After a dissertation entitled 'An exploratory study of the therapeutic effects of pet animals on young anorexic girls,' the research undertaken by Veronique Servais would essentially aim to understand the relationships that human beings could maintain with the animal kingdom.

Endowed with an undergraduate degree, it was for her doctorate that she joined the ULg's Communication Arts and Sciences Department. The title of her thesis followed the direction of her research: 'Interspecific communication between enchantment and disenchantment. An ethnographic approach to interaction with animals.'

Within the framework of her post-doctoral research she studied anthropomorphism at the zoo, a project which is integrated into a wider research study into the human/animal distinction, directed by Frédéric Joulian, at the Higher Education School of Social Sciences at Paris (EHESS).

She is now a lecturer in the Anthropology of Communication at the University of Liège's Institute of Human and Social Sciences.

Selection of publications

SERVAIS V., Dialogues avec les singes : l’anthropomorphisme comme mode de relation dans les rencontres entre visiteurs et primates en zoo. To be published in F. Joulian (Ed.), Hommes et Primates en Perspective, 2010

SERVAIS V., Souffrance animale et structures de la communication inter-espèces. In J.-L.Guichet (Ed.) L’animal et la douleur : données scientifiques, contrepoints anthropologiques, perspectives éthiques. QUAE, in press.

Servais V., The report and the command. The case for a relational perspective in the study of human and animal communication. Intellectica, 2007/2-3, 46-47, pp. 85-104

SERVAIS V, Ni mécanique, ni rationnel. Un point de vue interactionnel sur la communication animale. 2008. In J.-J. Wittezaele (Ed.) La double contrainte. Bruxelles, De Boeck, 97-106.

SERVAIS, V., La relation homme/animal. Pourquoi la relation à l’animal peut-elle devenir significative, donc thérapeutique dans le traitement des maladies psychiques ? Erès, Enfances & Psy, 2007, 2 35, 46-57