Network members
VetHumUK is a network for anyone interested in veterinary humanities in the UK. To find out more about co-founders Alison Skipper and Carol Gray, see the 'About' tab. But our network would be nothing without our 100+ members, some of whom are featured below. If you're on our mailing list and would like to be included on this page, just let us know. We'd love to showcase your interests here. Apologies that this list will not be maintained in alphabetical order - we have to keep it simple for the novice webmaster!
Clive Elwood
After a career as a veterinary specialist Clive followed his curiosity into coaching, leadership and the significance of relationships. He is the author of ‘Leadership in Veterinary Medicine’, published by WileyBlackwell. For more information, see www.trelliscoaching.co.uk
Dan O'Neill
Dan is Associate Professor in Companion Animal Epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College, where he co-leads the VetCompass™ Programme. He has co-authored over 100 papers and two books covering various aspects of breed health and therapeutics in companion animals. He chairs the UK Brachycephalic Working Group and is a founding member of the International Collaborative on Extreme Conformation in Dogs. Dan was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2018, the BSAVA Blaine Award for Advancement of Small Animal Science in 2019 and the International Canine Health Award from the Kennel Club Charitable Trust in 2021. Over recent years, Dan has moved towards promoting mixed methods studies in his research in order to give deeper inference on complex issues.
Jane Davidson
Jane Davidson is better known as Jane RVN. She is a vet nurse with 20 years experience. She is currently researching the history of the original veterinary legislation in her PhD 'Professionalising animal medicine'.
Jill MacDonald
Jill is a Registered Veterinary Nurse, and currently holds a role at the RCVS in leading the VN Futures project. She has a keen interest in the significant role that veterinary nurses play in supporting animal owners, and the strengths that they bring to developing the patient-owner/client-veterinary professional triad relationship. She recently contributed to a research project to develop the first veterinary nurse-specific client communication matrix.
Stuart Munro
Stuart is a veterinary surgeon who ran his own clinic in London for 20 years, and is now back at university studying for an MSc in ethnobotany, a branch of anthropology that looks at the relationships between people and plants - particularly their role in human culture and practices. His main interests are in biocultural diversity and socio-ecological resilience within communities. He does still do some locum work and has been a volunteer for Vetlife for 5 years.
Jo Hockenhull
Jo is a researcher in the Animal Welfare and Behaviour Group at Bristol Vet School. Her research focuses on the welfare of domestic animals, mainly equines and livestock. As the welfare of these animals relies so heavily on the decisions made by their human caregivers, most of her research involves talking to owners, farmers, vets, industry representatives and other stakeholders about their understandings, beliefs and choices when it comes to the animals in their care.
Pru Hobson-West
Pru Hobson-West is Professor of Science, Medicine and Society in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, and an Honorary Professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham, UK. Pru is a social scientist with expertise in the fields of science and technology studies, medical sociology, veterinary ethics, and animals and society. She has published on fields including vaccination (of humans and animals), the use of animals as laboratory models, and questions of consent in veterinary practice. Her vision is to encourage social scientists to engage with animal medicine, and to encourage practitioners including natural scientists and clinicians to engage with social scientific methods and theories.
Rebecca Smith
Rebecca (or Becky!) is a vet who has worked in clinical practice and in her PhD is now researching how owners and vets make decisions around the care of older horses. Rebecca is passionate about using social scientific research methods to gain new insights into our relationships with non-human animals. She is particularly interested in exploring the ways in which vet-owner relationships impact on outcomes of animal care.
Camille Bellet
Camille Bellet is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in Humanities and Social Science at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of Manchester. Camille has a background in veterinary medicine and a PhD in epidemiology and specialise in public health, animal farming and human-animal studies. Camille’s research sits at the intersection of medical humanities, animal studies, and science and technology studies (STS). She studies how knowledge and practice are constructed on farms and respond to particular sociocultural, institutional and organisational circumstances. Along with contemporary debates in public health and animal ethics, Camille is particularly interested in the intersection of human-nonhuman animal relations, health and wellbeing in farming. She is currently developing research in the areas of digital sensing and cattle care in farming in France and the United Kingdom, looking at how different sensing devices emerge, are shaped, and impact on the way humans understand and care for cows, human-cow relations, and the ethics of cow care.
Fascinated by ‘talk in action’, Ruth is studying for an MA in Applied Linguistics to help make sense of the interactions that occur in veterinary practices and beyond. Her focus is using discourse analysis to explore how veterinary professionals and clients talk about euthanasia. She is also interested in how veterinary professionals manage the different elements of their professional identity whilst dealing with the impact of euthanasia on themselves, their clients and colleagues.
Ruth qualified as a vet and has spent over 25 years in small animal primary care, mainly for the charity sector and private emergency clinic she joined the RBC in 2009 and is a lecturer in veterinary professionalism, leading the communication skills teaching in the undergraduate veterinary course.
Ruth Serlin
