This Friday, December 13th, Associate Professor of Philosophy Tracy Llanera will be giving a talk at the event Digital Transformations: Identity, Gender and Affectivity hosted at Cardiff University. Along with Professor Llanera, Dr. Gen Eickers, Dr. Lucy Osler, Dr. Louise Richardson-Self and Dr. Francesca Sobande will also be speaking at the event.
Professor Tracy Llanera will be presenting The Moral Agency of White Terror Wolves, and you can read the abstract of her talk below:
The Moral Agency of White Terror Wolves
Tracy Llanera
This paper investigates the case of “white terror wolves,” or extremists responsible for violent lone attacks committed in the name of white supremacist ideology; examples include Anders Breivik (Norway), Dylann Storm Roof (USA), Brenton Tarrant (Australia), John Earnest (USA), Patrick Wood Crusius (USA), and Stephan Balliet (Germany). Government actors and the media often describe these perpetrators as being mentally ill or brainwashed—a perspective that risks misconstruing mental illness as the key driver for domestic terrorism instead of white extremism. This paper contests this perspective by ascribing moral agency to white terror wolves. Its analysis proceeds in three parts. First, it describes the role of white terror wolves in white extremism and the pernicious framing of their perpetrator identity as being mentally ill. Second, drawing on Alasdair MacIntyre’s moral philosophy, it outlines a conception of moral agency that is relevant to these cases. Third, it interrogates how white terror wolves exercise their moral agency to the point of moral failure.
While the in-person event will be held in Wales, you can join online at 9:30AM London (4:30AM EST), with the event ending at 4:30PM London (11:30AM EST).
Congratulations, Tracy!