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Wen Zhou

Wen Zhou is a third year PhD student in Evolutionary Anthropology. Her work focuses on how animal conservation could help reduce dehumanization. Dehumanization is a way to degrade another human group by depriving them of characteristics which separate humans from “lower” animals. This process paves the way for prejudice, discrimination, and at its most extreme, genocide. She proposes a potential solution to dehumanization by arguing that dehumanization would lose its meaning if the society does not place a lesser value on animals relative to humans. Her dissertation research examines if encouraging people to care about animals could increase empathy toward other human groups which are perceived and treated as animals. Her work will tackle debates including origins of group-based discrimination, connections between intergroup conflicts among humans and human-animal relations, and budget conflicts over the resources spent on saving animals and used for human beings.

Gautam Chebrolu is a P’17 Alum

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