Teaching Fellows

Jay M. Henderson is a sociocultural anthropologist whose research intervenes in disability studies and human/nonhuman interaction by looking at how veterans with PTSD grow to trust their service dogs. “Trust Your Dog: Training Service Dogs for U.S. Veterans with PTSD” is an ethnographic project based in Illinois and Wisconsin with organizations that train and often provide service dogs to veterans at no cost. This project analyzes the tensions between trusting a dog both to be obedient and to defy commands when doing so means assisting their veteran.

Henderson received an BA in Anthropology at Yale University, a MA degree in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology from Universiteit Leiden, and a second MA degree in MAPSS at the University of Chicago, where they also went on to complete their PhD. Their research has been funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

During the 2024-2025 academic year, they will teach “Self, Culture, and Society” all three quarters and will teach “Human Rights on the Ground: Ethnographic Perspectives” in the Autumn 2024 quarter.