Eimear McLoughlin
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Overview
Achieving a Distinction in the MA Anthrozoology Programme at the University of Exeter, I successfully secured funding from the ESRC SWDTC in support of my research into the visibility of animal consumptive practices in Denmark. My (1+3) PhD research will involve a 13-month multi-sited fieldwork in Denmark where I will explore cultural attitudes towards animals and the meat they consume. From a a zoo which gained notoriety of late following the recent euthanasia of a healthy giraffe which was subsequently dissected in public to one of the most mechanised pig slaughterhouses in the world which leads guided tours to the public through its facilities. Thus, this culture of visibility stands in opposition to the majority of slaughterhouses around the world where visibility is persistently portrayed as a threat to the meat industry.
This research will enrich the literature on human-animal relationships and slaughterhouse ethnographies. The work will also contribute to scholarship on the sociology of food, exemplifying the association between visibility and food integrity and will bolster anthrozoological research into non-human animal self-hood. Crucially, this research will have instrumental and conceptual impact with potential to influence animal welfare policy and to shape societal attitudes towards animals.
Publications
Mc Loughlin, E. (forthcoming) Knowing Cows: Transformative Mobilisations of Human and Nonhuman Bodies in an Emotionography of the Slaughterhouse. Gender, Work and Organisation.
Mc Loughlin,E. (2015) #SaveBenjy: Sexuality, Queer Animals and Ireland Humanimalia, 7(1), p.109-122
www.depauw.edu/humanimalia/issue%2013/pdfs/mcloughlin-pdf.pdf
Conferences
Listening to the Slaughterhouse
Poster Presentation
International Society for Applied Ethology
Aarhus University, Denmark
7-10 August 2017
Animal Desires: Revitalising Socio-biological and Evolutionary Theories on Animal Sexualities
Anthrozoology Residential
University of Exeter
5-7 May 2017
Presented with Dr. Julien Dugnoille
#SaveBenjy: Sexuality, Queer Animals and Ireland
Making Sense of the Human/Animal Bond
Mansfield College, University of Oxford
20-21 July 2015
Research
Slaughterhouse Culture
I will conduct a 13-month multi-sited fieldwork in Denmark exploring the visibility of animal consumption, from the slaughterhouse to the zoo.
Knowing Cows: Transformative Mobilisations of Human and Nonhuman Bodies in the Slaughterhouse
In an 'emotionography' of the slaughterhouse, I explored how emotions are negotiated and neutralised within the confines of the slaughterhouse walls. Benefiting from the literature on dirty work and the sociology of emotion, I studied how bovine bodies are constructed both within and beyond the slaughterhouse gates through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and visual methodologies.
#SaveBenjy: Sexuality, Queer Animals and Ireland
Benjy the gay bull rose to global notoriety in November 2014 when he failed to impregnate the heifers he was purchased to inseminate and thus, Benjy's only fate was the slaughterhouse. A crowdfunding petition led by an animal rights organisation and a gay rights network saved Benjy from certain slaughter on the basis that Benjy should be free to be gay, entwining narratives of sexual autonomy with animal rights discourse. #SaveBenjy was a remarkable phenomenon for a number of reasons, from its timeliness, whereby his plight emerged in the months prior to the historic gay marriage referendum in Ireland, to the recognition of non-human animal non-normative sexuality being respected, protected and celebrated. In my published article, I employ queer theory to explore Benjy's rise to fame amidst an Irish cultural and societal landscape in flux.
http://www.depauw.edu/humanimalia/issue%2013/pdfs/mcloughlin-pdf.pdf
External impact and engagement
Impact and External Engagement
Visiting Researcher
University of Copenhagen
April - November 2018
Invited by Professor Peter Sandøe, Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO)
Widening Participation: Sociology
University of Exeter
March 2018
I organised a presentation with Dr. Christopher Thorpe and designed a workshop for secondary school students. This engagement with the local community in the form of prospective students promoted Sociology as a discipline and demonstrated the potential of the University of Exeter as an option for their future endeavors.
Widening Participation: Anthropology
University of Exeter
February 2018
I organised a presentation with Dr. Julien Dugnoille and designed a workshop for secondary school students. This engagement with the local community in the form of prospective students promoted Anthropology as a discipline and demonstrated the potential of the University of Exeter as an option for their future endeavors.
For further details, please see the following;
Personal Website: eimearmcloughlin.weebly.com
LinkedIn: ie.linkedin.com/in/etmcloughlin
Academia: exeter.academia.edu/EimearMcLoughlin
Twitter: twitter.com/eimeartf
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Biography
I am a Graduate Teaching Assistant with the Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology Department. I was awarded the Dean's Commendation for my successful completion of the MA in Anthrozoology with the University of Exeter in September 2016.
Prior to my studies with the University of Exeter, I studied Sociology and English at University College Cork and was awarded College Scholar based on my achievements. Eager to explore my interest in nonhuman animals, I successfully completed a veterinary nursing qualification. From veterinary clinics to wildlife parks, I have worked with human and nonhuman individuals in a variety of settings. Eager to entwine my love of nonhuman animals with my desire to teach, I worked as a teacher in a leading veterinary nursing college in Ireland on their accredited course. My drive to conduct my own research and contribute to wider discourse on animal welfare and personhood has been a driving force in my recent progression to PhD study.
