Professor Claire Parkinson is Co-Director of the Centre for Human Animal Studies and Associate Head of the English and Creative Arts department. She has held academic posts at Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool Hope University and University of Brighton. She joined Edge Hill University as a professor in 2012. She established the Centre for Human Animal Studies (CfHAS) in 2014. Claire's publications include the monographs Popular Media and Animals (2011) and Animals, Anthropomorphism and Mediated Encounters (2020) and the co-edited collections Beyond Human: from animality to transhumanism (2012), Animal Activism On and Off Screen (2024) and Animals and Landscapes: multispecies locations, space and place (2025).

She writes about culture, communication, and social and cultural history. Her main research interests focus primarily on socio-cultural and political-economic aspects of animal/human relationships. She is interested in how social norms, economics, politics, and cultural texts shape ideas and values and impact the lives and experiences of humans and animals.

As a PI, her recent work has included two AHRC-funded projects on multispecies methodologies and landscape, and QR-SPF-funded research on public perceptions of dangerous dogs. She has also led funded research projects on public responses to pro-vegan messaging, and worked on the multi-council funded UK National Ecosystem Assessment: shared, plural and cultural values of ecosystems.

Critical Animal Studies/ Human Animal Studies

Multispecies methodologies

Cultural and social history, economics, and politics