Gail Davies
LightNews LightNews
banner
gailfdavies.bsky.social
Gail Davies
@gailfdavies.bsky.social
1.2K followers 670 following 83 posts
Prof in Human Geography at University of Exeter researching spaces of science & technology, human & animal health, research involvement & responsibility. Currently works on animal research & its replacements. Unexpected interest in chronic pain & FND.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Gail Davies
nc3rs.bsky.social
Our Chief Executive Vicky Robinson appears in @resprofnews.bsky.social today, in an opinion piece focusing on the UK government's ambitious strategy to replace the use of animals in research and testing: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v....
UK’s plan to reduce animal experiments is strong - Research Professional News
Government strategy reflects recent progress and sets a path to the future, says Vicky Robinson
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Reposted by Gail Davies
scgrg.bsky.social
Upcoming Event: Social and Cultural Geography beyond the Academy – Opportunities in Policy and Practice
Friday 28 November, 11.00-12.30, ONLINE (UK)

This event joins academic and non-academic geographers to discuss their transition from the academy into the world beyond

Further info: scgrg.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Gail Davies
drbevans.bsky.social
This is on Monday. Do join us if you can and are interested in more inclusive academic workplaces
drbevans.bsky.social Prof. Bethan Evans @drbevans.bsky.social · Oct 23
Join us 24th Nov 2-3pm for a webinar on creating inclusive workplaces for academics with Energy Limiting Conditions. Register: AcademicsWithELC.eventbrite.co.uk For academics with ELC, line managers, HR, funders, publishers, union & EDI reps & conference organisers @isrfoundation.bsky.social
Image of a person buried under a pile of marking, grant deadlines and meeting requests. Logos of University of Liverpool and Independent Social Research Foundation. Text reads: Creating more inclusive workplaces for academics with energy limiting conditions. Webinar and guidance for academics with ELC, line managers & HR professionals, EDI & union representatives, funders, publishers & conference organisers. Monday 24th November 2-3pm.
November 21, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
stuartelden.bsky.social
Tom Harper, Nick Dykes, & Magdalena Peszko, Secret Maps: Maps You Were Never Meant to See, from the Middle Ages to Today @uchicagopress.bsky.social, November 2025
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Secret Maps exhibition @britishlibrary.bsky.social until 18 January 2026
events.bl.uk/exhibitions/...
Secret Maps
An illustrated story of the relationship between mapping and secrecy, charting the role maps played in concealing and revealing knowledge across centuries. Is there anything more intriguing than a sec...
press.uchicago.edu
November 17, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
heikedrotbohm.bsky.social
This SI places plant and multispecies studies in dialogue with anthropological debates on emplacement, displacement, mobilities and migration. Highly recommend!
berghahnbooks.bsky.social Berghahn Books @berghahnbooks.bsky.social · 23d
The latest Open Access issue of The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology has been published! View the TOC for this Special Issue on "Making Place with Plants: Intimacy, Mobility and Displacement," here: bit.ly/4qLWERG

@lianachua.bsky.social
@giuliacarabelli.bsky.social
@heikedrotbohm.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Gail Davies
rafdebont.bsky.social
*Globalizing Wildlife*, a book edited by @vbateman.bsky.social, Tom Quick, and myself, is now available for pre-order with @uncpress.bsky.social!
Using code 01SOCIAL30 at checkout, you can save 30%
www.uncpress.org/book/9781469...
Globalizing Wildlife
Humans have always incorporated wildlife into processes of work, capture, and exchange. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, globalization became t...
www.uncpress.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
geoopenaccess.bsky.social
New in Geo:

'Repairing epistemic injustice and loss in the era of climate coloniality' by Farhana Sultana

This paper critically examines the intersections of power, pedagogy and praxis in producing inequitable climate knowledge, global governance, policies and solutions.

doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Geo: Geography and Environment by Farhana Sultana (2025) entitled: 'Repairing epistemic injustice and loss in the era of climate coloniality' with an orange banner at the top. Climate change intensifies existing inequities, disproportionately impacting marginalised populations, particularly in the Global South and Indigenous communities. This is maintained through inequitable global climate governance, policies and solutions. The paper argues that climate coloniality, the complex entanglements of colonial legacies with contemporary climate and ecological changes, operates through systemic knowledge-based marginalisation or epistemic injustice, serving as a key mechanism in the uneven production and distribution of climate harms. Beyond the more commonly discussed material dimensions of loss and damage, epistemic injustices arise from silencing critical voices and devaluing knowledge systems. The paper extends the scope of loss and damage debates by drawing attention to epistemic losses: the erasure of worldviews, ontologies and practices that are vital for just and sustainable climate futures. It critically examines the intersections of power, pedagogy and praxis in (re)producing epistemic injustices, while simultaneously revealing counter-narratives of refusal, resurgence and relationality. By engaging Indigenous and Global South scholarship, the paper underscores the need to decolonise knowledge systems that reproduce dominant climate narratives and heed the epistemological alternatives offered by land- and kinship-based knowledge systems. Advancing climate justice depends on confronting epistemic injustice as both a form of loss and a condition of possibility: centring Global South and Indigenous perspectives is essential for cultivating pluriversal, decolonial and just climate frameworks and futures.
October 31, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Gail Davies
metasciencejournal.bsky.social
"Lab Dog is a landmark study. Brad Bolman’s history of what might seem a niche subject is, in fact, an original and illuminating exploration of key aspects of the biological and biomedical sciences in the twentieth century."

Read Michael Worboys' review here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
October 28, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
dinostalgia.bsky.social
A call for 🦕🦖🦣 contributors! With Victor Monnin, I'm editing a collection about extinct animal parks—it's a field guide, of sorts, that turns a critical eye on places real, imagined, and yet to be. Find the full CFP for LANDS OF THE LOST here: tinyurl.com/dinoparks #PaleoSky #HistSci #EnvHist #STS
A promotional image for an edited collection called "Lands of the Lost: A Field Guide to Dinosaur Parks Physical, Fictional, and for the Future." The collection editors Dr. Victor Monnin & Dr. Alison Laurence are putting out a call for contributions. Abstracts are due January 10, 2026 to dinoparkfieldguide@gmail.com. Find the full call at: https://tinyurl.com/dinoparks The background image is of the outdated-but-adored Iguanodon models at Crystal Palace Park.
October 13, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Gail Davies
uoearchhist.bsky.social
Join us at the *free* FUTURES Festival (11–12 Oct Exeter) for inspiring events celebrating history, archaeology, science & culture!

With @lsangha.bsky.social and Chris Hoban live music based on stories from 16-18th century wills🎵 and Laura Evis in the SHArD 3D Lab

news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e...
October 3, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
yoshinariyoshida.bsky.social
3 year PhD position at U of Copenhagen for a philosophical analysis of animal models in translational neuroscience. Those with MA in HPS, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, STS, etc. are welcome to apply. Application deadline is Oct 31 #HPS #STS employment.ku.dk/phd/?show=16...
PhD Project in Philosophy of Science: Philosophical Perspectives on Animal Models in Translational Neuroscience
employment.ku.dk
September 24, 2025 at 8:46 PM
gailfdavies.bsky.social
On my way to Oxford to chat about the new project led by Beth Greenhough and colleagues on #PPI and #AnimalResearch. Will be sharing relevant insights from our 2022 report web-archive.southampton.ac.uk/animalresear...

This fantastic summary of issues and resources was put together by Gabrielle King
Research Involvement resources
The Animal Research Nexus team at the University of Exeter have developed a range of resources to help understand and support involvement with research for when conversations include animal research. ...
web-archive.southampton.ac.uk
September 23, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
Some (no doubt annoyingly) glass-half-full reflections on REF2029 pause, for academic and PS staff involved in HEI submission(s).

If, like me, you're having to deal with the hiatus in the known unknowns, what's a viable approach to take? Some very preliminary thoughts. 1/7
On the left, a wine glass half full (or is it half empty) with a red liquid; on the right, a bottle half full/half empty with the same red liquid. Because let's be frank, REF2029 is driving some to drink.
September 5, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Gail Davies
alondra.bsky.social
So many untold stories of women's innovation in electronic music still to be brought to light, including this key figure who developed Casio backing tracks that enabled a revolution in reggae. Great profile!
August 19, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
carlbergstrom.com
5. Today I read a paper by @sabinaleonelli.bsky.social and Alexander Mussgnug that I think illustrates this point perfectly.

philsci-archive.pitt.edu/24891/1/Phil...
Convenience AI Sabina Leonelli & Alexander Martin Mussgnug12 Abstract: This paper considers the mundane ways in which AI is being incorporated into scientific practice today, and particularly the extent to which AI is used to automate tasks perceived to be boring, “mere routine” and inconvenient to researchers. We label such uses as instances of “Convenience AI” — that is situations where AI is applied with the primary intention to increase speed and minimize human effort. We outline how attributions of convenience to AI applications involve three key characteristics: (i) an emphasis on speed and ease of action, (ii) a comparative element, as well as (iii) a subject-dependent and subjective quality. Using examples from medical science and development economics, we highlight epistemic benefits, complications, and drawbacks of Convenience AI along these three dimensions. While the pursuit of convenience through AI can save precious time and resources as well as give rise to novel forms of inquiry, our analysis underscores how the uncritical adoption of Convenience AI for the sake of shortcutting human labour may also weaken the evidential foundations of science and generate inertia in how research is planned, set-up and conducted, with potentially damaging implications for the knowledge being produced. Critically, we argue that the consistent association of Convenience AI with the goals of productivity, efficiency, and ease, as often promoted also by companies targeting the research market for AI applications, can lower critical scrutiny of research processes and shift focus away from appreciating their broader epistemic and social implications.
August 19, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
danielfountain.bsky.social
My University has opened a virtual scholar scheme for scholars from Gaza. Please share widely and help stop scholasticide. www.exeter.ac.uk/faculties/ha...
August 3, 2025 at 7:45 AM
gailfdavies.bsky.social
Our chapter on ‘Fabricating mice and dementia: opening up relations in multi-species research’ is now OA. @richgorman.bsky.social, Richard Milne and I explore the ways patient data, animal models and plaque concepts are woven together in making dementia www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK615...
Fabricating mice and dementia: opening up relations in multi-species research
This chapter was written during a moment of flux in the unravelling of the plaques, tangles, and tales that characterise over thirty years of research for treatments of dementia involving humans and a...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
July 24, 2025 at 7:24 AM
gailfdavies.bsky.social
This year’s academic marking season is coming to a close. Assignments used to sing in different voices: some in clarity, originality, creativity, some chaos. Gen AI has layered on an ‘academic autotune’ removing many enjoyable aspects of engaging with authentic student work. #highered #AI #marking
June 7, 2025 at 8:21 AM
gailfdavies.bsky.social
PhD studentship at Geography Exeter and Penryn assessing activities, outputs, outcomes and impact of the Isles of Scilly Community Research Network (CRN). Deadline: 25 June 2025. More details: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
Award details | Funding and scholarships for students | University of Exeter
www.exeter.ac.uk
June 7, 2025 at 7:40 AM
gailfdavies.bsky.social
Wonderful to spend the day with colleagues in Geography @exeter.ac.uk mapping the complex ways open science intersects with our research across the discipline. We covered experiences of preregistration, open databases, archiving, IP, legal challenges, and more, with more conversations to come 👐
June 5, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Gail Davies
maisie-tom.bsky.social
Are you curious about expanding your social research practice to include nonhuman species, but don’t know where to start? Come and join this immersive three-day workshop at the University of Manchester, with a mix of indoor seminars and outdoor fieldwork: store.southampton.ac.uk/short-course...
June 5, 2025 at 11:36 AM
gailfdavies.bsky.social
This is a calm, clear and thoughtful piece on experiences around #FND, simply and beautifully illustrated. Thanks to all involved.

A lot resonated, especially how hard it is to produce a meaningful account of your body when both embodied experiences and medical encounters are so fragmented
fndportal.bsky.social FND Portal @fndportal.bsky.social · Jun 4
Time to get the facts straight. 🙌

Thanks @jonstoneneuro.bsky.social, Caoimhe McLaughlin and Anna Ross, and the ETUDE team for bringing this to life.
jonstoneneuro.bsky.social Jon Stone @jonstoneneuro.bsky.social · Jun 4
"Inside FND" - a new short film about FND

A film that draws on evidence from patients, clinicians and research to counter common misconceptions about Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). 🧵
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDAv...
June 5, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
angecass.bsky.social
Absolutely stoked to share that my @renewbiodiversity.bsky.social colleague Ryan Shum has been awarded the AsSIST-UK Andrew Webster PhD prize for his work, 'Caring for microplastics: a multi-sited laboratory ethnography'! #STS #EnvHums #geography

assistuk.org/2025/06/03/2...
2025 Andrew Webster PhD Prize
We are delighted to announce that the 2025 Andrew Webster PhD Prize is awarded to: Dr. Ryan Shum (University of Exeter) for his thesis: Caring for microplastics: a multi-sited laboratory …
assistuk.org
June 4, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
vvoikar.bsky.social
#3Rs #AnimalResearch #AnimalWelfare - #FELASA2025 conference starting tomorrow in Athens!
www.felasa2025.eu
Welcome to FELASA Congress - June, 2025 Athens
Welcome to FELASA 2025! 16th FELASA Congress, from 2 to 5 June 2025 Scientific Programme 1st IACLAM Day 1 June 2025 IACLAM Day Programme FELASA and HSBLAS are glad to invite you to the 16th FEL...
www.felasa2025.eu
June 1, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Reposted by Gail Davies
royalsociety.org
Calling all researchers and public engagement professionals: we want to find out the factors affecting public engagement in 2025, including opportunities, risks and barriers. Help shape the future of public engagement with STEM by taking our survey: www.research.net/r/RS_public_...
Factors Affecting Public Engagement by UK Researchers 2025
Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
May 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM