Understanding the animal research nexus requires recognition of how the professional roles of laboratory staff are constituted, enacted and challenged. The People and Professions Project investigates how professionals working in the laboratory, including veterinarians, are seen by wider publics and, conversely, how those who work in the lab construct images of the public.

Two primary programmes of work are planned. The first is to analyse results from a Mass Observation Archive commission to explore how ‘publics’ construct animal research, and to consider whether this method has potential for overcoming traditional methodological pitfalls. This will be explored via a PhD studentship awarded to Renelle McGlacken. The second is to use in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation to better understand the role of Named Veterinary Surgeons who work in the animal laboratory. This workstream is led by Dr Vanessa Ashall.

The overall aim of this research is to consider the extent to which changes in professional laboratory roles are challenging the stability of the animal research nexus, and to identify  implications for the future of governance, training and public engagement. This work is led Dr Pru Hobson-West at the University of Nottingham. 

A list of site content that is tagged as People & Professions – grouped by type of content.

Announcements

The University of Nottingham as part of Midlands Graduate School is now inviting applications for an ESRC Doctoral Studentship in association with our collaborative partner, RSPCA, to commence in October 2019. The studentship will focus on the topic of animal research, with the aim of comparing ‘public’ expectations around animal research governance with current UK policy.

Publications

This paper draws on ethnographic work with laboratory animal technologists to offer insights into the skills required to study human–animal relations and the role played by storytelling in negotiating the contested moral economies of animal research.

Vets play an important role in a wide variety of social contexts, including in ‘non-therapeutic’ roles, for example in facilitating the use of animals in sport or for food production. This paper focuses on a further non-therapeutic example, namely the role of the vet in laboratory animal research

This poster introduces work exploring how publics understand animal research using the written accounts of voluntary correspondents to the Mass Observation Project (MOP), which will seek to capture the sociocultural contexts that inform ethical and technoscientific judgements.

The poster describes our focus on professional laboratory roles, using the example of the Named Veterinary Surgeon, exploring the complex and potentially conflicted responsibilities of these individuals.

Blog entry

Written by:

Vanessa Ashall

Working within a multidisciplinary research environment provides every member of the AnNex team with unique opportunities to think outside the boundaries of their own discipline and benefit from exposure to the methods and perspectives of other hu

“Vintage File Cabinet” by victoriabernal is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 via Flickr
Written by:

Sara Peres

Our approach to research emphasises cross-project collaborations and transdisciplinary thinking. But what does this mean, in practical terms, for the work that we do and for our participants?

Written by:

Rich Gorman

In July 2018 several members of the Animal Research Nexus team were invited to an exciting workshop at the University of Nottingham.

Vienna
Written by:

Pru Hobson-West

In June 2018, several members of AnNex flew to the beautiful city of Vienna to take part in the 14th Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics (EurSafe) with a workshop on animal resear

Written by:

Renelle McGlacken

In the months between being offered the PhD position and my official start date, I realised how little I knew about the practicalities of the role and what a PhD actually meant.