Ryan Shapiro

Ryan Noah Shapiro (born 1976) is a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Doctoral Program in History, Anthropology, Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS), a U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) researcher, and an advocate for animal rights.Shapiros baccalaureate and graduate studies have dealt extensively with the history of vegetarianism and the animal rights movement. His first publication was an in-depth review of James Gregorys seminal Of Victorians and Vegetarians: The Vegetarian Movement In Nineteenth-Century Britain. His forthcoming doctoral dissertation is titled Bodies at War: Animals, The Freedom of Science, and National Security in the United States, 1899-1979 and will focus on the conflict between ethical concerns over animal rights and U.S. national security concerns. In addition to the dissertation, he is also developing a historical map of how the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has handled the animal rights movement. Both projects rely on large amounts of information that, while not necessarily classified, is usually only be made public once formally requested under the Freedom of Information Act.When agencies of the U.S. Government have refused to process those requests or provided data that is highly redacted or otherwise manipulated, Shapiro has pursued repeated litigation that has been widely publicized.Shapiro is regarded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as the most prolific FOIA requester, and the FBI has claimed that his requests for information through the FOIA are irreparably damag[ing] to national security.

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