The Farmyard Worlds of Early Modern England: Animal Studies, History, Theory and Interdisciplinarity

What was it like to work with a cow in early modern England? What were people's feelings about and towards the livestock who worked with them? These questions are the starting point for the book project that is central to this proposal. Current historical analyses tell us how important livestock animals were to the development of the economy and to the process of industrialization, for example, but thus far little has been written recognizing the crucial fact that animals are, and always have been, more than simply stock: they are living, sentient beings with whom negotiated interaction is required. This project will take such interactions as its focus and will return animals to the central place they had in the domestic environments of so many, thus tracking a lost aspect of early modern life: the day-to-day relationships between humans and livestock animals.

Tracing the simultaneously emotional and instrumental relationships that humans had with their livestock is of value for a number of reasons.

1. Historical/Pragmatic: working with animals took up a lot of time (estimates suggest that for some in the early modern period, 75% of waking hours were spent in the company of animals); and the economic and nutritional value of animals (pulling the plough, providing meat or milk) meant that livestock would have been attended to with care because illness or injury would have been a real threat to both human and animal wellbeing. To ignore livestock in the period, therefore, is to ignore something that the people themselves thought of as vital.

2. Historical/Bigger Picture: the mid-seventeenth century has been recognized as a moment when herd sizes increased and intensive farming began to emerge as the norm. This project would offer a new perspective on this larger social shift, exploring its impact on human-animal relationships, and - by extension - on concepts of the home and the family.

3. Theoretical/Interdisciplinary: the project is part of a movement in the humanities and social sciences to engage with human-animal relations. Animal Studies is a cross- and interdisciplinary field, and this book will contribute to ongoing scholarly debates about human-animal relations, but also about how such relations might (or might not) be thought about within the theoretical paradigms that we have; and within the disciplinary contexts we work within.

Associated with this research are three other activities which will engage wider audiences, support interdisciplinary work, foster impact, provide intellectual leadership for junior scholars, and help to shape future research agendas. These are:

1. an article for the magazine History Today (the editors have already commissioned this). This will increase awareness of the history of animals and what it adds to our understanding of the past; and a report for the Centre for Animals and Social Justice on historical shifts in farming;

2. a postgraduate symposium offering the opportunity for current animal studies PGRs to meet and engage with experienced practitioners and scholars in the field. The symposium will focus on three issues: interdisciplinarity; the establishment of animal studies in the undergraduate curriculum; and the potential for those in animal studies to work with non-academic bodies (e.g. policy makers, charities, think tanks);

3. the establishment of an online bibliography, the aim of which will be to make it easier for those in the field to keep up with new work from the range of disciplines involved. Scholars as well as those working with animals outside of academia will be able to access and contribute to the bibliography, and as such it will also enhance the potential of academic work to find wider-than-academic readerships, and offer the opportunity for scholars to engage with work and from outside of academia

The potential impact of my work can be best explored by a brief overview of my experience. This includes addressing animal welfare scientists, veterinary scientists, and animal agriculturalists at the EC-funded Welfare Quality conference, 'Knowing Animals', in Florence in 2009. There, discussion focused on establishing new welfare protocols for agricultural animals, and I was invited to open up debate to include consideration of past modes of farming and living with animals. I spoke to a different audience - made up of artists and members of the general public - at another meeting on animals held at the Shropshire Wildlife Trust in Shrewsbury in 2012 where questions of animal sentience and artistic representation were debated. As well as these (and other similar) events, I have also participated in media work: in radio programmes for the BBC; in a podcast for the National Gallery, London; participated in public debates; and was an invited presenter in the well-established 'Nerd Nite' in Phoenix, Arizona.

My directorship of the British Animal Studies Network (BASN) has afforded me the opportunity of engaging with a range of non-academics from, for example, NGOs such as RSPCA, Scottish Wildlife Trust, and RSPB, and I would use the opportunity of the fellowship to further develop such relationships with a view to increasing the potential for impact of my work. Further engagement with the Centre for Animals and Social Justice will enhance the possibility of showing the relevance of debates about historical human-animal relations to the development of future animal welfare policy discussions.

In addition, my scholarly work has led to invitations to participate in policy-related discussions. For example, I was contacted to discuss the recent spate of dog attacks on humans by 'Counterpoint', a consultancy and think tank commissioned by the Dogs Trust; and I am currently on the stakeholder panel, with colleagues from RSPCA, PDSA, CIWF, DEFRA, and Scottish Government, of a project on adolescents' attitudes to animal cruelty at Scotland's Rural College. These invitations recognize that education will play an increasingly important role in addressing and changing attitudes and policy, and that my work on contemporary and past human-animal relations, and my directorship of BASN puts me at the forefront of debates and developments in the field.

Central to my work outside of academia is my experience of writing for a general as well as scholarly readership, with two popular monographs and articles in popular history journals. This experience will inform the writing of an article for History Today which will raise the profile of animal studies in a recognized popular magazine (the editors have already commissioned this article). It also increases the opportunities that I will have to take my research to wider audiences in the UK and beyond, and to engage readers in discussions about animals, and about historical work.

Another key impact which goes beyond academia will take place through the proposed PGR symposium. While some aspects of the symposium are concerned with developments within academia, also important will be the discussion of the potential for work in animal studies to have impact. By bringing together current PGRs with established scholars with experience in this area - through working as advisers for organisations such as DEFRA and Welfare Quality - the symposium will look to develop the future of animal studies research. In addition, Bel Deering, a manager for the RSPCA currently leading a project working with teenagers, has also signaled a willingness to participate. This will mean that discussions about the relationship between academic and public/policy discussion will be driven by real experience rather than hypothetical ideals.