Catherine Oliver is a geographer and lecturer in the Sociology of Climate Change based at Lancaster University. Her research interests are animals (specifically birds), more-than-human theory, and urban studies. Currently, she is researching seabirds on Morecambe Bay, exploring how people interact with birds on a changing landscape. Between 2020 and 2022, Catherine was researching the history and contemporary resurgence of backyard hens and their keepers in gardens and allotments in London, which she is currently writing up as a book.
Previously, she researched veganism in Britain, and her first book Veganism, Archives and Animals, was published with Routledge in 2021. Her research and writing draws on ethnographic and historical methods, which she explores in relation to extending our research participants to non-human animals.
Catherine has published over twenty academic articles, writing on topics including veganism, urban chickens, the ethics of researching animals in the social sciences, nothingness, and academic conferences. Catherine has been featured on the BBC and has written for The Conversation and Tribune.
Her second book, What is Veganism For?, will be published in 2024 with Bristol University Press.
