Graduate Students
Investigating nature, culture, and multispecies contact zones
Eben supervises graduate students in anthropology and curatorial studies with interests in multispecies ethnography, chemoethnography, feminist science studies, speculative ethology, viral theory, environmental humanities, biotechnology, medical anthropology, activism, queer theory, and relational aesthetics.
Dr. Elan Abrell
Dr. Elan Abrell completed his PhD in 2016 under co-supervision of Eben Kirksey at the City University of New York, and now works at New York University as an Adjunct Instructor in Anthropology and Animal Studies. In 2021 Elan published Saving Animals: Multispecies Ecologies of Rescue and Care through University of Minnesota Press.
Dr. Sophie Chao
Dr. Sophie Chao completed her PhD in 2018 under co-supervision by Eben Kirksey at Macquarie University, Sydney. In 2022 Sophie published In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-Human Becomings in West Papua through Duke University Press, and currently works at the University of Sydney as a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow and Lecturer in Anthropology.
Dr Karin Bolender
Dr Karin Bolender completed her PhD in 2018 under primary supervision of Eben Kirksey at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. In 2020 Karin published The Unnaming of an Aliass with punctumbooks.
Dr Laura McLauchlan
Dr Laura McLauchlan completed her PhD Wild cares: on hedgehogs, killing and kindness in 2019 under primary supervision of Eben Kirksey at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. Laura now works at UNSW as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Arts, Design and Architecture at the Social Policy and Research Centre.
Dr Josina Wospakrik
Dr Josina Wospakrik completed her PhD Transculturation and Indigenous Amungme women of Papua, Indonesia in 2018 under primary supervision of Eben Kirksey at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney.
Kuai Shen
Kuai Shen is a digital media artist who submitted his PhD on "The Rain Ants of Sarayaku" in October, 2022. Eben was his primary supervisor at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.
Karolina Sobecka
Karolina Sobecka is an artist who submitted her PhD "Making Climate Public: How Imaginaries of Carbon and Heat Shape Atmospheric Futures" in September, 2022. Eben was her external supervisor at the Critical Media Lab of FHNW in Basel, Switzerland.
Michael Beach
Michael Beach is currently completing a PhD titled Exploring more-than-human entanglements in research through design at the University of Washington externally supervised by Eben Kirksey. Their target completion date is in 2023.
