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Dr Richard Gorman

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Amory D386

Amory Building, University of Exeter, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ , UK

Overview

My research takes an interdisciplinary approach and uses qualitative social science research to understand situated practices of health, care, and medicine. I am specifically interested in how health intersects with people’s cultural, ethical, and emotional relationships with animals and opens up complex policy interfaces relating human and animal care.

I joined the Department of Geography in September 2017 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, part of The Animal Research Nexus: Changing Constitutions of Science, Health and Welfare project, working with Professor Gail Davies and collaborators across several other institutions and disciplines.

Patient and Public Involvement

With Gail Davies, our work aims to understand patient and public involvement within practices of animal research. Patient and public involvement seeks to enable patients and members of the public to apply their priorities to the development and delivery of health services and improve the quality and relevance of research by drawing on the lived expertise of individuals affected by the health conditions that research aims to benefit. We are seeking to understand how involvement and engagement activities can be organised in ways that are sensitive to the diverse experiences of lay members, researchers, and others involved, and open up authentic and meaningful conversations.

Care Farming

My ESRC-funded PhD research, at Cardiff University, pioneered geographical research on the role of animals within caring and therapeutic practices, focusing on ‘care-farming’ as an emerging practice that utilises farm spaces as a wellbeing intervention. I have subsequently developed international interdisciplinary collaborative work with colleagues in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University, investigating the potential of care-farming as a therapeutic intervention for individuals affected by traumatic bereavement.

Horseshoe Crabs and Endotoxin Testing

I am currently leading on a Wellcome Trust funded research project aiming to explore the range of different perspectives relating to alternative methods in bacterial endotoxin detection. This is a complex, and international, scientific and societal issue, situated at the interface of human, animal, and environmental health. The research arises from the premise that addressing emerging questions in global public health, which intersect with ecological concerns and ethical issues, requires novel interdisciplinary collaborations involving social science.

I am also the secretary of the Geographies of Health and Wellbeing Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

Twitter: @SustainableRich