Maria Saari

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oulu and Visiting Scholar at the Human-Animal Studies Hub at the University of Lisbon. I have a professional background in education (teaching and management roles) and conduct research on animals in education (policy and pedagogy), interspecies sustainability and justice, humane education, environmental education, and animal protection.

I am currently researching animal-inclusive environmental pedagogies, educational policy and citizen science in the Academy of Finland funded research project 'CitiRats: From Citizen Science Towards Non-Anthropocentric Education' (University of Oulu) and animals in disasters, animal-inclusive disaster/climate education and political representation of animal interests in the FCT funded research project 'Liminal Becomings: Reframing Human-Animal Relations in Natural Disasters' (University of Lisbon).

I am Co-leader of the Envisioning Sustainability Research Hub of the Biodiverse Anthropocenes Research Programme (University of Oulu) and member of the Environmental Education Working Group of the University of Oulu-University of Namibia GINTL (Global Innovation Network for Teaching and Learning) collaboration. I also coordinate and teach undergraduate courses on environmental education and multispecies childhood studies and supervise masters theses on environmental education & sustainability. I also serve as board member and Chair of the Network for Critical Animal Studies in Finland (CASFinland).