Sonja Mutanen

I am a cultural anthropologist interested in cultural and social animal studies. My educational background lies at the intersection of cultural anthropology, sociology, gender studies, and folklore studies. So far, I have examined the human-animal relationship primarily through the lens of human-dog relationships. In my dissertation, I study how the Finnish media have discussed the cruel treatment of companion and farm animals in their news articles between 2012 and 2022. My research combines perspectives from critical animal studies and media studies, analyzing various ideologies, discourses, and forms of power as part of human-animal relationships and their cultural representations. Theoretically, I am interested in posthumanism, multispecies relations, and perspectives from gender studies.