Profile
Virginia Thomas
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
I’m a research fellow with the Centre for Rural Policy research with a background in literature, science communication and sociology, and was a veterinary nurse before returning to academia. As a result I have a deep interest in human-animal interactions, particularly human-wildlife-conflicts, and scientific and knowledge controversies more broadly. I employ an interdisciplinary approach in my research and am particularly interested in a ‘one health’ approach to the global challenges we face.
Research group links
Research interests
I’m a research fellow on a four-year project funded by the Wellcome Trust entitled ‘From Feed the Birds to Do Not Feed the Animals’. This is an interdisciplinary project involving cross-disciplinary and trans-institutional collaborations.
Together we are investigating the human proclivity to feed animals and the consequences of this for the animals, the environment and the humans themselves.
The team includes anthropologists, geochemists, sociologists and zooarchaeologists from the National Museum of Scotland and the universities of Exeter, Roehampton and Reading.
External impact and engagement
News media
Article in The Independent: English rewilding projects not wild enough, study suggests
Blogs
Rewilding - the conservation approach that dare not speak its name
Podcasts
The Animal Feeding Podcast on Spotify
Public talks
Pint of Science 2022: Whose countryside is it anyway? Rewilding and the battle for the soul of England's countryside.
Guest lectures
University of Sussex: Rewilding, wild farming and ecotourism: ecosystem services and public money for public goods
University of Manchester: Rewilding in England's green and pleasant land
Conferences & Meetings
May 2022 British Animal Studies Network Do(n’t) feed the animals: Mixed messages and the multiple meanings of ‘care’
September 2021 Royal Geographical Society Conference 'Conservation borders: to feed or not to feed'
July 2021 Animal History Group Conference: Animal Archives 'An osteobiography of Choppers the PG Tips Chimp'
June 2021 Research Ethics Conference 'Brave Zoom World: The ethics of conducting engaged, interdisciplinary research at a distance'
May 2021 Public Communication of Science and Technology Conference 'Brave Zoom World: Exploring engaged research in a strange, new, physically distanced world'
May 2021 Contemporary Issues in Participatory Geography Conference 'The Art and Practice of Participatory Research at the Science-Policy Interface'
Biography
2018-2021 PhD in Sociology with the University of Exeter entitled ‘Navigating the landscapes of rewilding: A comparative case study of ‘rewilding’ in the Avalon Marshes and Wild Ennerdale’.
2016-2017 MSc in Science Communication with Dublin City University
2003-2013 BA (hons) Literature with the Open University