ABOUT
This site features multimodal research from the students of Animal Cities, an undergraduate seminar in history and anthropology taught by Richard Fadok at the University of Rochester in Spring 2025. Using archival materials and expert interviews, these sixteen independent projects document and analyze the nature of human-animal relationships in, and around, the Rochester, New York, region from the early 19th century to the present day. They span from municipal cemeteries, police departments, and urban colleges to suburban backyards, lakeside nonprofits, and rural parks. Collectively, the stories gathered here depict the everyday ways that we live with animals in Rochester—as pets, food, pests, workers, and entertainment—and gesture at new, and more just, forms of being in multi-species community.
STORIES
Public Attitudes toward Dogs in the City of Rochester, 1945-1980
RAVI HUGHES
The K9 Unit of the Rochester Police Department
CHARIS KANAKI
Knowledge, Care, and Harm in Interspecies Relationships
SAGE KRUSCHEL
THE SURVIVAL OF THE SENECA WHITE DEER
From Accidental Ecosystem to Staged Ecology
MADELEINE MCCURDY
Rethinking Belonging and Nuisance with Rochester’s Crows
LILY PLAGUE
THE ECOLOGICAL AESTHETICS OF GRIEF
Multispecies Liminalities in Mt. Hope Cemetery
JACOB MILLER
Remembering Rochester’s Horses
MARGARET SLAP
Rethinking Rochester’s Industrialization through the Cow
PAIGE MCCURDY
Lake Sturgeon and the Power of Public Engagement
CHRISTINE BRESNAHAN
How Geese Claim their Right to the City
NATHANIEL FISHER
If Cat Cafés Are So Adorable, Why Aren’t Strays?
ASHLEY HALL
CANINE PREDATOR OR CUTE CRITTER?
How Foxes Break Human Boundaries
PETER HAMEL
Managing Urban Wildlife in Rochester
ELLA KLOPFER
Social Perceptions of the Emerald Ash Borer in Rochester
RUIHAI XU
The Moral Makeover of the Seneca Park Zoo
PRAISE MOKAYI
The University of Rochester’s QuadFox(es), Quincy
DIANA SULLIVAN