Dr Fenella Eason

I am a Lecturer at the University of Exeter, and a member of EASE, the Exeter Anthrozoology as Symbiotic Ethics working group. I obtained a B. Psychology in Counselling from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa (2009), with research centred on childhood abuse of animals, and in 2011, was awarded an MA in Anthrozoology (University of Wales, Lampeter) with a dissertation relating to virtual and physical memorials assisting socially-isolated individuals, disenfranchised in their grief for deceased companion animals.

My PhD in Anthrozoology (University of Exeter, 2017) 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, Human-Canine Collaboration in Care: Doing Diabetes (2019). I am personal academic tutor to MA Anthrozoology students, a Mental Health First Aider, and have Senior Fellowship in the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

My interests lie in researching 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. Additional interests are in learning and understanding non-invasive, pain-free multispecies biomedical interventions and experiences.