Claire Musser
About the researcher
Claire Musser is a dual citizen of the UK and USA. She currently resides in Arizona and is the Executive Director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project and Board Chair of AnthroZooCo. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design, a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, and a Master of Arts in Anthrozoology, where her research focused on Mexican grey wolf recovery from the perspective of individual wolves. Claire is currently a postgraduate researcher working towards a Ph.D. in environmental photography and film. She utilizes her creativity to blend the arts and sciences with her current research exploring multispecies entanglements between humans and urban carnivores.
Research interests
Claire has over 14 years of experience in conservation and nonprofits around the world. She also has a background in formal education and a postgraduate certificate in arts education from the University of Cambridge. As a certified interpreter with the National Association for Interpretation and certified Environmental Educator and mentor with Arizona Association for Environmental Education, she has empowered thousands of students to take positive action in conservation. With a BA in graphic design, she also explores environmental issues through art, film, and photography, and her work has been exhibited in galleries across the UK, Cayman Islands, and the US. She has published various articles about environmental education and wildlife encounters and has presented her research at conferences internationally.
PhD abstract
Thesis title
Co-Thriving Futures: Recognizing Animals as Epistemic Agents and Co-Creators in Multispecies Conservation and Visual Ethnography
Abstract
This practice-based research traces a multispecies journey from suburban Los Angeles to rural Washington State, examining how wild animals and humans co-shape shared landscapes and ethical futures. Through sustained encounters with black bears, wolves, and other large carnivores, the research explores how animals might be engaged not only as ecological subjects, but as active participants in the making of place, meaning, and relationship.
The first creative research project, Bears in Hot Tubs, is an award-winning short documentary and experimental ethnography that follows the lives of individual American black bears navigating human-built environments in Los Angeles, USA. Using remote cameras as tools of ethical witnessing rather than surveillance, the project foregrounds attentiveness, presence, and noninvasive storytelling. Rather than positioning bears as problems to be managed, the film attends to their everyday decision-making, curiosity, and embodied negotiation of suburban space. In doing so, it asks how visual media might foster interspecies understanding, challenge fear-based narratives, and invite more compassionate forms of coexistence rooted in care.
The second project, Co-Thriving on the Range, builds on an ongoing conservation and ethnographic collaboration with range rider and conflict prevention specialist Daniel Curry, founder of Project GRIPH (Guarding the Respective Interests of Predators and Humans) in Northeast Washington, USA. This work documents the development of a predator-permeable corridor across seven working ranches where wolves, cattle, and humans interact within shared and contested landscapes. Through film, fieldwork, and collaborative practice, the research examines how non-lethal strategies, relational presence, and community engagement can support more just and livable futures for both human and more-than-human communities.
Together, these projects position co-thriving as an emerging ethical framework, one that moves beyond conflict mitigation to consider what it means to build shared worlds where multiple species can flourish.
Qualifications
| Year | Qualification | Awarding body |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | MA Anthrozoology | University of Exeter |
| 2006 | PGCE Art & Design | University of Cambridge |
| 2001 | BA(Hons) Graphic Design | Camberwell College of Arts |
Honours & awards
|
2026 |
Best Documentary Short, Ladyface Mountain Film Festival |
|---|---|
|
2025 |
Best Student Presentation, International Society for Anthrozoology Bears in Hot Tubs: Co-creating with Bears—Visual Storytelling, Multispecies Entanglements, and the Making of Bears in Hot Tubs |
|
2024 |
PhD Presentation Award, AIP2024 Anthrozoology as International Practice Conference Bears in Hot Tubs: A Short Film About Learning to Coexist and Co-Thrive with the American Black Bear in Los Angeles |
Areas of expertise
- Filmmaking
- Camera trapping
- Photography
- Underwater photography
- Human-wildlife conflict prevention
- Co-thriving
- Environmental education
- STEAM education
- Arts education
Committee membership
- Arizona Association of Environmental Education
Professional engagements
- International Society for Anthrozoology
- National Association of Environmental Education
- National Association of Interpretation
Contributions
Peer Reviewed Publications
- Musser, C., & Curry, D. (forthcoming). Beyond coexistence: Co-thriving with wolves in the Anthropocene – The Onion Creek Pack and the legacy of wolf persecution. In C. Biswas et al. (Eds.), Animals Past in the Anthropocene: Exploring Human–Animal Relationships through Environmental Humanities. Exeter, UK: Exeter University Press.
- Musser, C. (2024) When Kindness Turns Cruel: Keeping Bobcats as House Cats in the United States, Anthrozoology as Symbiotic Ethics (EASE) Working Paper Series: Criminology, University of Exeter
Selected Publications
- Musser, C. (2023) Adding the A into STEM Education. Mountain Lines, McDowell Sonoran Conservancy
- Musser C. (2022) The New Bajada Explorers Program. Mountain Lines, McDowell Sonoran Conservancy
- Cox, C. (2003) Shark Calling in the Solomon Islands, Shark Focus Magazine, The Shark Trust
- Cox, C. (2003) Waiter, Waiter There’s a Shark in my Soup, Shark Diver Magazine, Shark Diver
- Cox, C. (2001) Split Level Underwater Photography, Underwater Photography Magazine
Selected Group Art Exhibitions
- Re-imagining Conservation: From Many Viewpoints (2023) National Museum of Wildlife Art, WI, USA (curated by Creature Conserve)
- Cayman Islands Biennial (2019), National Galley of the Cayman Islands
- Traces: Reactivating the Curriculum (2018), National Gallery of the Cayman Islands
Selected Conference Presentations
- Musser, C. (2023) Inspiring Future Generations Through STEAM, Growing Forward, Arizona Association of Environmental Education, AZ, USA
- Musser, C. (2023) How We Talk About Animals, Growing Forward, Arizona Association of Environmental Education, AZ, USA
- Musser, C. (2023) Empowering Students Through STEAM, Educate to Innovate, Arizona Science Center, AZ, USA
- Musser, C. (2022) What is STEAM Education, ROCKETS, Arizona Science Center, AZ, USA
- Cox, C. (2001) Ethical Underwater Photography, Visions Underwater Photography, London, UK