Where knowledge and science meet ethics and compassion

HAS Executive Committee

The HAS Executive Committee was formed in 2004, and is a group of scholars and other interested parties working to advance Human-Animal Studies. This rapidly growing interdisciplinary academic field examines the complex and multi-dimensional relationships between humans and other animals -- be those relationships real or virtual, historical or contemporary, factual or fictional, beneficial or detrimental. The Committee undertakes projects that focus on the institutional development of the field, as distinguished from direct support of research. Goals include the establishment of minors, majors, programs, and centers devoted to the field, and the HAS Fellowship Program. The Committee works under the auspices of the Animals and Society Institute.

The committee is made up of:

		Margo DeMello, Central New Mexico Community College Margo DeMello has a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and currently lectures at Central New Mexico Community College, teaching sociology, cultural studies, and anthropology. She also is the Executive Director of House Rabbit Society, an international rabbit rescue and education organization. Her books include Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community (2000), Stories Rabbits Tell: A Natural and Cultural History of a Misunderstood Creature (2003), Low-Carb Vegetarian (2004), Why Animals Matter: The Case for Animal Protection (2007), The Encyclopedia of Body Adornment (2007), A Cultural Encyclopedia of Feet and Footwear (2010) and the edited collection, Teaching the Animal: Human Animal Studies Across the Disciplines (2010).
		Kathie Jenni, Department of Philosophy, University of Redlands Kathie Jenni earned the B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Montana and the Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine. She served as Ethics in Society Fellow at Stanford University before joining the faculty at the University of Redlands, where she is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Human-Animal Studies. She has taught animal ethics, environmental ethics, moral psychology, and other courses at Redlands for more than twenty years. With Mylan Engel Jr., she co-authored The Philosophy of Animal Rights: A Brief Introduction for Students and Teachers (Lantern Books, 2010). Other publications include ½Examined Lives: Teaching Human-Animal Studies in Philosophy (with Mylan Engel, Jr., in Teaching the Animal: Human-Animal Studies Across the Curriculum, Lantern Books, 2010), The Power of the Visual (Journal for Critical Animal Studies), Vices of Inattention (Journal of Applied Philosophy), The Moral Responsibilities of Intellectuals (Social Theory and Practice),Western Environmental Ethics: an Overview (Journal of Chinese Philosophy), and Dilemmas in Social Philosophy: Abortion and Animal Rights (Social Theory and Practice). She recently presented Bearing Witness, Justice, and Respect for Animals at the commemorative workshop celebrating Tom Regans thirty-five years of work on animal rights, at North Carolina State University. Kathies interest in animals originated with her upbringing on a cattle ranch in central Montana and was intensified in graduate study in Ethics, when she realized the scope of animal exploitation and embarked on the path to veganism and animal advocacy. Her life changed again when she discovered Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in southern Utah. Having wanted to work more actively for animals, she found a way to incorporate that aspiration into academic life when she created the May Term course Taking Animals Seriously, which combines an internship in animal care at Best Friends with study in animal ethics. The course won the Universitys Innovative Teaching Award in 2004. Kathie currently directs the interdisciplinary Human-Animal Studies minor that she introduced to the College of Arts and Sciences in 2008. She lives with seven adopted animal companions in Beaumont, California.
		Cheryl Joseph, School of Arts and Humanities, Notre Dame de Namur University Cheryl Joseph is a professor at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, where she combined three of her passions---sociology, teaching, and animals---to create a major in Sociology with a concentration on Animals in Human Society. This four-year undergraduate degree, the only one of its kind in the nation, allows students to study the social aspects of the animal-human bond and to pursue related careers without the traditional biology or veterinary science degrees. Through a university partnership with several local shelters, sanctuaries, and educational centers students in this major are engaged in a two-semester internship which allows them to work directly with animals while mutually assisting people. Inspired by her dog, Ebony, to design this major, the two were co-instructors of the classes for several years. Now Beethoven has taken up his share of the responsibility on Ebonys behalf. Cheryl works closely with professional sociological organizations where she frequently contributes her on-going research on the animal-human bond. She also writes, having currently submitted for publication a text titled, Putting Sociology to Work: Career Pursuits for Majors. In her free time, Cheryl enjoys travel to such locales as Southeast Asia, South America, and most recently, Morocco. Beethoven enjoys sleeping and snuggling. Both enjoy long walks on the beach.
		Robert Mitchell, Department of Psychology, Eastern Kentucky University Robert Mitchell was raised in New Jersey in the US, where his parents indulgently let him raise hundreds of animals (fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals) in their home. He has researched cognition in dolphins, apes, dogs, and humans, and has published 6 edited books on animal-related topics including deception, pretense, self-awareness, anthropomorphism, spatial cognition, and ape cognition. He has previously published a monograph on scientific perceptions of apes, and is currently working on two books: one on the history of scientific uses of anthropomorphism to understand animals, and the other on the numerous theories attempting to explain sexual orientation. His most recent areas of interest are the play of sea lions in the Galpagos Islands and the function of peoples laughter when playing with dogs.
		Georgina M. Montgomery, Department of History, Michigan State University and Lyman Briggs College Georgina M. Montgomery is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in Lyman Briggs College and the Department of History at Michigan State University. She is the co-editor of Making Animal Meaning (Fall 2011, Michigan State University Press), a collection of 10 original essays that capture some of the most compelling theoretical underpinnings of animal meaning while illustrating meaning-making through studies of specific spaces, species, and human-animal relations. Making Animal Meaning is the product of an international conference Montgomery organized in 2009 that attracted over 50 scholars from the interdisciplinary field of animal studies. Montgomerys position within animal studies is further demonstrated by her appointment as one of eight scholars in the Human-Animal Studies Executive Committee, a national group that evaluates junior scholars for summer fellowships in animal studies. Montgomery is also an active member of the history of science community, with publications in key journals such as theJournal for the History of Biology and Endeavour and numerous professional presentations at history of science conferences.
		Christina Risley-Curtiss, School of Social Work, Arizona State University Dr. Christina Risley-Curtiss, an associate professor of Social Work at Arizona State University has 20+ years of practice/management experience in both public health and child welfare. Her primary areas of research and current publications are in other animal-human relationships in child welfare, social work and diverse groups. Her social work elective courseOther Animal-Human Connections- won the HSUS 2004 Society and Animals New Course Award. She is a current member and past chair of The Arizona Humane LINK, a coalition of animal welfare and human service agencies and is a member of the National Humane Link Coalition. She has received grants from the Kenneth A. Scott Charitable Trust, a KeyBank Trust and the Animal Welfare Trust to develop an assessment and intervention program for children and youth who have abused animals (C.A.T.). She is a Fellow at the Oxford Centre on Animal Ethics, on the human-animal studies committee of Animals and Society Institute (ASI), a fellow for the University of Denver School Of Social Work Institute on Human-Animal Interactions, on the faculty of the Kerulos Center and a member of the National Link Coalition. She has presented at Oxford on the role of other animals in child welfare, at the American Humane Association Annual Conference on other animals and communities of color, at the Social Work Spirituality Conference on spirituality and other animals; at the first Veterinary Social Work Summit held in Knoxville, TN; and in Canada on assessment and treatment of animal abuse. In collaboration with ASI she has implemented on online professional development program to train masters level counselors to treat those who have abused other animals. She grew up on a farm in Connecticut, where her father and grandfather practiced veterinary medicine. She does hands-on rescue work including having volunteered to help animals during the Katrina rescue and she was a founding member of a TNR feral cat program at ASU. She currently lives in a trans-species cultural home with a number of cats and chickens, a dog and horse.
		Carrie Rohman, Department of English, Lafayette College Carrie Rohman is an Assistant Professor of English at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. Before coming to Lafayette, she taught for four years at the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown. She received her B.A. in English from the University of Dayton, her M.A. in English from Indiana University, and her Ph.D. in 20th-Century British Literature and Critical Theory from Indiana University. Over the course of her career, Professor Rohman has taught courses in British literature, especially the modernist period, the twentieth-century novel, performance studies, science fiction, and writing. She has also taught a variety of animal studies courses examining animals in literature, philosophy, culture, and technology. A number of her animal studies courses have included a service-learning component. Her scholarship has primarily involved examining the question of the animal in 20th-century literature, with an eye toward the philosophical and ethical dimensions of that question. Thus her research interests have been in the areas of animal studies, modernism, posthumanism, and ecocriticism. She has published widely on animality in the work of writers such as D. H. Lawrence, Djuna Barnes, Rebecca West, H. G. Wells, and Italo Calvino in journals such as American Literature, Criticism, and Mosaic. Her book, Stalking the Subject: Modernism and the Animal (Columbia, 2009) examines the discourse of animality in modernist literature, taking into account the influences of Darwin and Freud in that period, and recent theoretical work on the species barrier. She has also co-edited with Kristin Czarnecki the collection Virginia Woolf and the Natural World: Selected Papers of the Twentieth Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf (Clemson, 2011). She is currently writing about the relationship between animality, aesthetics, and performance in twentieth-century literature, dance, and performance art. Carrie is a modern dancer and choreographer in her other life. She most recently performed with colleague Nandini Sikand in the concert Performing the Border at the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in New York City (May 2011).
		Ken Shapiro, Animals & Society Institute Ken Shapiro earned his BA from Harvard University and his PhD in clinical psychology from Duke University. He is cofounder of Animals and Society Institute. He founded Psychologists for the Ethical treatment of Animals and the Society and Animals Forum. He is founder and editor of Society and Animals: Journal of Human-Animal Studies; cofounder and coeditor of Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science; and editor of the Human-Animal Studies book series. His most recent book is Animal Models of Human Psychology: Critique of Science, Ethics and Policy. He is one of the developers of AniCare and AniCare Child, the only psychological treatment models for animal abusers, and trains therapists throughout the country on the use of these models.
		Paul Waldau, Center for Animals and Public Policy, Tufts University Paul Waldau is a scholar working at the intersection of animal studies, ethics, religion, law and cultural studies. In September of 2011, Paul began as an Associate Professor at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, where he is the senior faculty member for Canisius' new on-line graduate program in Anthrozoology (www.canisius.edu/anthrozoology/). Paul is currently President of the Religion and Animals Institute, whose website is www.relgionandanimals.org. From 2004 through 2008, Paul was the Director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and directed the Centers Master of Science graduate program in human-animal studies. Paul has a Doctor of Philosophy degree from University of Oxford, a Juris Doctor degree from UCLA Law School, and a Master of Arts degree from Stanford University in Religious Studies. Paul is the author or editor of four books with two more about to be published. Paul's first book, The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals, was published by Oxford University Press in 2001. A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics, on which Paul is co-editor, was published by Columbia University Press in 2006. Paul also co-edited An Elephant in the Room: The Science and Well-being of Elephants in Captivity,which was published by the Center for Animals and Public Policy in 2008. In 2011, Animal Rights was published by Oxford University Press in its "What Everyone Needs to Know" series.

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