Prospective PhD researchers

I am available to supervise PhD candidates at the Department of History, Geography and Social Sciences and the Centre for Human/Animal Studies at Edge Hill University (Lancashire, UK) in the following areas:

- Sociological approaches to understanding climate change, especially in relation to food practices, gender and/or childhood. I would also be very interested in supervising work in relation to the concept of the Capitalocene.

Gender studies - broadly construed, but especially environmental dimensions (ecofeminism), and projects related to a critical/feminist focus on (eco)masculinities. Also gendered dimensions of bodily aesthetics e.g. intersections of the sociology of the body and gender studies.

- Critical Animal Studies e.g. sociology of human/animal relations, especially the political economy of the animal agri industries, examinations of the animal-industrial complex and the sociology of veganism / vegan studies. I am also interested in environmental education, climate and animals ethics education for children.

Current PhD students

  • Kerri Waters 'Agriculture Beyond the Animal: Justice in a contested and changing landscape' (Edge Hill University, 2021-) DoS
  • Felicity Silverthorne 'Witnessing and weighing the cost: Uncovering the Emotional Burden of Animal Activism in Filmmaking' (Edge Hill University 2025-) 2nd Supervisor

Completed PhD students

  • Dr. Cameron Dunnett 'Men, masculinities and intersectional power hierarchies within the UK vegan and animal liberation movement' (2022 - 2026)

  • Dr. Katherine Jones '"I just wish more people would look into it” –An exploratory study of familial transitions to vegan diets' (2021 - 2026).

  • Dr. Abi Masefield 'Cannibal Nutrition: Tracking the Animal Across the Discursive Landscape of Human Hunger (Edge Hill University, 2016 - 2024 p-t)

  • Dr. Donelle Gadenne 'Veganism and the Veterinary Profession: An Incongruous Union? The Experiences of Vegan Veterinary Professionals Working in Small Animal Veterinary Practice in England' (Edge Hill University 2018-2021) 
  • Dr. Carmel Nolan 'Xenotransplantation ‘Politics’ from the Perspective of Lay Publics in Ireland’ (Lancaster University, 2012)

Examined PhDs

  • Aranceta Reboredo, Olatz. ‘Compassion in (S)pain: how interest groups contribute to the perpetuation of animal captivity and exhibition’. (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain – External Examiner) 2025.
  • Burns, Reece. ‘Ecocide and Temporal Complicity: The Influence of Huttonian Deep Time and Heideggerian Temporality on Planetary Degradation’ (EHU – Internal Examiner) 2025.
  • Grassian, Trent. ‘A New Way of Eating: Creating Meat Reducers, Vegetarians and Vegans’ (University of Kent – External Examiner) 2018
  • Robinson, Frances.  ‘Animal Experimentation, Complexity and Environmental Ethics’ (Lancaster  University - Internal Examiner) 2009

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