Christine Reed PhD » Team

Christine Reed is an emeritus professor in the School of Public Administration, having served on the faculty there since 1982. In recent years she has integrated her academic background with her interest in the public management of free-roaming horses, with a special focus on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range (PMWHR) on the border of Wyoming and Montana. She began this new line of research with papers for the American Bar Association and Western History Association, culminating in a 2015 book, Saving the Pryor Mountain Mustang: A Legacy of Local and Federal Cooperation, published by University of Nevada Press. A related concern about ethical issues associated with free-roaming horses led to articles in the International Journal of Public Administration, Environmental Values, Society & Animals, Ethics & the Environment, and Cheiron the journal of the Equine History Collective. She is also a wild horse photographer, and her images taken on the PMWHR are posted on her website.

Dr. Reed’s research has been on an ethic of care for free-roaming horses in transition from wild to domestic environments. A related emphasis is on the Capabilities Approach of philosopher Martha Nussbaum and its implications for assessing the public management of free-roaming horses in the U.S., including the Bureau of Land Management’s use of fertility control and removals to long-term pastures. The argument for the compassionate conservation of this (re)introduced species is another aspect of Dr. Reed’s work. She serves as a research consultant to the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center, and collaborates with Executive Director Nancy Cerroni on field studies of sociality among free-roaming horses, especially the role of prominent mares in maintaining the social structure of their family bands. They have presented their research at Equine History Collective conferences in 2022 and 2023, and have published their work in Cheiron.

Dr. Reed has a bachelor’s degree in government from Connecticut College and a PhD in political science from Brown University. She held staff research positions at the University of Rhode Island’s Bureau of Government Research and at the Office of Policy Development and Research, Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C. before joining the School of Public Administration. Dr. Reed held a Regents Foundation Fellowship for several years, and retired in 2019 at the rank of professor. She continues to stay actively involved at the University, including as an adjunct professor in the School of Public Administration’s doctoral and master’s programs.