Human* Being

Human* Being: On Otherkin Identity and Digital Community—examines the lived experience of the Otherkin and their practices of identity and community construction. The Otherkin recognize their biological humanness, but nonetheless experience the non-human memories, urges, and sensations of animals and mythological creatures: wolves, dragons, tigers, elves, and so on. In doing so, they represent a larger shift in body identity, shown by increasing numbers of people identifying as trans*, nonbinary, fluid, and neurodiverse; bodies open to nuance, complication, and multiplicity. Open Bodies approaches these human bodies as a media conduit, mediating a Self. However anomalistic, even fantastical they may seem, the Otherkin offer a window into our own complex notions of bodies, Selves, and technologies. They experience an incongruence, i.e., “misfit” in the relationship between their corporeal bodies and their Selves, so they turn to Internet technologies to facilitate an “alignment” between the two.

Based on ten of ethnographic research, this book examines Otherkin lived experience, troubling conventional notions about our relationships with our bodies, with the virtual, our understandings of the Self, and what it means to be a human. The research focuses on Otherkin daily life, the Otherkin media ecology, boundary policing, the use of science in self-fashioned identity, digital embodiment, and mainstream media response. It finds traction with trans* literature, disability studies, media studies, phenomenology, science and technology studies, epistemology & ontology, and anthropology.

Human* Being is at Lever Press for August 2026 publication. Check it out here!

It's great! But here's a review in case you don't believe me:

“Such a nerdy book, in the absolute best way. An excellent read for anyone curious about being human—the boundaries, the agency, the stakes. Citing broadly, historicizing thoughtfully, and drawing on deep ethnographic immersion, this book's careful contemplation of otherkinity is a genuine resource for anyone making sense of contested identities or oppositional epistemologies.”

- Katrin Tiidenberg, Tallinn University