Human-Animal Interaction Research Series

Human-Animal Interaction Research Series

Founded in 2021, the Research Series on Human-Animal Relationships is an interdisciplinary seminar series and research group focused on exploring the complex connections between humans and animals. Our affiliates bring expertise in veterinary medicine, animal cognition, anthropology, interpersonal psychology, and human decision-making, among other disciplines. Many also hold joint appointments across the University of Arizona, enriching our collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach. Through regular scholarly talks and discussions, the series fosters critical dialogue and innovative research on the many dimensions of human-animal relationships.

 

Affiliated Faculty

Evan MacLean

Evan MacLean is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, where he holds appointments in Anthropology, Veterinary Medicine, Psychology, and Cognitive Science. He is the founder and Director of the Arizona Canine Cognition Center. Dr. MacLean received his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Anthropology from Duke University.

Maggie O'Haire

Dr. Maggie O’Haire is an internationally recognized Fulbright Scholar and the associate dean for research at the College of Veterinary Medicine. She earned her PhD in Psychology from the University of Queensland in Australia. Her research focuses on the unique and widespread ways humans interact with animals.

Martin Reimann

Martin Reimann is an associate professor of marketing at the Eller College of Management, with appointments as associate professor in the Department of Psychology, the College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Cognitive Science Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. He currently serves as Eller Faculty Senator.

Jennifer Wishnie

Jennifer Wishnie is a public health professional with more than twelve years of global experience in food production, food safety and public health. Her areas of expertise include One Health medicine, cross-sector relationship building and collaboration, strategic programming, policy development and educational outreach and teaching.

 

Upcoming Lectures

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Previous Lectures

Behavior and The Bond: A Veterinary Behaviorist’s Perspective

Featured Speaker | Dr. Julia Albright

Dr. Julie Albright is a native Tennessean. She attended Vanderbilt University (B.S.), the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (M.A., Experimental Psychology), and the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) before completing a three-year residency and one-year postdoctoral program in Animal Behavior at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. She is a Diplomate of the College of Veterinary Behaviorists.

Furry Affection, Hidden Infections: The Risks and Realities of Pets and Zoonotic Disease

Featured Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Wishnie

Dr. Jennifer Wishnie is an Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine. She leads the One Health course series and oversees One Health programming, including a residency program in veterinary public health. As a public health veterinarian, Dr. Wishnie has global experience in food production, food safety, antibiotic use and resistance, veterinary public health, and One Health. 

Dr. Wishnie received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Saskatchewan, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, in 2004. Following this, she completed an internship with the World Organization for Animal Health in Paris, France. She furthered her education by completing a residency in Veterinary Public Health and earning a Master of Public Health from the University of Minnesota in 2010. Additionally, she achieved board certification from the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.

Prior to her current position, Dr. Wishnie was a faculty member in animal science at California Polytechnic University and served as the Director of Producer and Public Health for the National Pork Board.

 

From Puppy to Partner: Unlocking Canine Potential for Service Roles

Featured Speaker: Dr. Emily Bray

Dr. Emily Bray is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine, where she directs the Behavioral Research Across Years Lab. She earned her Bachelor’s from Duke University, her PhD in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, and is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist. Previously, she was a postdoctoral research associate at the Arizona Canine Cognition Center and Canine Companions.

Dr. Bray’s research spans topics like maternal care, cognitive aging, and the genetics of behavior, utilizing cognitive tasks in hundreds of dogs. Her work, aimed at improving canine and human welfare, has been funded by organizations like the AKC Canine Health Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Featured in outlets such as NPR, CNN, and Netflix, her research explores how dogs solve problems and interact with the world throughout their lives.

Learn More About The Bray Lab

 

What are button-pressing dogs trying to tell us?

Featured Speaker: Clive Wynne, PhD

Clive Wynne, originally from England, studied at University College London and the University of Edinburgh. Before joining Arizona State University in 2013, he served on the University of Western Australia and the University of Florida faculties. His research centers on comparative psychology, focusing on the behaviors of dogs and their wild relatives. His team studies how pet dogs adapt to human behavior, applies behavioral techniques to address problem behaviors, examines shelter dog behaviors that impact adoption, improves sniffer dog training, and explores human interaction as social enrichment for captive canids.

Consumers and Their Animal Guardians: Why Pets Are More Like Parents than Partners.

Featured Speaker: Dr. Martin Reimann

Martin Reimann is an associate professor of marketing at the Eller College of Management, with appointments as an associate professor in the Department of Psychology, the College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Cognitive Science Graduate Interdisciplinary Program.

Reimann holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Southern California, a Habilitation, and a PhD in Marketing from TU Freiberg (Germany). Before joining Eller, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and a W3 professor of marketing at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (Germany). He applies functional neuroimaging, behavioral experiments, and quantitative methods to investigate how and why people (1) consume product experiences and (2) form, maintain, and dissolve social relations with other humans, products, and pets.

Title: Adventures With C-Barq: How far can we go with proxy measures of canine behavior

Featured Speaker: Dr. James Serpell

James Serpell is an Emeritus Professor of Animal Welfare at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, a position he has held since 1993. His research focuses on the behavior and welfare of dogs and cats, human attitudes to animals, and the history and psychology of human-animal relationships and interactions. He is also the creator of the C-BARQ, which is currently the world’s most widely used canine behavioral assessment instrument.

Social Determinants of Health Approach to Human-Animal Interaction Research

Featured Speaker: Jennifer W. Applebaum, MS, PhD

Jennifer W. Applebaum, MS, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental & Global Health at the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions. Trained as a Medical Sociologist with a background in animal sheltering, Dr. Applebaum’s research focuses broadly on the implications of social inequalities on human and companion animal health and well-being. Drawing from sociological theory and concepts to take a social approach to the One Health framework, her research is interested in the intersection of stress, structural-level social processes, the social determinants of health, and the human-animal bond.