Representing Animals in Scientific Journals: A Corpus Linguistic Approach

The different ways in which people talk and write about animals is the topic of a major new Leverhulme funded collaboration between researchers at The University of Birmingham and King’s College London.

This talk by Dr Chris Pak, School of English, presents findings relating to the language of scientific journals and their orientation toward animals. How does this literature mobilise animals for the purposes of medical research, to improve farming productivity, and to present models of animal behaviour? And how, in the context of a science that attempts to control animals, do these orientations relate to issues of life and death?

This event is presented as part of Arts & Science Festival 2014, a week-long celebration of ideas, research and collaboration across campus. For details of the full programme, visit: www.birmingham.ac.uk/artsandsciencefestival.