Affiliations

Within the context of plummeting biodiversity and climate chaos, what role can Animal Studies play in charting the way to a more just and vibrant future?

At the heart of many issues surrounding climate change and animal protection is the broken relationship between human and non-human animals and nature—a relationship that we believe can be repaired through science and art.

WATR-lab is a research, outreach, and education collective driven by the responsibility of belonging to multispecied communities. We specialize in animal welfare science, aquatic animal lives and ecosystems, human-animal relations, quantitative methods and the arts. Our work is located within a larger and growing movement to promote environmental conservation while honoring the inherent worth of the nonhuman world.

In our lab and through this website, you will find opportunities to connect with like-minded students, scholars, and creatives engaging with big picture issues of how we can reconfigure human-animal relations across scales: dyadic, regional, ecosystem, cultural, and global. We believe that respectful and reciprocal relationships with the more-than-human world are possible and can produce healthier, happier, richer, and more meaningful lives for us all. In that pursuit, our lab supports a diversity of practitioners across a variety of disciplines and areas of expertise.

We welcome passionate, curious, and questioning individuals to reach out to us.