Jessica Groling

School: College of Social Sciences and International Studies
Department: Sociology & Philosophy

I am a third year part-time PhD student, funded by a bursary from the department of Sociology & Philosophy at Exeter. I was born in Berlin, a few years before the Berlin Wall came down, and grew up in a bilingual family. In 2004, I moved to England to study and obtained a BA in Geography from the University of Durham in 2008 and an MA in Activism and Social Change from the University of Leeds in 2009. I am now living in Exeter and studying towards a PhD in Sociology, looking at media representations of urban foxes before and after the hunting ban came into effect in 2005 (see research section).

I am an Associate Lecturer (Education and Scholarship) in Sociology and Anthropology and the Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant for Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology and am currently the programme tutor on a Masters course in Anthrozoology, new to Exeter in 2012 under the direction of Dr. Samantha Hurn. I also teach on a number of undergraduate modules in Sociology and Anthropology.

In 2012 I was awarded the Institute for Critical Animal Studies Britches Scholar of the Year award. I also co-convened the Critical Perspectives on Animals in Society conference at Exeter in March 2012, bringing together over 150 scholars and activists with an interest in human-animal relations. I am currently the Co-Director of ICAS Europe, representing and coordinating the Institute for Critical Animal Studies in Europe. I am also a member of the recently-formed Vegan Society Research Advisory Committee.

In addition, I work as a freelance German-English translator, specialising in academic material from the social sciences and humanities as well as texts from environmental and human development contexts. I also translate texts from high demand fields, especially finance, business and marketing.