Call for Contributions
I would like to invite you to contribute a chapter to a new edited volume titled ‘A Little Help from a Friend: How our companion animals helped us earn a graduate degree.’
Animals (pets, companion animals, etc.) help humans get through difficult, emotional, and challenging times. This book will showcase the animals in our lives and how they have supported us through our graduate programs.
The volume explores the relationships that graduate students have with their companion animals through both visual and narrative mediums. The volume’s goal is to serve as a dynamic, digital resource to honor the relationship we have with our companion animals and to showcase their contributions to our academic success.
This project will be constructed in a similar fashion to a coffee table book, with 1-4 photos accompanying the narrative (approximately 350 words). This volume will be created with PressBooks and housed on an open-access website with shareable links in hopes of wide distribution. Editing will be confined to the editor only to ensure quality and authenticity of the author’s content.
Contributions will be accepted on a rolling basis. Initial publication of the volume will be on August 14, 2020 with additions available on or before the 14th of each subsequent month. Contributions should include up to 6 photos in .jpeg format and up to 350 words in either a Word document or embedded in the email submission.
Photos should show you and your pet/companion animal engaged in activities that helped during your graduate work (reading together, grading together, eating your homework, or taking a break from grad work through walks, etc.). Please include photo credit if other than author.
Narrative Header information must include: Your name, degree information (degree, year, and school), companion animal name, companion animal age, companion animal species/breed. In your narrative, please include how you and companion animal came to be a pair. Describe how your companion animal supported you through your graduate program. See sample below.
Please send photo and narrative submissions to: cmuttley@plymouth.edu with subject line of ‘Digital Coffee Table Book Submission’.
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Editor:
Clarissa M. Uttley, Professor, Education, Plymouth State University, Plymouth, New Hampshire, USA.
Dr. Uttley is a developmental psychologist studying the relationships between pets and people, most recently focusing on college students and their complex relationships with their (and others) pets. She coordinates the university pet assisted therapy program on the Plymouth campus and provides consultation services for the local Restorative Justice (CADY, Inc.) program where she has supported several adolescents in successfully completing their program. She has several book chapters and articles on the impact of companion animals on human development and is a frequent presenter at international, national, and regional conferences.
Sample
Author Name: Clarissa M. Uttley, PhD
Degree Information: PhD, Psychology, University of Rhode Island, 2008
Companion Animal Name: Veruca
Age: 16 ½ years old, birthday February 14, 2004
Species/Breed/Additional Information: Cat/Calico
Veruca came into my life in April of 2004 when she was just 2 months old and curled up in a ball sleeping outside the staff entrance at my place of employment. She was covered in dirt, mud, and asphalt but did not hesitate to climb in my lap and rub the muck across my peach colored blouse! She knew she had found a soft heart and a lifelong home.
During the spring of 2004, I was completing my BS in Human Development and preparing to continue on for my MS, with only the briefest of thoughts that I would eventually earn my PhD and become an education professor. But here we are 16 years later and Veruca has seen me through 3 degrees, several moves, and the demands of academia to advance from a graduate teaching assistant to full professor. She has been by my side through studying hierarchical linear modeling (Photo A), grant writing (Photo B), all night grading sessions (Photo C), and has even suffered through the dreaded email inbox (Photo D).
Through it all, we have been able to read each other’s personalities and learn when a break is needed. Veruca will climb on my lap to hang out if I am working too much (aka not paying enough attention to her!) (Photo E). She is even helpful in my happy place, the kitchen, and helps to ensure that I have the proper amount of milk for a recipe (Photo F). These breaks help me to refocus, set priorities, and be a much more grounded human being.
Over the past several years, Veruca has made visits to the office as a therapy cat to assist with students who are having a tough time either with their studies or in their personal lives. Her ability to connect with the most emotionally distraught students has been incredibly meaningful. She is not just a pet. She is a colleague, an honorary professor, and the official Office Queen (Photo G)!
