Steven Best

Steven Best
Born	December 1955 (age 61)
Nationality	American
Education	PhD in philosophy (1993)
Alma mater	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Chicago, University of Texas at Austin
Occupation	Associate Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at the University of Texas, El Paso
Known for	Co-founder of the North American Animal Liberation Press Office
Notable work	(ed.) Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals (2004)
Website	www.drstevebest.org

Steven Best (born December 1955) is an American animal rights advocate, author, and associate professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is the co-founder of the Animal Liberation Press Office in North America, and is known for his views on the use of violence to achieve animal rights. He came to public attention in 2005, when the British Home Office told him it intended to use counter-terrorist measures adopted in light of the July 2005 London bombings to prevent him from addressing an animal rights rally in the UK.

After attending high school in Chicago, Best took casual jobs in factories and drove a truck for a few years. He attended the College of DuPage (Illinois) from 1977 to 1979, where he completed an associate degree in film and theater. He then studied philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1979 to 1983, where he received a bachelor's degree with distinction; at the University of Chicago from 1985 to 1987 where he obtained his master's degree; and at the University of Texas at Austin from 1989 to 1993, where he obtained his PhD.

In 1993, he began as an Assistant Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso promoted to Associate Professor in 1999, and was Chair of the Philosophy Department 2002–2005.

A writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education described Best in 2005 as "one of the leading scholarly voices on animal rights."

Best is co-founder of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS), formerly known as the Center on Animal Liberation Affairs (CALA). His academic interests are continental philosophy, postmodernism, and environmental philosophy. He is known for his post-structuralist notions of revolution, based equally in animal rights and sexual liberation. He is the editor, with Anthony J. Nocella, of Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals (2004), which has a foreword by Ward Churchill, and the companion volume on revolutionary environmentalism, Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth (2006).

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