Dissertation Manuscript Outline: Human-Javelina Relations in Texas

Humans and Javelinas: Something Something… I need a title … This study is motivated by the broad pressing question: How do we live in a world full of difference? More specifically, how do our relationships with other beings shape our identities and the course of our shared futures? As we experience increasing precarity associated with…

Dissertation Update: “On Anthropomorphism”

I’ve sent off the first section of my dissertation to my advisor. This section is going in the introduction around the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study.Next stop: “Chapter 1- Contested Actors”

Why I Study Human-Animal Relations as an Anthropologist

Anthropology is the study of humans, or as Dr. Jon Marks says: “the study of who we are and where we come from.” I consider it to be the study of humans and the variety of relationships humans have. These relationships include some of the most obvious: kinship, communities, institutions, businesses, and religions. It also…

Digging for Birds

My partner and I bought a house in 2019 and moved to San Antonio, TX, in service of my pursuit of a Ph.D. in anthropology. One thing that was abundantly clear to us—we are both from the East Coast and accustomed to a different climate—was that it is dry and gets very hot! Following the…

A Rat’s Journey There and Back Again

In early August of this year, my partner and I took a much needed vacation to South Padre Island. While visiting, we decided to go snorkeling in Laguna Madre, one of only six hypersaline lagoons in the world. We saw many small fish, lots of large black drums, maybe a barracuda, and tons of hermit…