To mark the 10th anniversary of the UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics (2015-2025), the 2026 UPF CAE Junior Fellowship has exceptionally been awarded to two emerging researchers rather than to a single recipient, as is usually the case. The 2026 awardees are Emily Major (New Zealand Centre for Human–Animal Studies) and Birkan Taş (University of Kassel).

Birkan Taş, a researcher focusing on interdependence and care

Birkan Taş holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam and has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Kassel, where he led the project “Disability and Interdependence: Assistance Dogs,” as well as a fellow at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICI) Berlin.

His research is situated at the intersection of human–animal studies, disability studies, gender and queer theory, and affect theory. He focuses on interdependence, affective labour, and the ethical, emotional, and political dynamics of human–animal interaction.

He has conducted extensive research on autism assistance dogs, examining canine agency, training practices, welfare, and relational labour, and how these challenge conventional understandings of disability, autonomy, care, and species boundaries. He has also taught on intersectionality, gender and queer theory, disability studies, diversity, and human–animal relations.

Emily Major, a researcher focusing on “invasive” species and “pests”

Emily Major is an early career researcher who uses Critical Animal Studies, ecofeminist ethics of care, and intersectional anti-speciesist approaches with advocacy to promote empathy, compassion, and kindness to nonhuman animals. While she advocates for all species of animals, her current research interests are focused on species of animals who are ostracised in society, such as “pests” or “invasive” species.

Brushtail possums are the most prevalent species in her work up to this point. Emily’s doctoral research critiqued the mainstream possums as “pests” discourse in Aotearoa New Zealand and considered how principles from compassionate conservation could assist in alleviating the socially sanctioned violence and cruelty that is currently targeted towards the maligned marsupials. Since this dissertation, she has explored more about the role of popular media ethics, the connection between cruelty and dark humour, and the social policing which can encourage the proliferation of cruelty, normalization of violence, and desensitisation to the suffering of “pests”.

Emily has been actively publishing and maintaining her various roles, including a Research Fellow with PAN Works, Committee Member of the Australasian Animal Studies Association (AASA), Research & Ethics Advisor for the New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society (NZAVS), and a member of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies (NZCHAS). She is motivated by the pursuit of academic activism which can provide practical solutions that maintain (and continuously improve upon) animal-centred and compassion-based advocacy.