Postgraduate programme

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• HUAN790 Human-Animal Studies PhD

In 2018 the University of Canterbury introduced a PhD in Human-Animal Studies. This was the first such degree offered in the Southern Hemisphere, and is one of only three or four throughout the world.

Students undertaking the PhD in Human-Animal Studies (PhD HUAN) at UC will work with supervisors drawn from our pool of over a dozen academic staff working in many different areas, and will be part of the lively and inclusive research culture of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies.

For information about postgraduate students currenly enrolling in the programme, see our Current Postgraduate Researchers page.

For more information about the programme, or to commence your application, please email the coordinator of the PhD HUAN, Professor Philip Armstrong.

Areas for supervision

Areas for supervision include, but are not limited, to the following:

• Professor Philip Armstrong: animals in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific; animals in literature; animals in history, especially the Renaissance and the Nineteenth Century; sheep in culture and history; whales and dolphins in culture and history; animals and environmental discourse.
• Associate Professor Jane Buckingham: animals in South Asian History; elephants and elephantology.
• Dr Rosie Ibbotson: animals in the visual arts; museology and display of human-animal relations; extinction and de-extinction.
• Dr Alison Loveridge: animal welfare and advocacy; animals in agriculture and food production; animals in New Zealand; animals and rural life; animals and children.
• Dr Carolyn Mason: animals and ethics; bioethics.
• Professor Henrietta Mondry: dogs in culture and history; animals in Russian culture and history; animals in Slavic cultures; companion species; animals in literature; de-extinction.
• Dr Patrick O’Sullivan: animals in Ancient Greek culture and society; animals in classical literature and drama.
• Professor Annie Potts: animals in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific; animals in art; human-animal relations and gender; representations of animals in horror and science fiction; chickens in culture and history; possums in culture and history; animals and emergencies; animals and environmental discourse.
• Associate Professor Nik Taylor: human-animal violence links; eating animals and veganism; feminism and animals; species inclusive methods. 
• Dr Michael-John Turp: animals and ethics; animals in Early Modern philosophy.