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Seven Mattes

Seven Mattes
  • Assistant Professor

Seven Mattes, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Integrative Studies at Michigan State University. Seven earned a BA in Environmental Studies and Anthropology from Western Michigan University and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Michigan State University. Working at the intersection of Animal Studies and Critical Disaster Studies, Seven’s interdisciplinary research aims to improve preparedness and outcomes for humans and other animals in disaster contexts. Regionally focused in Japan, Seven was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to research the multispecies impacts of the 2011 Tōhoku Disaster, working with companion species and the organizations who rescued them. 

Seven teaches large-format Integrative Social Science courses, Undergraduate Learning Seminars, Interdisciplinary Research Methods, and an FSA Study Abroad to Japan. In both research and teaching Seven focuses on understanding and valuing ecological entanglements across cultures. 

Outside of teaching and research, Seven skates with Lansing Roller Derby, rolls dice in Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, and fosters kittens whenever possible. Seven is an enthusiast of fermented pickles, Japanese Yokai folklore, and Studio Ghibli films. 

 RESEARCH INTERESTS 

  • Animal Studies 
  • Critical Disaster Studies 
  • Japan Studies 
  • Gender and the Environment 

  ASSOCIATED/AFFILIATE PROGRAMS 

  • Animal Studies 
  • Center for Asian Studies 
  • Education Abroad 

  RECENT PUBLICATIONS  

  • Mattes, Seven. Forthcoming. “Trash Animals: Folk Punk Solidarity.” Angela Bartram and Laura D. Gelfand (Eds.), Punk and the Animal: Ethos, Ethics and Aesthetics. Intellect. 
     
  • Mattes, Seven and Cameron T. Whitley. Forthcoming. “(Dis)counting Animals: Media Coverage of Disasters.” In Kyle Breen, Haorui Wu, and Sarah DeYoung (Eds.), Human–Animal Interactions in Disasters. Palgrave Macmillan. 
     
  • Mattes, Seven. 2025. “UFOs and Animal Exploitation: The Rhetoric of Ridicule.” In Nathan Poirer, Sarah Tomasello and Amber E. George (Eds.), Exploring Topics in Non/human Coexistence: Passion, Praxis and Presence. Lantern Publishing and Media. 
     
  • Mattes, Seven. 2024. “Imagining Multispecies Community Resilience for Disaster Preparedness.” Human Ecology Review, Special Issue on innovations in Ecocultural Studies, celebrating the careers of Tom Dietz and Linda Kalof.  
     
  • Mattes, Seven. 2024. “Becoming Killable – Meatpacking and Kinship Among Covid–19.” In Aviva Vincent, Bailey Fullwiler and Valerie Stevens (Eds.), Special Issue: Where is climate–justice and human animal interaction in social work and mental health? Frontiers; Social Work in Mental Health. 
     
  • Beadle, Jorhie, Seven Mattes, Laurie Thorp, Dale Rozeboom, and Ellie Vondette. 2024. "Pedagogical Pigs: Experiential Learning for Boundary Crossing.” Journal of Agricultural Education.  
     
  • Mattes, Seven. 2024. “Afterword.” In Nathan Poirer, Sarah Tomasello and Amber E. George (Eds), Expanding the Critical Animal Studies Imagination: Essays in Solidarity and Total Liberation. Peter Lang Publishing.  
     
  • Mattes, Seven. 2023. "Human–animal studies." Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, Second Edition. 
     
  • Mattes, Seven. 2022. “Kawaii pets and animal abandonment in Japan.” In Laura A. Reese (Ed.), Animals in the City, 95–126. Global Urban Studies. London: Routledge. 
     
  • Mattes, Seven, Aviva Vincent, Cameron T. Whitley. 2021. “Emerging with Oddkin: Interdisciplinarity in the Animal Turn.” Society & Animals 29 (7), 733–761. 
     
  • Faas, A.J., Roberto Barrios, Virginia García–Acosta, Adriana Garriga–López, Jennifer Trivedi, and Seven Mattes. 2020. “Entangled Roots and Otherwise Possibilities: The Anthropology of Disasters COVID–19 Research Agenda.” Human Organization 79(4). 
     
  • Mattes, Seven and Cameron T. Whitley. 2020. “Entangled Impacts: Human–Animal Relationships and Energy Development.” In Jeffrey Jacquet, Julia Haggerty, and Gene Theodori (eds.), Coordinating Research on the Social Impacts of Energy Development: Synthesis across the social sciences, 45–73. University Press of Colorado. 

RECENT TEACHING AWARDS 

  • Clifton Bryant Animals and Society Course Award for ISS 210: “Animals, Culture, and Power”, American Sociological Association, 2023 
  • Adams Academy Fellowship in Teaching & Learning, Michigan State University, 2022-2023 
  • ISS Teaching Excellence Award, Michigan State University, 2019