Unknowing Animals
I am currently a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester. Unknowing Animals is the project website for my ESRC SeNSS Postdoctoral Fellowship at Goldsmiths, University of London, from 2021-2022. My research explores, through ethnographic engagement, the epistemologies and ontologies of professional animal behaviour experts, and the implications of that knowledge for animal agency, subjectivity, and the human-animal relationship. I have a particular interest in the rise of “critical anthropomorphism”, a methodological approach which balances qualitative, “anthropomorphic” interpretations of animal behaviour with some kind of “critical” check on that interpretation – often scientific, but sometimes attentional or phenomenological. Fascinated by the possibilities of, and problems with, multi-species ethnography, I also run workshops in how the experience of nonhuman animals might be more closely attended to.
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I came to university a little later than most. I originally trained as an actor (Maisie Bryceland). My experience of that work has influenced a lot of my thinking, particularly around embodied social interaction, phenomenology and sensory methodologies. I also have experience as a professional animal welfare campaigner, and am the co-founder, Board Director and former Executive Director of the award-winning Crustacean Compassion.
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I live in London.
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