Wolfe, Cary. What is Posthumanism? University of Minnesota Press, 2010. Paperback: $24.95

Hannah Glasson’s review of Cary Wolfe’s What is Posthumanism? outlines the theoretical tensions in Wolfe’s formulation of posthumanism. Glasson acknowledges the potential for Wolfe’s systems theory approach to create more theoretically rigorous approaches to posthumanist ecological ethics. However, the reductive connection between animal studies and disability studies has the potential to marginalize voices of disabled humans in the aim to decenter the human. The human remains central to Wolfe’s notion of posthumanism with the effect of lessening the rhetorical force of the argument. Wolfe provokes a theoretical conversation that could make way for rethinking the anthropocentric location of critical discourse by creating space for recognition of the nonhuman. This conversation can potentially open possibilities broader than simply using posthumanism as a theoretical tool to reimagine existing human undertakings, disciplines, and knowledges.