I am a PhD student and teaching assistant in Sociology. My focus is on vegans, veganism, and the vegan experience. I am doing research on how vegans experience the everyday in terms of institutional and social contexts (services, restaurants, workplace, etc.) and how they navigate and negotiate their veganism in a non-vegan society. My MSc dissertation looked at the differences between practice and ideology of vegans and the strategies used when misperformance occurred. I also looked at motivations for veganism (ethical, health, environmental, etc.) and if this had an impact on their adherence to veganism. I also conducted a pilot study during my MSc about the views and understanding of veganism from a meat-eater/non-vegan perspective.
I have conducted qualitative interviews with vegans (and non-vegans) for my MSc research and plan to carry out qualitative interviewing for my PhD with vegans. I have carried out interviews on a face-to-face basis, via Skype, and instant messenger. I have also created and used mini survey/participant profile sheets to gather participant information, as well as using a visual method to collate all my participants’ data.
