Abstract   This thesis investigates the interactions between human and nonhuman characters that express a particular concern regarding nature and the environment in Oscar Wilde's four fairy tales in A House of Pomegranates. The author utilizes a significant number of nonhuman characters to communicate with humans, which is a fairy-tale convention in which truth wins over falsehood, kindness is rewarded, and virtue triumphs over evil. However, Wilde's stories move beyond the fairy tale convention based on their ecocritical and political viewpoints. Based on a close reading of the four tales in Wilde's book, the thesis argues that the involvement of nonhuman characters, and their participation in events with human figures, raises several ecocritical matters. It also contends that nonhuman characters display interest in guiding human characters in their transformational journeys to support them in understanding that they all share one Earth and must be concerned about all species, nature, and the environment. Finally, this study argues that nonhuman characters communicate and talk mostly for their and nature’s rights, but sometimes they represent Victorians’ society. The analysis highlights the depth of the ecocritical approaches and how they are expressed in the texts. In addition, the discussions shed light on Victorian ecocriticism, including some theories and ideas of Anthropomorphism and Anthropocentrism within animal studies and transformation, which complete the analysis.

This thesis is an interdisciplinary study that traces colloquial engagements with extinction in Victorian print culture (1859-1901). Extinction’s broad cultural life demonstrates the extent that scientific and cultural topics intricately entangled within Victorian print networks. Non-specialist Britons absorbed and transmitted evolutionary (particularly, Darwinian) knowledges within public discursive spaces instead of exclusively institutional settings. Class stratification did not bar non-specialists from absorbing and perpetuating cultural conversations about collapses, conservationism, and overconsumption. My project thus seeks to amend the critical discourse that assumes that Victorians passively accepted impending catastrophes or paid scant attention to extinction pressures. I recover multiple subjects formerly hidden in the vast Victorian archives: obscure non-specialists of the working and middle classes, obscurer animals cohabiting the Victorian’s everyday spaces, and the popular (and in some cases, underappreciated) literary texts demonstrating how Victorians circulated extinction discourses. Chapters One and Two explore the non-literary side of print culture, recovering widely disseminated but now largely unknown periodical artifacts (the domain of Punch, The Times, or Funny Folks). Chapter One focuses on cultural reactions to collapses of England’s domestic birds. Chapter Two traces the economized conservationism of the Brooke Brothers, popular game and meat traders. In both chapters, I determine how experienced evolutionary knowledges revealed the human-caused tenuousness of a trans-species milieu. Chapters Three and Four concentrate on scientific romances originally serialized in periodicals, including my key literary case studies, H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895) and M.P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud (1901). Musing on extinction led to a mindset that acknowledged entanglement with nonhuman others as an ethical imperative. However, some case studies demonstrate a profound ambivalence toward the human’s self-extinction, resulting in a complicated engagement with future forms that often re-privileges the human from within a radical ontology. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study examines how Victorians absorbed and communicated ideas about extinction, especially as informed by evolutionary theory. Throughout Victorian newspapers, journals, and literature, extinction was adopted for disparate uses. A culturally, economically, and philosophically muddied topic, extinction provoked reconsiderations of the natural world and humankind’s place within it. I begin by examining advertisements, articles, and illustrations from popular newsprint and periodical sources that communicated fears about the extinction of common animals and concerns about controlling or maintaining bird and game populations in everyday Victorian life. When I turn my attention to my literary case studies, H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine and M.P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud, I analyze the period’s preoccupation with the human’s future forms, looking at both posthuman evolutionary outcomes and the experience of becoming-nonhuman itself. Significantly, this project recovers underappreciated Victorians and texts, filling important gaps in Victorian periodical studies and animal studies.

This thesis examines literary texts that represent encounters with model organisms in ways that enact an interspecies ethics that turns the narrative of bodily relationality embedded within the model organism into a source of care, friendship, respect, and mourning. My project understands model organisms as material beings as well as semiotic and narrative entities; I suggest that the very ‘materiality’ of the model organism’s body is symbolic precisely because it is designed to refer to bodies other than its own. The model organism involves a double relationality between the categories of ‘animal’ and ‘human’ because it serves as a mediator between human nature and nature at large. This is not to say that that human biology is not part of ‘nature’ but rather that anthropocentric and human exceptionalist ideologies pervade discourses of human biology and thus the model organism provides a link to our biological and corporeal ‘selves’ in a way that maintains species divisions. The texts I analyze throughout this dissertation offer alternative ways of thinking about the model organism by exposing the multiple meanings and narratives that coexist within them both as representations and as living sentient beings. This project centers around two questions: How do cultural texts represent and negotiate disconnects between how model organisms signify within scientific discourses and their broader cultural identities? How does literature specifically engage with scientific knowledge in ways that both disrupt and affirm the status of the model organism as a scientific object? / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Central to animal studies is the question of words and how they are used in relation to wordless beings such as non-human animals. This issue is addressed by the writer D.H. Lawrence, and the focus of this thesis is the linguistic vulnerability of humans and non-humans in his novel Women in Love, a subject that will be explored with the help of the philosopher Jacques Derrida’s text The Animal That Therefore I Am. The argument is that Women in Love illustrates the human subjection to and constitution in language, which both enables human thinking and restricts the human ability to think without words. This linguistic vulnerability causes a similar vulnerability in non-human animals in two ways. First, humans tend to imagine others, including non-verbal animals, through words, a medium they exist outside of and therefore cannot be defined through. Second, humans are often unperceptive of non-linguistic means of expression and they therefore do not discern what non-human animals may be trying to communicate to them, which often enables humans to justify abuse against non-humans. In addition, the novel shows how this shared but unequal vulnerability can sometimes be dissolved through the likewise shared but equal physical vulnerability of all animals if a human is able to imagine the experiences of a non-human animal through their shared embodiment rather than through human language. Hence the essay shows the importance of recognizing the limitations of language and of being aware of how the symbolizing effect of words influences the human treatment of its others.

When new populations are first identified in a region there are multiple potential sources: introduction of a non-native species, extra-range expansion of a nearby population, or demographic growth of a previously unnoticed species. Red foxes were absent or rare in the mid-eastern portion United States until the late 1800s. Their origins potentially include natural population increase/expansion, translocations from Europe, and, eventually, 20th century fur farming. In this study I attempt to identify the relative impact of native expansion versus human mediated introductions of both colonial era European foxes and early 20th century fur-farm foxes on the establishment of red foxes in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. I subsequently address the potential impacts of hybridization and nuclear introgression between previously separate sister taxa. Through analysis of mitochondrial DNA, I identified indigenous haplotypes, two European haplotypes, and fur-farm haplotypes; another set of haplotypes were potentially indigenous or native. In addition, I found European Y-chromosome haplotypes. Most European and fur-farm haplotypes were found near the densely human-populated coastal plain and Hudson River lowlands; most red foxes of the Appalachians and Piedmont had native eastern haplotypes. However, nuclear data does not support this division showing low genetic structure despite the broad geographic scale of our study area, attributable both to range expansion and admixture. Admixture has not had the same impact on the nuclear genome as it has in mitochondrial haplotypes leading to mito-nuclear discordance across the region. I also found evidence for differential patterns of expansion related to habitat. Specifically, the Appalachian Mountains acted as a corridor for gene flow from the northern native source into the southern Mid-Atlantic region

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur människor emotionellt påverkas av att befinna sig i stall utifrån de relationer och interaktioner som förekommer där, både människor emellan men också mellan människa-häst. Som en del av syftet jämförs ridskoleryttare och privatryttares emotioner. Syftet besvarades genom tre frågeställningar (1) Vilka positiva emotioner framhålls av intervjupersonerna? (2) Vilka negativa emotioner framhålls av intervjupersonerna? (3) Finns det en skillnad när det gäller vilka emotioner som beskrivs av ridskole- respektive privatryttarna? Vi valde att använda oss av kvalitativ metod. Intervjuerna har genomförts både med personer som rider på ridskola och personer som har egen häst inackorderad i privatstall. Totalt sett har tretton personer intervjuats. I analysen användes sociologiska och socialpsykologiska teorier om emotioner, roller, makt och grupprocesser.   Resultatet visar att intervjupersonerna framhåller både positiva och negativa emotioner av att befinna sig i stall. Det framgår att intervjupersonerna känner en stark gemenskap i stallet men också att det sker en form av mobbning. Det finns vissa beteenden i stallet som skapar konflikter och irritation som bidrar till en sämre gemenskap. Resultatet visar vidare att det finns flera upplevelser av ridlärare och stallägare där både positiva och negativa emotioner nämns. Det framgår också av intervjupersonerna att det upplevs finnas hierarkiska ordningar där vissa grupper i stallet har mer makt och/eller status än andra grupper. Interaktionen mellan människa och häst upplevs också både positiv och negativ. Det tolkas finnas skillnader i hur emotionerna beskrivs mellan ridskoleryttare och privatryttare gällande gemenskap, ledare och vilka grupper i stallet som har mer makt och/eller status.

Dogs have a long but neglected history as companion species in Egypt history. From the most valued companion in ancient Egypt the relationship between dogs and humans has changed over time. However, in the present day the Egyptian baladi dog has been abused, neglected, unwanted for centuries. In this thesis, I investigate the nature and relationships between humans and dogs in Egypt in the past and present drawing on archeological, historical and genetic information. I will dig deeper into dog genetics to better understand the distinction between the baladi dog in relation to other breeds. Using online surveys, I interview baladi and non-baladi dog owners to understand how Egyptians perceive the baladi dog today exploring also how and why this perception is changing. Moreover, through interviews with rescuers and veterinarians I examine further the general perception of baladi dogs in Egypt from their perspectives. As I show, perceptions of the baladi dog have changed positively over the recent years both in Egypt and abroad, though there is still a long way to go. The better status of the perceptions of the baladi dog has also meant thatthe baladi is increasingly seen as a ‘breed’ or a particular dog type. The changing perceptions of the baladi dog and the debates around them is discussed and scrutinized in relation to urban planning and policy.

Esta dissertação trata dos Estudos Animais, área que se desenvolve como um rico campo de interdisciplinaridade já em sua origem. Mas para que não se julgue aprioristicamente um campo em suas particularidades, há que se esclarecer pontos em comum aos teóricos das mais diversas origens acadêmicas que compõem os Estudos animais e traçar planos para um futuro significativo. Após estabelecer os necessários diálogos entre teoria e campo social, passo à análise de certos pontos das obras Desonra e Elizabeth Costello, com o objetivo de evidenciar o potencial deste corpus para o desenvolvimento da crítica das categorias de humanidade e animalidade segundo os aportes do Pós-humanismo e inserindo-a no campo dos Estudos Animais. O teórico fundamental para este trabalho é Jacques Derrida, principalmente em sua obra O animal que logo sou. Após apresentar um panorama dos Estudos Animais, sobretudo sob a abordagem de Paul Waldau, trago ao encontro desses autores a pós-humanista Rosi Braidotti, de cuja obra The Post-human retiro as categorias do devir-planetário e devir-animal, as quais dão consequência às análises do corpus literário deste trabalho. Dialogo, ainda, com a Mitleidsethik, a ética da compaixão de Schopenhauer. Concluo que as tarefas dos Estudos Animais e do Pós-humanismo se assemelham no que toca à maior compreensão das interações interespecíficas, para a proposição consequente de novas formas de conviver num mundo mais-que-humano. / This dissertation deals with the Animal Studies, an area that develops as a rich field of interdisciplinarity already in its origin.. But in order not to make an aprioristic judgement of a field in its particularities, it is necessary to clarify points in common to the theoreticians of the most diverse academic origins that compose the Animal Studies and to draw up plans for a significant future. After establishing the necessary dialogues between theory and social field, I proceed to the analysis of certain points of the works Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello, with the objective of highlighting the potential of this corpus for the development of the critique of the categories of humanity and animality according to the contributions of Posthumanism and inserting it in the field of Animal Studies. The fundamental theorist for this work is Jacques Derrida, mainly in his work O animal que logo sou. After presenting an overview of the Animal Studies, especially under the approach of Paul Waldau, I bring to the meeting the post-humanist Rosi Braidotti, whose work The post-human retreat the categories of becoming-earth and becoming-animal, which give consequence to the analysis of the literary corpus of this work. I also dialogue with the Mitleidsethik, the ethic of compassion of Schopenhauer. I conclude that the tasks of Animal Studies and Post-humanism are similar in relation to the greater understanding of the inter-species interactions, for the consequent proposition of new ways of living in a more-than-human world.

The killer whales that roam the northeastern Pacific Ocean have been the objects of studies since the 1970s, making them the most well-studied population of orcas in the world. Three distinct ecotypes of killer whales (Orcinus orca), known as residents, transients, and offshores, share these waters. The ecotypes are morphologically and behaviorally distinct to the extent that some scientists consider them separate species, with residents eating salmon, transients specializing on marine mammals, and offshores preferring Pacific sleeper sharks and Pacific halibut. Resident populations have endeared themselves to the region's locals with their striking black and white markings and their tendency to frolic in waters near the shore. However, both of the two resident populations on the coast of British Columbia and Washington State are at risk, with northern residents numbering some 300 and southern residents at just 74 individuals as of December 2018. Three deaths in the span of four months in spring and summer of 2018 brought widespread attention to the southern residents' plight. Live captures of killer whales for aquaria heavily impacted the population in the 1960s and 1970s, and today they face a combination of prey shortages, pollution, and disturbance from vessel traffic. If southern resident killer whales are to persist, federal, local, and state agencies need to quickly take mitigative action.

Drug-specific reward and associated effects on neural signaling are often studied between subjects, where one group self-administers drug and a separate group self-administers a natural reinforcer. However, exposure to drugs of abuse can cause long-term neural adaptations that can affect how an organism responds to drug reward, natural reward, and their reward-associated stimuli. Thus, to isolate drug-specific effects it is important to use models that expose the same organism to all of the aforementioned. Multiple schedules provide a means of dissociating the rewarding effects of a drug from the rewarding effects of food within a single animal. Further, drug users do not take drugs in isolation; rather, they are often faced with several concurrently available commodities (e.g. monetary goods, social relationships). Thus, using choice measures to assess the relative subjective value of drug reinforcers in both humans and animals promotes a translational understanding of mechanisms that govern drug-associated decision-making. Thus, in order to gain a more translational view of the neurobehavioral mechanisms that underlie drug-associated behavior, in the first study, glutamate was measured in the nucleus accumbens core (NAcC) and prefrontal cortex (PrL) in freely-moving rats as they behaved in a cocaine-food multiple schedule procedure. In the second study, oxygen dynamics were measured in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of freely-moving rats as they behaved in a cocaine/food choice procedure. The results from the first study showed that, in the NAc and PrL, there was an increase in glutamate release when animals earned cocaine. Further, the number of glutamate peaks that occurred per cocaine lever press and per cocaine reinforcer was increased compared to food. In the second study, OFC oxygen dynamics were positively correlated with cocaine/food choice and generally tracked preference. Further, OFC oxygen dynamics were greater to cocaine related events. Taken together, these results showed the feasibility of combining electrochemical measurements with complex drug-related behavioral procedures. These results also highlight the importance of the PrL, NAcC, and OFC in the valuation of drug and non-drug commodities. Overall, these results add to our understanding of the neurobehavioral mechanisms that guide drug-associated behavior and create more precise experimental avenues to research potential treatments.