Nhi Ha Nguyen

Growing up in an urban environment, the strays, ferals and similar animals have always fascinated me, for they seem to dwell in an uncertain state of liminality that sheds light on the vulnerabilities of ideological categories, problematizing conventions of domestication and petness. Now consider an atypical companion animal such as members of the avian or reptile family, or an urbanized "wild" creature such as the Eastern coyote (Canis latrans), and the uncertainties increase tenfold, for the unknown-ness of their care, interactions and livelihood provokes anxiety in public consciousness. It is no surprise then, that these animals are often discussed with references to risks. What does it mean to be an urbanized animal in a postmodern age, in a city saturated still with modernist sensibilities? How do we intend to interact, and regulate interactions with these creatures that are very much the embodiment of ruptured categories and troubled boundaries between nature, culture, humanity, animality, etc.? My doctoral research capitalizes on this niche crossroad between modern considerations of the risk discourse and urban animality.