About
I specialise in science and technology studies, with particular interests in contemporary history of science, technology and medicine; expertise and policy; science communication, engagement and participation; environmental and agricultural politics; and interdisciplinarity.
My research explores how scientific knowledge is produced, communicated, interpreted and contested in the wider public sphere during public knowledge controversies. I have explored these dynamics through case study investigations of popular evolutionary psychology, as well as food chain risks. I am also interested in cross-disciplinary interactions across health, agriculture and the environment, particularly in terms of ‘
One Health‘ agenda building.
I have recently completed a Wellcome Trust Fellowship investigating the history of bovine TB in the UK since c. 1965 and debates over whether to cull wild badgers in order to control the disease in domestic cattle. This work has just been published in a new open access book:
Vermin, Victims and Disease: British Debates over Bovine Tuberculosis and Badgers (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
You can see further details of my publications here and on
Google Scholar.
As an extension of my interests in public engagement, I chair the
Science in Public Research Network – a cross disciplinary meeting space for academics and professionals interested in science, technology and medicine in the public sphere.
Other Publications
Monographs:
Cassidy, A. (October 2019) Vermin, Victims and Disease: British Debates over Bovine Tuberculosis and Badgers: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030191856 OA.
Woods A, Bresalier M, Cassidy A, Mason Dentinger R (2018). Animals and the Shaping of Modern Medicine: One Health and its Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, OA
Peer reviewed journal articles
Cassidy A., Mason Dentinger R, Schoefert K, Woods A (2017). (2017). Animal roles and traces in the history of medicine, c.1880–1980. BJHS Themes, 2, 11-33. DOI: 10.1017/bjt.2017.3 OA.
Cassidy, A., Lock, S. and Voss, G. (2016) Sexual Nature? (Re)presenting Sexuality and Science in the Museum, Science as Culture, 25:2, 214-238, DOI: 10.1080/09505431.2015.1120284
Cassidy, A. (2015) ‘‘Big Science’ in the Field: Experiments, expertise and policy on badgers and bovine TB’ History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 37(3), Sept. 2015, 305-325. DOI: 10.1007/s40656-015-0072-z OA
Cassidy, A., & Mills, B. (2012). “Fox Tots Attack Shock”: Urban Foxes, Mass Media and Boundary-Breaching’. Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, 6(4), 494–511.
Cassidy, A. (2012) ‘Vermin, Victims and Disease: UK Framings of Badgers in and beyond the bovine TB controversy’ Sociologia Ruralis, 52(2): 192–204. OA
Barker, G.C., Bayley, C., Cassidy, A., et al (2010) ‘Can a participatory approach contribute to food chain risk analysis?’ Risk Analysis, 30(5): 766-81.
Cassidy, A. (2007) ‘The (Sexual) Politics of Evolution: Popular controversy in the late twentieth century UK’ History of Psychology, 10(2): 199-227.
Cassidy, A. (2006) ‘Evolutionary Psychology as Public Science and Boundary Work’ Public Understanding of Science, 15(2): 175-205.
Shepherd, R., Barker, G., French, S., Hart, A., Maule, A.J. & Cassidy, A. (2006) ‘Managing Food Chain Risks: Integrating Technical & Stakeholder Perspectives’ Journal of Agricultural Economics, 57(6): 313-328.
Cassidy, A. (2005) ‘Popular Evolutionary Psychology in the UK: An Unusual Case of Science in the Media?’ Public Understanding of Science, 14(2): 115-41.
Pickup, H.E.; Cassidy, A.M.; Danbury, T.C.; Weeks, C.A.; Waterman, A.E.; Kestin, S.C. (1997) ‘Self-selection of an analgesic by broiler chickens’ British Poultry Science, v. 38(S): S12-S13.
Book chapters
Cassidy A. (2017). Badger-Human Conflict: an Overlooked Historical Context for Bovine TB Debates in the UK. In Hill CM, Webber AD and Priston NC (Eds.) Understanding Conflicts about Wildlife: a Biosocial Approach. Berghahn Books.
Cassidy A. (2016). One Medicine? Advocating (Inter)disciplinarity at the Interfaces of Animal Health, Human Health, and the Environment. In Frickel S, Albert M, Prainsack B (Eds.) Investigating Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Theory and Practice across Disciplines, Rutgers University Press. OA.
Bresalier, M., Cassidy, A. and Woods, A. (2015) ‘One Health in History’ in Zinsstag, et al (eds.) One Health: The Theory and Practice of Integrated Health Approaches. (CAB International), OA.
Cassidy, A. (2008; 2014) ‘Communicating the Social Sciences: A Specific Challenge?’ Ch. 18, Bucchi, M. & Trench, B. (eds.) The Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology, Routledge, London. >800 views online
Cassidy A., Maule A. J. (2011) ‘Risk communication and participatory research: using the visual domain to support group discussion of complex issues’ In Reavey, P. (ed.) Visual Psychologies: Using and interpreting images in qualitative research. Routledge: London.
Popular and policy outputs
Cassidy, A. ‘The UK’s Bovine TB Strategy: a prospective view from history’ Response to UK Government Department of Environment and Rural Affairs, Bovine TB Strategy Review Call for Evidence, September 2018.
Cassidy, A. ‘The recent history of bovine TB’ 02/12/2015; ‘Researcher Spotlight’ 19/10/15, Wellcome Blogs.
Cassidy, A. ‘Badgers and TB: Let’s open up the debate’ BA People and Science, Sept 2012; ‘Badgers & People: current conflicts and a troubled history’ Mammal News magazine, Autumn 2012, p18.
Medley, G., Grant, W., Cassidy, A. and Green, L. (2010) ‘The Governance of Livestock Disease: Bovine Tuberculosis’ RELU Policy and Practice Note Series, 19.
