Doctoral Dissertation Research: Animal Care Culture in US Zoological Facilities

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This ethnographic study will examine scientific and ethical practices involved in caring for and rehabilitating of animals in zoological facilities in the United States. It will employ participant observation, in-depth interviews, and archival research to explore how ideas about care and rehabilitation - including which animals can be sheltered and how best to determine and meet their needs - shape human-animal interactions and how these ideas and interactions have changed over time. Ethnographic research will take place in three private, non-profit zoological facilities. This project will build on a growing body of work on multispecies ethnographies in anthropology and in other disciplines that seeks to illuminate how human-animal interactions in a range of scientific and applied contexts shape human understandings of animals and multispecies relationships. This project will contribute to the training of a graduate student in anthropology. In addition, the resulting Ph.D. dissertation, articles, and public presentations will inform a deeper understanding of the ethics of animal treatment in contemporary US society.