Current Members
Stephen Vrla, Founder and Co-President
Stephen is a Dual PhD student studying sociology, teacher education, animal studies, and environmental science & policy. His research focuses on critical approaches to animal, environmental, and social studies education. Before coming to MSU, he taught environmental and social studies at a secondary school in Texas and led primitive backpacking trips at a wilderness therapy program in Utah. He feels a particularly strong connection to the wolf.
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Cadi Fung
Cadi is a PhD student studying geography and animal studies, with a background in aquatic biology and geology. Her research focuses on human-wildlife conflict and the social aspects of conservation of the Amazon River dolphin in Brazil, particularly as they relate to fishing activities, tourism, and development of the Amazon basin. Between her undergraduate and graduate programs, she worked as an animal trainer and handler both at a major theme park and a marine mammal rescue-rehabilitation-release facility in Florida. Unsurprisingly, she feels a strong affinity towards the dolphin (although binturongs are a close second).
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Dr. Linda Kalof, Adviser
Linda Kalof is a professor of sociology and the founder and director of MSU Animal Studies. She studies cultural representations of humans and other animals and is currently working on a National Science Foundation-funded project on photographic representations of non-human animals in National Geographic Magazine over the past 125 years. She especially enjoys learning about urban wildlife.
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