Students who have completed the Graduate Specialization in Animal Studies with their doctoral degrees forthcoming:
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Marie Carmen Abney Department: Sociology Email: abneyma1@msu.edu |
Marie Carmen Abney is a PhD student in Sociology, with specializations in Animal Studies and Global Urban Studies. She earned a MSc in Animals and Public Policy from Tufts University in 2014 and a BA in Psychology and German with a Zoology minor from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2008. Her research interests focus mainly on human perceptions of stray animals and how culture plays into these perceptions—a topic she studied for her masters thesis, conducting research and interviews in Boston, MA and Istanbul, Turkey—as well as a more general interest in the need for better communication between animal welfare groups and with the general public to further animal welfare initiatives. These interests have been nurtured through 7 years of working in the animal shelter field during and after college, and Marie Carmen hopes to continue building on these interests with her education and research at MSU.
Blake Ginsburg is a PhD student in the Department of Philosophy and is pursuing specializations in Animal Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. His research interests include animal and environmental philosophy, critical animal studies, ecofeminism, ethology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of technology. Blake holds a BA in Philosophy and a BS in Biological Science (concentration in Biodiversity, Ecology, and Conservation) from California State University, Fullerton, where he studied animal and environmental philosophy under Matthew Calarco. He also holds a Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies and a MA degree in Environmental Philosophy from the University of Montana, where he was advised by Deborah Slicer. While at the University of Montana, Blake wrote a thesis that attempted to disclose the ethical dimensions and transformative significance of Timothy Treadwell’s relationships with brown bears and red foxes in Katmai National Park and Preserve before he and his partner, Amy Huguenard, were killed and eaten by a bear in 2003.
Blake is currently working on philosophical issues that emerge at the intersection of environmental philosophy and animal philosophy. He is particularly interested in the value of philosophical ethology and ethological philosophy (or ethosophy) as disclosive and generative mediums with great promise for drawing attention to and enacting alternative human-animal relational possibilities. He considers these projects to be significant insomuch as they have the potential to inspire the transformation of our personal and collective worlds in view of the large-scale anthropogenic violence that is routinely enacted against other animals and the rest of the more-than-human world.
Some of Blake’s other animal studies projects include: 1) an attempt to generate a framework for an alternative, nonathropocentric conception of philosophy of communication that is capable of recognizing and attending to interspecies communicative phenomena, 2) an exploration of the value and significance of respect-based forms of veganism, 3) an exploration of the ethical dimensions of eating and being eaten, 4) an attempt to illuminate how technology is used on factory farms to physically and conceptually maintain and reify hardline distinctions between humans and animals, 5) an attempt to disclose how feminist epistemological tools can be used to detect and challenge anthropocentric bias in the sciences, and 6) a multifaceted project that explores how historical trauma has influenced relationships between Jews and other animals in the wake of the Holocaust.
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Kelsey Merreck Wagner |
Kelsey Merreck Wagner is a PhD student in Anthropology pursuing specializations in Animal Studies and Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change. She has a B.A. from Western Michigan University in Studio Art (2013) and an M.A. from Appalachian State University in Sustainability. (2018). She began fieldwork in Chiang Mai, Thailand with ethical elephant ecotourism and community-based conservation, and later moved to Cambodia to explore interspecies relations and community conservation education. She is interested in human-elephant conflict and the effect of corruption and neoliberalism on conservation and environmental movements. Her current work uses art and activism to explore issues of human-elephant conflict and relations in Southeast Asian contexts. Her recent environmental art is available at kelseymerreckwagner.com/portfolio
Students who have earned the Graduate Specialization in Animal Studies and have graduated with either a doctorate or a master's disciplinary degree:
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Sandy Burnley, PhD Department: English Email: sandyburnley@gmail.com |
Sandy Burnley defended her dissertation "Critical Entanglements: Animals in Victorian Fiction" in July 2022 and has teaches Integrative Social Science courses at Michigan State University. She specializes in Victorian Literature and Animal Studies. She completed her undergraduate education with a Bachelor’s in Biology and English with a focus on veterinary medicine, and subsequently received a Masters in English Literature. She worked in an environmental shelter for seven years where she studied the behaviors and environments of exotic non-human animals, including reptiles, mammals, birds, and aquatic life. If she is not reading you can find her at the barn riding, grooming, and learning alternative methods of communication. Sandy’s research interests include different portrayals, interactions, laws, and non-human, not-quite human, and “Other” conceptions found in Victorian literature through present day. While her focus is primarily around the non-human animal, her interests have permeated into racial, postcolonial, food, gender, and disability studies. Her goal is to help reconstruct our present ontological perspective of the environment and those who inhabit it, reassemble a less anthropocentric humanity in which verbal language is not the sole channel of communication, and disseminate the ways in which nonhuman animals have a purpose and identity outside of Western Human teleology and ventriloquism.
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Ashley Couch, MS Department: Community, Agriculture, Recreation & Resource Studies Email: couchash@msu.edu |
Ashley Couch earned a MS in Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies with a Specialization in Animal Studies in Spring 2013. Her masters thesis examined zoo animal welfare and visitors' satisfaction with animal visibility. She worked in a veterinary toxicology lab at the Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health. She is interested in zoo animal welfare which stemmed from volunteer and intern work at the Indianapolis Zoo. Ashley earned a BS in Zoology from MSU in 2007.
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Jeanette Eckert, PhD Department: Geography Email: eckertj7@msu.edu |
Jeanette Eckert graduated with a doctoral degree in Geography, with a specialization in Animal Studies. Her work focuses on urban geography and planning. Her previous education at the University of Toledo includes a B.A. and M.A. in Geography, as well as a B.S. in Environmental Science with in ecology. Her research is framed by theories of social and environmental justice, and how the built environment can create barriers or opportunities for urban residents. She focuses primarily on postindustrial Rust Belt cities. She is interested in equitable local food systems and access to healthy food in urban areas. In addition to researching inequality between humans, she also includes nonhuman animals in her focus on ethics. She is interested in human interactions with and attitudes toward animals, especially with regard to animals killed for food or used in entertainment, as well as urban residents’ responses to wildlife and homeless companion animals. Jeanette believes that humane education is an important tool for reducing intentional and unintentional harm to animals, and would like to learn more about the mechanisms by which human attitudes toward animals are shaped and reshaped. Inspired by her mother, she has been helping animals throughout her life and currently shares her home with several rescued animals.
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Maggie Fitzpatrick, MS Department: Community, Agriculture, Recreation & Resource Studies Email: mfitzpatrick05@gmail.com |
Maggie Fitzpatrick earned an MS in Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies with a Specialization in Animal Studies. Her research interest is the return of small livestock, mainly chicken, to backyards and urban areas through the urban agriculture movement. She earned a BS in Biology with a Concentration in Environmental Studies from John Carroll University, a small Jesuit university on the Eastside of Cleveland. Through environmental studies, she found an interest in sustainable food and agriculture and went on to complete two farm internships, one in South Western Vermont and one in Dayton, Ohio where she gained cultivation skills and experience as an educator but began to reflect on previous distance from food production as an urban dweller and how my life can be enriched through participation in food cultivation. She is a native of Cleveland, Ohio.
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Cadi Fung, PhD Department: Geography Email: fungcadi@msu.edu |
Cadi Fung graduated in Summer 2019 with a PhD in Geography. Her academic, personal and professional interests are all centered on creating a verdant, just and peaceful world for humans and all other species. She worked with the now-famous dolphin Winter, the injured dolphin with a prosthetic tail who stars in the hit movie Dolphin Tale.Cadi also worked as an animal advocate at a major Florida animal theme park before re-entering academia to earn a MSc. in geography. During her work at the animal park, Cadi became close friends with a binturong named Jerry, and is delighted to discover that there are binturongs at Potter Park Zoo. Cadi's MSc. posited a new field of geography called Anthropocene Geography that examines the fact that our species now controls the planet and is deciding the fate of planetary ecosystems, ecosystems services, and biodiversity. Cadi is guided by deep ecology, a set of principles that asks us to give up anthropocentrism in favor of recognizing the intrinsic value of all life. She is especially motivated to preserve native ecosystems and native flora and fauna, and is concerned that the spread of unregulated capitalism and consumerism, combined with human population growth, may soon exceed earth's biological carrying capacity. With a dual-degree undergraduate background in aquatic biology and geology and her current focus on humanistic geography, animal geographies, and human-nature interaction, Cadi is eager to work with others who have empathy, admiration, and concern for non-human species.
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Ryan Gunderson, PhD |
Ryan Gunderson earned a PhD in Sociology with Specializations in Animal Studies and Environmental Science & Policy in May 2014, and he is an Associate Professor at Miami University in Ohio, where he teaches animal studies courses for the social justice major in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology. His dissertation excavated social-ecological insights from the Frankfurt School to address theoretical issues in environmental sociology and animal studies. He received his MA at the University of Wyoming in 2011, where he researched the social, environmental, and animal welfare consequences of intensive, mechanized, large-scale livestock production from a Marxist perspective. His research interests broadly include environmental sociology, social theory, animal studies, and political economy. Ryan has published in Critical Sociology, Organization & Environment, Sociologia Ruralis, Telos, and other journals.
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Maria Iliopoulou, DVM, PhD Department: Community Sustainability Email: iliopoul@msu.edu |
Maria Iliopoulou earned a PhD in Community Sustainability with a Specialization in Animal Studies in May 2014. Her areas of interests include finding ways to intervene in the social problem of dogfighting, and her dissertation focused on the link between children's perceptions of dogfighting and their level of canine care and welfare knowledge. Maria has also earned her DVM from the MSU School of Veterinary Medicine.
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Christopher Jordan, PhD Department: Fisheries & Wildlife Email: jordan41@msu.edu |
Christopher Jordan earned a PhD in Fishieries and Wildlife with a specialization in Animal Studies, and he is now with Global Wildlife Conservation. His dissertation was on the social networks formed through traditional forest ecosystem knowledge sharing and use along the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. In particular, he explored the types of network configurations that encourage increased forest conservation and negative attitudes toward deforestation and forest degradation. His work has a large component on forest wildlife and he is a member of the IUCN Tapir Specialist Group. Christopher earned a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies and a BS. in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
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Nathan Poirier, PhD Department: Sociology Email: poirie11@msu.edu |
Nathan Poirier defended his dissertation on in vitro meat discourse in Spring 2023 (Sociology) with multiple specializations in Animal Studies and Women & Gender Studies. He holds a B.A. in mathematics from Aquinas College, an M.A. in mathematics from Western Michigan University, and an M.S. in Anthrozoology from Canisius College. His master’s thesis for Canisius critically examined the landscape of in vitro meat. Nathan has a wide array of academic interests, but his main interests include overlapping oppressions, anarchism, animal agriculture, veganism, human overpopulation, resource consumption, terrorization of political dissent, and critical pedagogy. Nathan has been teaching math at the college level since 2012 and enjoys integrating social responsibility and justice into his classrooms. In 2015 he organized a community-focused rewilding event in Grand Rapids, MI.
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Jennifer Rebecca Schauer, PhD |
Jennifer Rebecca Schauer earned a PhD in Sociology with specializations in Animal Studies and Environmental Science & Policy in May 2015, and was recently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at Boston College. She studies environmental sociology focusing on the relationship that humans have with the living world. With an interdisciplinary background her scholarship and views on the nature society divide have embraced a holistic approach. As such, her interests have taken on an experiential dimension, that is, where nature and wildlife interface most vividly with humans. This is revealed in a broad range of areas from an individual’s encounter with the portrait of a wild animal, to exploring the role of experiential education that is centered on the student immersion into a natural environment, to the hunting of wildlife, a relationship that has been portrayed both as an act of love and kill.
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Rachel Kelly, MS Department: Community, Agriculture, Recreation & Resource Studies Email: kellyra2@msu.edu |
Rachel Kelly earned an MA in Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies with a Specialization in Animal Studies. Her focal area is community food and agriculture. She completed her BS in agricultural science with a specialization in animal science at Truman State University. Rachel is interested in various issues surrounding the feeding of species-appropriate diets (bones and raw food diets) to companion animals. She recently completed a summer internship at Sanctuary And Safe Haven for Animals (SASHA), a farm sanctuary in Manchester, MI, for unwanted and/or neglected farm and companion animals, and now volunteers there once a week. Rachel works for the Department of Community Sustainability at MSU. This is a picture of her with Cody.
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Monica List, PhD Department: Philosophy Email: listmoni@msu.edu |
Monica List graduated Summer 2019 with a PhD in Philosophy. She is also earned the Ecological Food and Farming Systems Specialization. She is now the Global Farm Animal Advisor at World Animal Protection in Decatur, Georgia. She received her Veterinary Medicine degree from the National University of Costa Rica in 2000. From 2000 to 2005, she was resident veterinarian at the Zoo Ave Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Alajuela, Costa Rica, where her work primarily focused on the rehabilitating small primates and reintroducing them to the wild. From 2006 to 2010, she worked as Regional Veterinary Programs Manager for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), implementing WSPA’s companion animal welfare and tertiary animal welfare education programs in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. She completed her course-work for the Masters in Bioethics Program at the National University of Costa Rica in 2010, and expects to graduate from that program in May of 2011. Her research interests are animal ethics, the ethics of food and agriculture, environmental ethics, and animal welfare.
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Melissa Liszewski, MS Department: Animal Sciences Email: mel.liszewski@gmail.com |
Melissa Liszewski earned an MS in Animal Science with a Specialization in Animal Studies. She was a member of the Animal Behavior and Welfare Group. Her work also included completing an additional graduate specialization in International Development from The Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID). She was recently awarded a Marshall Plan Foundation Scholarship to complete coursework and research in Vienna, Austria, where she evaluated a federally funded animal welfare education program. Melissa earned a BS in Animal Science with Specializations in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from MSU in 2008. In 2006, she traveled to SE Brazil for work on an undergraduate project aimed at improving the welfare of working equines. Since this experience she has maintained a strong passion and commitment to finding ways to improve the lives of animals in lesser developed areas of the world, and subsequently the lives of the people depending on them as well. Melissa's other research interests include human-animal relationships and using participatory, livelihood, and community-based approaches to address animal welfare issues in developing countries.
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Seven Mattes, PhD |
Seven Mattes graduated in Spring 2018 with a PhD in Anthropology with a specialization in Animal Studies and a certificate in Community Engagement. Seven is now Assistant Professor in the Center for Integrative Studies, Social Science, at MSU. Her dissertation work focused on the anthropology of Japan, human-animal studies and disaster. Her research used multispecies ethnography to understand the shifting animal welfare landscape in Japan following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Locally, she engages in numerous academic and advocacy projects exploring and aiding the multifaceted relationships people have with the animals in their lives, from the pigs they eat to the cats they love.
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Samantha Noll, PhD |
Samantha Noll graduated Spring 2016 with a PhD in philosophy with a focus in environmental philosophy, animal metaphysics, and philosophy of agriculture. She is also pursued the gender, justice, and environmental change (GJEC) specialization in addition to the animal studies specialization. She received her bachelor’s degree from West Chester University in philosophy with minors in anthropology and ethnic studies. She is an Assistant Professor of Bioethics in The School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs (PPPA) at Washington State University. She is also the bioethicist affiliated with the Functional Genomics Initiative, that applies genome editing in agriculture research and the Center for Reproductive Biology. Dr. Noll is the co-author or editor of two books, including a Field Guide to Formal Logic (Grand River Learning, 2020) and the Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of the City (Routledge, 2019). She publishes widely on food justice and food sovereignty, local food movements, and the application of biotechnologies in food production.
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Kelly O'Brien, MSW Department: Social Work Email: kellylynnob@gmail.com |
Kelly O'Brien earned an MSW with a Specialization in Animal Studies from MSU in May 2014 and a Master's in Sociology in 2017. She received her B.A. in Pyschology from MSU in 2006. After finishing her undergraduate studies, she became a certified instructor through the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH). After managing and training horses at a PATH Premier Accredited Center in Nashville for four years, she reentered MSU to pursue a Masters in Social Work. Kelly's principal research interest is the use and welfare of equines in a therapeutic setting. She currently runs an equine-facilitated mental health program.
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Jessica Bell Rizzolo, PhD Department: Sociology Email: belljes2@msu.edu |
Jessica Bell Rizzolo completed her PhD in Sociology, specializing in Animal Studies, Environmental Science and Policy, and Conservation Criminology. She is currently a postdoctoral research associate with the Environmental and Social Sustainability Lab at The Ohio State University. Jessica’s research interests include scientific representations of animal behavior and mind, the impact of visual and discursive representations of wildlife on conservation, the sociopolitical dynamics of conservation initiatives, and conservation crime (e.g. wildlife poaching).
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Stacy Rule, PhD Department: English Email: flaher30@msu.edu |
Stacy Rule graduated in Spring 2018 with a PhD in English. She is currently an adjunct professor with Canisius College's Anthrozoology Program. She earned her B.A. in English at Binghamton University and graduated from Hofstra University with an M.A. in English and Creative Writing. Her principal research interests are animal studies, ecocriticism, American literature and cultural studies, and she is a member of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment.
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Mark Suchyta, PhD Department: Sociology Email: suchytam@msu.edu |
Mark Suchyta defended his dissertation "Social and Environmental Influences on Subjective Well-Being" with a dual major in Sociology and Environmental Science and Policy in August 2022. Mark has accepted a teaching position at Butler College starting in Fall 2022. He holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Michigan and an MS in Rural Sociology from Penn State University. His research interests revolve around environmental attitudes, behaviors, and how to create platforms for public participation in environmental decision-making. Much of his previous work has focused on communities experiencing natural gas development. At MSU, he studies public attitudes about industrial animal agriculture and the social movements and policies that have come about as a result. When he’s not busy with his studies, he enjoys spending time with his birds.
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Amy Shelle, MSW Department: Social Work Email: shelleam@msu.edu |
Amy Shelle received her Master's in Social Work, with a specialization in Animal Studies, in 2016. She received her associates’ degree in 1996 and her B.S. degree in Animal Science in 1999, both from MSU. During that time she was a member of the Animal Behavior and Welfare Group. The research she completed then consisted of developing non-invasive techniques to monitor stress in animals. Horses, pigs, cows, mink, snow leopards and tigers were her species of interest. She was also involved with many research projects that were carried out in the Animal Behavior lab at and thus she has co-authored many papers. Amy has established a service dog training initiative for civilians including survivors of domestic violence, rape or sexual assault: Dogs for GRETA (Dogs for Gaining Resilience and Empowerment through Teamwork and Assurance).
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Molly Tamulevich, MS Department: Community, Agriculture, Recreation & Resource Studies Email: tamulev1@msu.edu |
Molly Tamulevich earned an MS in Community Sustainability with a Specialization in Animal Studies in December 2014, and is the former Michigan State Director of the Humane Society of the United States. Her master's thesis focused on the social status that people receive from their companion animals and how purchasing or adopting an animal based on perceived social value can lead to pet overpopulation and violence. Molly earned a BA in Anthropology with a Minor in Biology from Bryn Mawr College in 2007. Her interests include pit bull welfare, vegan cooking, volunteering for a variety of animal welfare organizations and spending time with her guinea pigs, Jambi and Paul.
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Jonathan W. Thurston-Torres, PhD |
Jonathan W. Thurston-Torres (English Department) defended their doctoral dissertation in Spring 2022. They specialize in animal historicism, looking at how animals are more than just metaphor in literature but also as indicators of contemporary animal-human interaction. He has presented at the International Children's Literature Association and at the John Milton Conference. Their work includes the forthcoming edited volume with Michigan State University Press, Animals and Race, and essays in The Philologist. Aside from writing, they have worked at a wolf refuge, volunteered at a tiger haven, and studied early modern horse-riding techniques up close.
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Stephen Vrla, PhD Departments: Sociology and Teacher Education Email: svrla@msu.edu |
Stephen Vrla received his dual PhD in Sociology and Teacher Education in Spring 2019, with specializations in Animal Studies and Environmental Science and Policy. Stephen is now Curator of Humane Education with the Detroit Zoological Society. He graduated from Williams College in 2010, where he majored in History. After graduating, he worked as a field instructor at a wilderness therapy program in Utah and as an English, environmental studies, and social studies teacher at a boarding school for disadvantaged students in Texas. Through this work, he became interested in the role schools play in students' moral development, particularly their attitudes toward animals and the environment. Stephen's work is inspired by Hermes, his canine counterpart, and by the stray or injured animals he has been unable to rescue.
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Ian Werkheiser, PhD |
Ian Werkheiser earned his PhD in philosophy at Michigan State University in 2015 with specializations in Animal Studies as well as Environmental Philosophy and Ethics. He is now an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His research interests include environmental ethics, environmental and food justice, food sovereignty, and social epistemology. His areas of specialization include environmental philosophy, social epistemology, and social and political philosophy, ethics and the philosophy of science. His dissertation focused on the capabilities approach and food sovereignty, and argued that community epistemic capacity is a necessary requirement of meaningful political participation, particularly in issues around food and environmental justice.
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Cameron Whitley, PhD Department: Sociology Email: cwhitley@msu.edu |
Cameron Thomas Whitley graduated May 5, 2017 with a doctorate in Sociology and Specializations in Animal Studies, Environmental Science & Policy and Gender, Justice and Environmental Change. He is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Western Washington University. Cam grew up in Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2005 with a degree in Sociology and a minor in Ethnic Studies. Between graduating in 2005 and entering MSU in the fall of 2009, Cameron spent time engaged in HIV/AIDS prevention and education in the Virgin Islands and working as a financial officer in New York City. Cameron’s past research has focused largely on the intersections of sex, gender and sexuality; however his current interests are in environmental sociology, specifically regarding social attitudes around climate change, water quality and conservation, social movements and the social and political positioning of animals for corporate gain. When not engaged in research, Cameron enjoys being outdoors, photography, daily yoga, exploratory creative writing, social activism, chai tea lattes, and traveling around the world with his wife. He misses his yorkie, Pal.
