Researching Animal Research: What the Humanities and Social Sciences can Contribute to Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare

Edited by Gail Davies, Beth Greenough, Pru Hobson-West, Robert GW Kirk, Alexandra Palmer
and Emma Roe (2024). Published by Manchester University Press, 455 pages. Hardback (ISBN:
9781526165756). Price £30. Also available open access on https://www.manchesterhive.com/
display/9781526165770/9781526165770.xml
The group of scholars and artists involved in this collection titled their Wellcome Trust-funded project the Animal Research Nexus (AnNex). In their introduction, the editors state that ‘nexus’ ‘refers less to an object of study than a way of approaching the complex web of connections that make up animal research’ (p 3). The connections they focus on are teased out through multidisciplinary approaches from the Humanities and – mainly – Social Sciences. Research undertaken for the project saw more-than-human geographers entering laboratory spaces; historians exploring legislative struggles; artists opening up new ways of engaging publics in ethical discussion. The collection is a culmination of research from the 6-year period of the project (2017–2023) and includes at the end a bibliography of the articles, chapters, theses, and other work produced by the project’s team of scholars. In all, this body of work represents a significant achievement in relation to furthering an understanding of key aspects of animal research and is an excellent advocate for the role of Humanities and Social Sciences scholars in the study and understanding of what has, until now, been the realm of the natural scientists.