Renelle completed her PhD in the University of Nottingham's School of Sociology and Social Policy in 2021. As part of the Animal Research Nexus, she analysed writings from the Mass Observation Project, a national life-writing project in the UK, to explore how animal research is related to in everyday life. The thesis approached understandings of animal research as relational and positional, emerging within particular yet shared social worlds which give the issue meaning in the everyday. In doing so, this work troubled notions of 'public opinion' as a phenomenon which can be objectively measured, monitored, and correlated with levels of support or opposition and instead emphasised the contingency and complexity of understandings of animal research.
In her new role as a research fellow on Project 4, Renelle will focus on relations between publics and animal research professionals. She is particularly interested in imaginations of laboratory professionals and publics, representations of laboratory professionals in public-facing materials, and themes of trust, accountability, advocacy, and solidarity. Most importantly, this project provides further possibilities to help foster public dialogue around animal research which is meaningful for both those who work in the field and wider publics.