Erin B. Ryan
PhD Student
Animals in Society
Erin B. Ryan’s Story
About
I am currently completing my PhD with Dan Weary’s supervision and with support from Becca Franks. Broadly, my work explores the possibility of expanding human-animal relationships in all settings by elevating and including the perspectives of animals in all decision-making processes that affect their lives. This work contributes to my involvement as an animal welfare scientist, with the Animals in the Room (AiR) group, a constellation of academics and artists working towards innovative ways to include animals in decision-making. My animal welfare research experience is varied, mixing biological training (e.g., improving the lives of captive Western lowland gorillas at Smithsonian National Zoo and understanding play behaviour in dairy calves at the UBC farm) with social science (e.g., public attitudes research focused on the lives of pregnant pigs in intensive systems, and the use of genetic modification of animal genomes). My thinking is always deepened by influences from psychology, philosophy, and diverse forms of art and by living with other animals.
My doctoral work seeks to understand barriers and opportunities to achieving mutually beneficial human-animal relationships with farmed animals, and to examine some of the assumptions, psychological characteristics, frames, and capacities, that shape how humans take the perspectives of animals. I am testing different ways of making animals present in spaces where people are deliberating on practices related to their lives, and the effect this has on influencing conversations about the animals’ perspective.
Education & Awards
MSc in Applied Animal Biology, UBC