Elizabeth Vander Meer is a Teaching Fellow at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, part of a small team delivering the MA (hons) interdisciplinary Futures Programme. Elizabeth completed a PhD in multispecies anthropology from the University of Exeter in 2024. Her research involved multispecies ethnography of captivity for penguins, sea lions and lions in French circuses, zoos and in rescue contexts, which included investigating the bond and relationships between exotic animal trainers as well as rescue staff and these animals. Along with ethnography, Elizabeth used visual and discourse analysis to understand narratives of circus shows and the place of exotic animals in French law. She drew from phenomenology and biopolitics to explore animal resistance to captivity also taking a feminist intersectional approach that considered shared vulnerability of women animal trainers and captive animals. Prior to this, Elizabeth had obtained a PhD in Environmental Policy and Ethics, specialising in biodiversity conservation using an interdisciplinary political ecology lens.
Elizabeth’s current research interests include One Health/One Welfare, considering feminist (or ecofeminist) care approaches that decentre the human, and the cultural dimensions of these concepts. She continues to be interested in critical analysis of wildlife trade, human wildlife conflict/coexistence and dominant mainstreamed sustainability frameworks.
