Part of what makes Central MA so unique is its abundance of colleges and universities. And at each institution, there are professors, instructors, and coaches who go above and beyond simply dispensing academic fact inside the classroom; this special breed of educator becomes mentor, role model, and inspiration. It is these individuals whom we honor in Focus on Faculty. If you know a professor who should be featured in this section, please contact ldean@pagioinc.com.

WPI’s John Sanbonmatsu

By Vanessa Formato

John Sanbonmatsu’s got a beef with meat, and he’s not afraid to show it. This philosophy professor has been starting difficult dialogues at WPI for seven year now: he’s made it his purpose to bring animal ethics into the classroom.

“A lot of students get upset,” Sanbonmatsu said. “It’s existentially threatening to think that no one has given them the right to cause so much suffering.”

Sanbonmatsu doesn’t ask his students to agree with him to get a good grade. He keeps his classroom free from judgment while at the same time refusing to hide his strong views. Sanbonmatsu is a vegan and the advisor for WPI’s vegetarian and animal rights group. With his guidance, they participate in Worcester’s VegFest, have potlucks, and come together as a community to discuss animal ethics. The group is rallying to increase public awareness about how humans treat our fellow animals. In the words of Sanbonmatsu, they’re truly “a courageous group of young people.”

Each semester, with his help, a small number of WPI students pledge to give up meat ~ “perhaps one or two a semester” ~ a fact of which Sanbonmatsu is quite proud. He beams as he talks about his advisees and the new vegetarians he’s helped along. Any progress counts.

“We need to think of this in terms of morality,” Sanbonmatsu said. “Animal-based diets are all about power relations. Eating animals is a demonstration of absolute species rights ~ and ideology of supremacy, not unlike racism or fascism.”

Though his views may seem radical to some, it’s hard to argue with statistics. According to the USDA, 80 billion animals were slaughtered for food in the U.S. in 2008 alone, and evidence suggests that factory farming is a major factor in global warming. Films like Food, Inc. are even becoming popular in the mainstream. Sanbonmatsu has hope.

“The good part of all this,” Sanbonmatsu said, “is that we’re opening new doors for reconsidering how we relate to other species.”

A new book edited by Sanbonmatsu, Critical Theory and Animal Liberation, will be available later this year.