Melissa Ann Kaul is a Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc.Mobility-scholarship holder and an Academic visitor at the school of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Science of the University of Edinburgh. She has studied Japanese Studies, Philosophy and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Zurich and holds a PhD in Japanese Philology.  Her main topics of research include Animal Ethics, Human-Animal-Relationship in Premodern Japan, Andō Shōeki and Neoconfucianism in Japan.