Fabien Tepper

Fabien Tepper is a painter and journalist who writes about human-animal relations in both personal and political realms. Recently, she has focused on exploring insights from the academic field of human-animal studies, with a general readership. At the Mesa Refuge she will work on two articles: one is a review of efforts across academic disciplines, to explain how people come to accept high levels of human violence against animals. The other piece will examine non-veterinary career paths available to those wanting to study, help, or work among animals. She herself has worked with animals in a mobile vet clinic, a dog shelter, a wildlife hospital, multiple animal farms, and an animal protection/rescue group, as well as through journalism, portraiture, and companionship. She was a 2011 Fellow at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and she is working to establish animal policy as a distinct field of journalism.