Susan Wardell is an academic and writer from Aotearoa New Zealand. She is Senior Lecturer in the Social Anthropology programme at the University of Otago, with a shared background in communication studies. Her own research focuses on emotion and affect, digital sociality, health, and mental health, with recent work covering topics such as online medical crowdfunding and ecological distress. She is interested in public communication and in creative ethnography, writing and publishing in several literary genres, while also dabbling in visual and performance arts. Susan is Pākehā (New Zealand European) and lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin.