Maura Beste

Maura Beste is a Ph.D. Candidate in Gender and Women’s Studies with a minor in Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences. They are a 2025-2026 Russel J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Foundation Fellow and a 2022-2023 University Fellow in the fields Human-Animal Interaction, Anthrozoology, and Science and Technology Studies (STS).

Combining their training in animal behavior, veterinary medicine, and critical cultural theory, Maura’s work focuses on the translation of canine science to lived human-dog experiences. Untangling a variety of narratives surrounding our canine partners, such as domestication stories, training practices, and how scientific epistemologies come to inform human-canine relationships, Maura is an interdisciplinary scholar learning from dogs, humans, and everything in between. Their dissertation uses feminist qualitative methodologies and critical science studies frameworks to address questions of canine behavioral outcomes. 

Maura has presented their research at the Society for Social Studies of Science in Amsterdam, Netherlands, as well as the International Society of Anthrozoology in Saskatoon, Canada. They are also a member of the Environmental Humanities Initiative and attended the 2025 Animal Studies Summer Institute at the University of Illinois. They have worked as an instructor and teaching assistant for undergraduate courses in both Animal Science and Gender and Women’s Studies. 

Maura has been awarded the University of Arizona’s LGBTQ+ Institute Graduate Research grant, the Women’s Plaza of Honor fellowship, and the Social and Behavioral Science Research Institute’s Dissertation Fieldwork grant.