Work With Me

Dogs and Cats / South Korea

What can our relationships with dogs and cats tell us about cultural change, belonging and the boundaries between humans and other animals?Drawing on ethnographic research in South Korea, my work explores how animals become companions, family members, commodities and subjects of political debate. From everyday domestic relationships to the changing politics of dog meat consumption, it examines how human–animal relationships illuminate wider social transformations.

Research & Insights

My ethnographic research in South Korea examines the complex and changing relationships between humans, dogs and cats, particularly where companionship, consumption and animal protection intersect.Rather than treating these relationships as expressions of fixed cultural attitudes, my work explores how they emerge through everyday practices, moral negotiations, economic transformations and political debates.This research offers insights into changing understandings of animal welfare, the contested boundaries between different categories of animals, and the social consequences of policies designed to transform human–animal relationships.

Selected Publications

Dogs and Cats in South Korea: Itinerant Commodities (2022)Purdue University PressAn ethnographic exploration of the changing lives and meanings of dogs and cats in contemporary South Korea, examining how animals move between categories of companionship, consumption and commodification.Explore the book →

Selected ArticlesTwo dogs with one stone? Urban markets and the dog meat trade in South Korea during the Covid-19 pandemic
Dugnoille, Keck & Seo-Plu (2026) · Anthropozoologica, 61(8), 145–154.“I heard a dog cry”: More-than-human interrelatedness, ethnicity and zootherapy in South Korean civil society discourse about dog meat consumption
Dugnoille (2019) · Ethnography, 20(1), 68–87.Ethnographic Ecstasis: The Gravity and the Grace of More-Than-Human Vulnerability
Dugnoille (2026) · Journal of Autoethnography, 7(2), 271–287.

Get in Touch

Interested in working together?Whether you are looking for independent research, expert advice, a media contribution or a research collaboration, I would be delighted to hear from you.

Abject Animals: Discomfort in Human–Animal Companionship

Why do the animals we love, protect and care for also make us uncomfortable?Abject Animals: Discomfort in Human–Animal Companionship explores the emotional contradictions and ethical tensions of our relationships with cats and dogs across the UK, France and South Korea.Drawing on ethnographic research in homes, cafés, markets and animal shelters, the book examines how affection, cuteness and care coexist with commodification, exploitation and unequal relations of power.Bringing together multispecies ethnography, philosophy and personal reflection, Abject Animals challenges idealised notions of companionship. Rather than imagining ethical relationships with animals as comfortable or harmonious, it asks what becomes possible when we acknowledge discomfort, question our own expectations and learn to relate to other beings without reducing them to our needs.

Inside the Book

Three countries, interconnected questions
Ethnographic fieldwork across the UK, France and South Korea.The discomfort of companionship
How intimacy, affection and care intersect with labour, consumption and exploitation.Beyond idealised care
How acknowledging discomfort can open possibilities for less instrumental relationships with animals.Anthropology meets philosophy
A dialogue with Kristeva, Bataille, Blanchot and Weil on abjection, vulnerability and ethical relations.Anthropology meets philosophyA dialogue with Kristeva, Bataille, Blanchot and Weil on abjection, vulnerability and ethical relations.

Towards a Different Ethics of CompanionshipRather than seeking comfort in idealised relationships with animals, Abject Animals proposes a more demanding ethics of interspecies attention: one that embraces discomfort, unsettles human expectations and opens possibilities for genuinely ego-disrupting encounters with other beings.Interested in this research?For media enquiries, speaking engagements, research collaborations or consultancy on human–animal relationships, get in touch →.

Transhumance / Provence

What happens when the movement of animals becomes essential to the survival of rural worlds?Transhumance is more than the seasonal movement of livestock. It is a complex infrastructure of care, sustained through the relationships between shepherds, sheep, livestock guardian dogs, landscapes and rural communities.My current research project, Transhumance as a Fragile Infrastructure of Care: Pastoral Mobility in a Changing Europe, explores how these relationships are maintained, negotiated and transformed in the context of environmental change, competing land uses and shifting rural economies.Supported by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (2026–27), this ethnographic research examines pastoral mobility not simply as an agricultural practice, but as a form of multispecies cooperation, labour and interdependence.

Research & Insights

Pastoral mobility as an infrastructure of care
Transhumance depends on relationships between shepherds, livestock, guardian dogs, landscapes and the communities through which they move. These relationships require continuous negotiation, knowledge and practical care.Living with environmental and social change
Changing climates, competing land uses and evolving rural economies create new uncertainties for mobile pastoralism. My research examines how pastoral communities navigate these pressures and sustain their ways of life.Beyond human-centred understandings of labour
The movement of a flock is not simply organised by humans. Sheep, dogs and other animals actively participate in shaping pastoral practices, revealing the interdependent nature of rural work.Research with wider relevance
This project speaks to debates about biodiversity, rural policy, human–wildlife coexistence, animal welfare and the future of pastoral livelihoods.

Research Funding
Transhumance as a Fragile Infrastructure of Care: Pastoral Mobility in a Changing Europe
British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant (2026–27)

Animal Politics

Who decides which animals deserve protection, and which do not?Animal politics is never simply about animals. It is also about the societies that classify, value, protect, exploit and govern them.My research examines how human–animal relationships become sites of political controversy, moral disagreement and social transformation. From debates surrounding dog meat consumption in South Korea to conflicts over animal protection, farming and coexistence, I explore how different understandings of animals shape public policy and collective life.Combining ethnographic research with cross-cultural analysis, this work offers perspectives on animal welfare, ethics, social conflict and the challenges of designing policies that engage seriously with the people and animals they affect.

Policy & Advisory Insights

Understanding contested animal categories
Why are some animals treated as companions, others as commodities, and others as threats? My research examines how these classifications emerge, change and shape policy decisions.Animal welfare across cultural contexts
Effective animal protection requires attention to local histories, social practices and competing moral perspectives. Ethnographic research helps reveal why policies may be interpreted, supported or resisted differently.Navigating human–animal conflicts
From livestock protection to disputes over animal consumption, human–animal relations generate complex social and political tensions. Anthropological analysis can help institutions understand the perspectives involved.From research to informed decision-making
Through qualitative research, cultural analysis and expert advice, I help organisations approach animal-related challenges with a deeper understanding of their social and ethical dimensions.

Critical Companionships

What does it mean to care for another being without assuming we know what is best for them?Companionship is often imagined as a relationship of affection, loyalty and mutual understanding. Yet living with other animals also involves dependency, vulnerability, uncertainty and the negotiation of different needs.My research approaches companionship as a complex, more-than-human relationship shaped by everyday practices of care, communication, attachment and loss.Drawing on multispecies ethnography and critical animal studies, I explore how relationships with animals challenge human assumptions about agency, responsibility and coexistence — and what these encounters can teach us about living ethically with others.

Research & Insights

Companionship beyond affection
Living with animals involves more than love or loyalty. It requires negotiating different needs, expectations and ways of inhabiting shared spaces.Care, dependency and vulnerability
Relationships of care are shaped by unequal capacities, responsibilities and forms of dependence. Understanding these asymmetries is essential to thinking critically about animal companionship.Animal agency in everyday life
Dogs, cats and other animals are not simply passive recipients of human affection. Through their behaviour, preferences and resistance, they actively shape the relationships in which they participate.Living with difference
Multispecies companionship raises a fundamental ethical question: how can we recognise and respond to other beings without assuming that their experiences and interests mirror our own?