vegan offerings in local restaurants. Tapestry’s work in the arts, both paintings and poetry, educate, inspire peace and kindness, and always lean toward greater justice.

Tapestry has accomplished a remarkable amount of work in just a handful of years, including the publication of Vegan Ethics, AMORE and the Hospitality Challenge. Tapestry, creator of the Traveling Banner Exhibit on Animals and World Religions, is currently working on our Animals and Religion Website. As the only scholar working systematically across the world’s key religious traditions, exploring and exposing animal ethics in core sacred texts, Kemmerer is uniquely positioned to create this ground-breaking website, offering her breadth and depth of knowledge in the field of religious ethics and anymals—knowledge that she has accumulated across decades—to scholars, students, activists, and people of faith around the world.

“Core religious teachings from around the world require humans to protect and respect all that is natural, to show compassion for all who are sentient, and in contemporary times, to rethink our relations with anymals—especially what we eat.” (Kemmerer, Animals and World Religions)

For more on Tapestry, https://www.tapestryofpeace.org/

Questions? Contact Lisa.
For more about Dr. K, here is her resume.