Dr Renelle McGlacken

Renelle is a qualitative social scientist interested in the socio-ethical aspects of human-animal relationships. In particular, her work has focused on public and professional relations with scientific animal use, exploring how the issue is understood in everyday life, how veterinarians working in research facilities negotiate their identities within and beyond these spaces, and the sociocultural barriers researchers experience around non-animal methods. Renelle is passionate about cultivating open and constructive dialogue around animal use, exploring how the notion of a ‘social license’ is understood and practised, the role of publics and ‘everyday ethics’ in formal ethical decision-making, and the aim of embedding care in how we talk about, think about, and relate to animal use.

Renelle completed a PhD in Sociology at the University of Nottingham in 2021 as part of the Wellcome Trust funded Animal Research Nexus programme. Based on an analysis of writing from the Mass Observation Project, the thesis explored everyday societal relations with animal research, aiming to complicate binary ideas of acceptance/opposition and enrich how we understand practices of knowing and caring about the issue. During her PhD, Renelle won the Vonne Lund prize for best PhD paper at the European Society for Agriculture and Food Ethics Congress (2019) and the University of Nottingham Tri Campus Dean Moore Postgraduate Prize in (2020). Prior to this, Renelle undertook a BA(Hons) in Sociology at Lancaster University and a MSc in Sociology with a specialism in Gender, Sexuality, and Culture at the University of Amsterdam.

Renelle has also worked in research roles across public, charity, and private sectors.

As a Postdoctoral Research Associate, Renelle is currently working on a multidisciplinary project which brings together public partners, PPIE and training professionals, and researcher communities to co-create resources and guidance for Public Involvement in animal research.

Renelle’s research interests span science and technology studies, public understanding of science, relational care ethics, human-animal studies, and critical animal studies.

• McGlacken, R., Smith, B., King, T., & Ashall, V. (2025). Being well together: A relational approach to the study of pet ownership and human wellbeing. Human-Animal Interactions, 13(1), 0045.
• McGlacken R, Hobson-West P. (2024) Between animal research and animal welfare: Analysing the openness practices of UK Named Veterinary Surgeons. Animal Welfare, 33(36).
• McGlacken, R. and Hobson-West, P. (2024) ‘Labelling medicines as developed using animals? Opening up the topic of animal research’ In Researching Animal Research, Davies, G., Greenhough, B., Hobson-West, P., Kirk, R.G.W., Roe, E., Palmer, A., Eds. Manchester University Press: Manchester.
• McGlacken R, Anderson A, Hobson-West P. (2023) Two Worlds in One: What 'Counts' as Animal Advocacy for Veterinarians Working in UK Animal Research? Animals (Basel), 13(5), 776.
• McGlacken, R. (2023) Negotiating the necessity of biomedical animal use through relations with vulnerability. BioSocieties, 19, 130-148.
• McGlacken, R. (2022) Constrained, contingent, and conflicted: complicating acceptance of animal research through an analysis of writing from the UK Mass Observation Project. In European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics, eds. D. Bruce & A. Bruce, 245-250. Edinburgh: Wageningen Academic Publisher.
• McGlacken, R. & P. Hobson-West (2022) Critiquing imaginaries of ‘the public’ in UK dialogue around animal research: Insights from the Mass Observation Project. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 91, 280-287.
• McGlacken, R. (2022) “(Not) Knowing and (Not) Caring About Animal Research: An Analysis of Writing from the Mass Observation Project”, Science & Technology Studies, 35(3), 2–20.
• McGlacken, R. (2021) Exploring everyday relations with animal research: a sociological analysis of writing from the Mass Observation Project [PhD Thesis]. School of Sociology and Social Policy, 1-253. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/66576/: University of Nottingham.
• Davies, G, Gorman, R, Greenhough, B, Hobson-West, P, Kirk, R G W, Message, R, Myelnikov, D, Palmer, A, Roe, E, Ashall, V, Crudgington, B, McGlacken, R, Peres, S, and Skidmore, T. (2020) "Animal Research Nexus: A New Approach to the Connections between Science, Health and Animal Welfare." Medical Humanities 46(4), 499-511.
• Morris, C, Kaljonen, M, Aavik, K, Balázs, B, Cole, M, Coles, B, Efstathiu, S, Fallon, T, Foden, M, Giraud, E H, Goodman, M, Kershaw, E H, Helliwell, R, Hobson-West, P, Häyry, M, Jallinoja, P, Jones, M, Kaarlenkaski, T, Laihonen, M, Lähteenmäki-Uutela, A, Kupsala, S, Lonkila, A, Martens, L, McGlacken, R, Mylan, J, Niva, M, Roe, E, Twine, R, Vinnari, M, and White, R. (2021) "Priorities for Social Science and Humanities Research on the Challenges of Moving beyond Animal-based Food Systems." Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 8(38), 1-12.
• Davies G, Gorman R, McGlacken R, Peres S. (2021) The social aspects of genome editing: publics as stakeholders, populations and participants in animal research. Laboratory Animals, 56(1), 88-96.