Photo by Kerry Herbert
Kerry Herbert, Fenella Eason, Samantha Hurn, Emily Stone
How might we resolve what we find difficult, complex, or uncomfortable during our research as anthrozoologists?
This is a question that members of the Exeter Anthrozoology as Symbiotic Ethics (EASE) working group at the University of Exeter have been pondering since before the group was established, and the emotional impact of foregrounding the ethical was one of the motivating factors influencing the formation of EASE. Our approach to anthrozoology is grounded in symbiotic ethics and as such we are deeply concerned with the ways in which we might ethically navigate our own and others’ emotional landscapes during the pursuit of both trans-species research and trans-species co-existence.
Academic spaces are widely accepted as places of rational knowledge exchange, but they seldom seem to offer the same hospitality to the full range of scholarly subjectivities.
Education offers much in the creation of community and connectivity yet, paradoxically, life inside the academy can be a lonely and isolating experience for researchers at all levels (Sibai et al., 2019). This isolation can be particularly salient for distance learners who wish to belong within the academic community but currently may only achieve this when offered sparse online options to access or join university student on campus groups. Social, emotional, and financial isolation can be the sour fruits of academic labour, when immersive process combines with the instability of short-term grants. The subsequent impossibility of conducting the kinds of longitudinal studies which richly represent the nuance of more-than-human lives, stokes and agitates a competitiveness for resources which leaves many researchers chronically depleted. Others have noted an affective gap within academia. For example, in response to conducting their own confronting research, Lopez and Gillespie (2016: 2) describe ‘a need for shared experience and a recognition of relationality and vulnerability in the research process’. And for Wilkie (2015: 2), studying interspecies interfaces represents a ‘polluted and risky scholarship’.
To take up these concerns and offer some potential remedies, the EASE working group launched the inaugural Affective Café as both concept and resource at the Reframing Anthrozoology as Symbiotic Ethics (RASE) 2021 international online conference.
Drawing inspiration from the Death Café initiative which brings people together to talk about death in a safe and mutually supportive space, and aims ‘to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’ (Death Café, nd), the Affective Café seeks to provide a supportive and non-hierarchical peer support forum for students, early career and established academics to explore some of the affective challenges faced in the course of our research. To encourage greater participation and inclusivity, the Affective Café has been developed as an online space and resource.
In July 2022, we took the Affective Café to an international audience at ISAZ’s annual conference with an aim to offer virtual ‘real time’ connection and support with other researchers, across geographical, disciplinary, occupational and situational lines.
Our virtual gathering attracted participants from a wide range of countries, disciplines, and career pathways. People brought stories of how their research and/or professional trans-species work delivered unexpected cognitive and affective impacts, influencing their thinking and scholarship in addition to their connections with peers, friendship groups, and their familial others.
For some, navigating the social and relational impacts of loaded terms such as ‘animal advocate’ and ‘activist’ created the opportunity for a shared reflection on the ways in which others may see the life and work of an anthrozoologist. Discussions about approaches to anthrozoological research were also pressing. The dividing line between quantitative and qualitative research has become so entrenched in academia that one participant recalled that the potential for qualitative research methodology was not made available to them until their final undergraduate thesis, and another agreed, emphasising the heavy focus placed on quantitative research as being the ‘only’ way at their institution.
Others shared experiences of fieldwork; one person describing the deep frustration with feeling the ambivalence of delivery partners, as research projects were suspended before completion, without parity of consideration for the experiences of the otherthanhuman participants enrolled.
A topic which catalysed much contribution and discussion was the pressure felt by many of our cohort to be held to simplistic determinations of our research. Several participants shared experiences of ‘that familiar sinking feeling’ at social gatherings, when pressed to dichotomise research into binary terms… “So do you agree with it [your research topic] or do you disagree with it?” Café participants whose research brought deep engagement with the socio-cultural and political interfaces of trans-species life were particularly affected by these kinds of polarising questions, noting the real-world impacts of oversimplifying what are often complex and nuanced areas of study.
Questions were raised on our responsibilities to otherthanhuman animals to avoid, reduce, or manage pain or suffering for them, as well as for our human research participants and for ourselves as researchers. This led into a discussion of grief and other emotions arising from challenging discussions and interactions, with the recognition that self-care is essential. Participants discussed the need to set personal boundaries, safe spaces, and to put yourself first when undertaking emotive research.
One group member’s feedback comment epitomised our primary aim in hosting Affective Café sessions: ‘[It] felt wonderful to be connected’. Our field of anthrozoology sometimes leaves us feeling individually stranded and disenfranchised from other social science disciplines. Knowing others feel the same can help us establish a sense of community.
Exploring our emotive and intersubjective experiences as researchers, and acknowledging the ethical challenges we encounter, enables us to foreground the kind of affective, embodied knowledge which may lie dormant or become anaesthetised by the demands of doing research. In the Affective Café, we start from a place of recognition that we are subjective beings and that this subjectivity is a vital part of our health and wellbeing as researchers. Our aim is to develop a cross-disciplinary global network of affectively-engaged anthrozoological researchers.
To join us or find out more, please contact Emily Stone e.stone4@exeter.ac.uk
References:
Death Café. (no date). What is death café? https://deathcafe.com/what/.
Sibai, O., Figueiredo, B., and Ferreira, M.C. (2019). Overworked and isolated: the rising epidemic of loneliness in academia. https://theconversation.com/overworked-and-isolated-the-rising-epidemic-of-loneliness-in-academia-110009.
Wilkie, R. (2015). Academic Dirty Work. Society and Animals, 23(3), pp 211-230.
Author Bios:
Kerry Herbert
Kerry is an Anthrozoologist, PhD student at the University of Exeter, and ethical vegan whose work sits within the context of scholarly activism. Her advocacy predominantly focuses on helping former racing greyhounds to navigate new lives as companions and creating new narratives of care for these traumatised individuals. Kerry’s scholarly work calls for social change for greyhounds and is informed by her frontline experiences of living with, caring about, and advocating for this vulnerable population of domestic dogs.
Contact email: Klh230@exeter.ac.uk
Dr Fenella Eason
I completed my PhD in Anthrozoology at the University of Exeter (2017) and am a lecturer, member of the Exeter Anthrozoology as Symbiotic Ethics working group, and personal academic tutor to MA Anthrozoology students. My PhD was an ethnographic study of symbiotic practices of care performed by co-existing human–canine partnerships in the field of scent detection and chronic illness; this was later published as a Routledge monograph (2019). Interests involve the consequences of companion animal death on conspecifics and human caregivers, and in the caring and uncaring treatments exhibited in death and/or disposal of prehistoric to contemporary nonhuman animal companions.
Contact email: f.eason2@exeter.ac.uk
Website: https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/ease/ and http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/sociology/staff/eason/
Prof Samantha Hurn
Samantha Hurn is Associate Professor (Anthropology), Director of the Exeter Anthrozoology as Symbiotic Ethics (EASE) working group, and Programme Director for the MA and PhD Anthrozoology programmes at the University of Exeter. She is also series editor of the Routledge Multi-Species Encounters book series. Sam has researched and published on trans-species interactions in diverse contexts including street dog management in Romania; rhino poaching in South Africa; eco-tourism in South Africa and Swaziland; animal agriculture in the UK; non-traditional companion animals; veterinary end of life care, and her most recent research, funded by the Society for Companion Animal Studies, is concerned with finding ways to better support childhood experiences of disenfranchised grief following the loss of companion animals.
Contact email: s.hurn@exeter.ac.uk
Twitter: @SamanthaHurn1 or @EASE_anthrozoo
Website: http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/ease and http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/sociology/staff/hurn/
Dr Emily Stone
Emily is a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Exeter Anthrozoology as Symbiotic Ethics (EASE) working group. Emily completed her PhD in Anthrozoology at the University of Exeter. Her doctoral research was an ethnographic exploration of the cat fancy, or the breeding and exhibiting of pedigree cats (published as a monograph in 2022). Emily’s most recent research has focused on childhood experiences of companion animal loss, funded by the Society for Companion Animal Studies (SCAS).
Contact email: e.stone4@exeter.ac.uk
Twitter: @_ems_1
Anthrozoology as Symbiotic Ethics 