Nhi Ha Nguyen

Nhi Ha Nguyen is a Ph.D. student in the Cultural Studies Interdisciplinary Program, working on questions of urban animality and petness, situated in a postmodern risk discourse. In her doctoral project, she argues that although the validity of a modern dichotomy of nature vs. culture, human vs. animal etc. has long been questioned in academia, modern sensibilities still very much dominate public consciousness when it comes to strays, ferals, and urbanized “wild” animals such as the Eastern coyote (Canis latrans). The risk discourse that simmers under the surface of such management and animal control policy discussions makes for a fascinating case study, bringing together leftover modern ideals of categorization and ever-changing ideas of risks in application to urban animality. Her other interests revolve around the conventions of petness and their shortcomings in cases of “uncommon” companion animals such as avian and reptilian species, urban nature and development policies, multimedia and discourse analyses.