Maria Helena Saari

Postdoctoral Researcher in the Academy of Finland funded research project CitiRats-From Citizen Science to Non-Anthropocentric Education (2021-2024). Co-leader of the 'Envisioning Sustainability' Research Hub of the Biodiverse Anthropocenes Research Programme for the academic year 2021-22. I first studied Translation, Media & Spanish (BA Hons) at the University of East Anglia and Translation & Interpreting Studies (MA) at the University of Manchester before pursuing a Master in Animal Law & Society at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

I completed by PhD in the Eudaimonia Institute funded research project AniMate-Multispecies Childhoods in the North (2018-2021). My PhD thesis Animals as stakeholders in education: Towards an educational reform for interspecies sustainability was published in December 2021.

My research interests broadly include:

• human-animal relations
• animals in education (policy & pedagogy)
• animal-inclusive pedagogies (e.g. humane education)
• environmental education & ecocritical pedagogies
• educational policy
• animal law
• critical animal studies
• interspecies sustainability & justice

I currently coordinate and teach the courses 'Introduction to Environmental Education', 'Multispecies Childhood Studies - Challenging Anthropocentrism in Education', and 'Master's Thesis Seminar on Multispecies Environmental Research & Sustainability Education'.