I and my lab study animal welfare. We're interested in how to create good living conditions for animals kept in labs, zoos and farms; in how scientists can assess well-being objectively; and in what happens to brain and behaviour when animals are raised and kept lifelong in confining, barren enclosures.
The programs within the College of Business and Economics are filled with knowledgeable, accomplished academics who are also nice people. Unlike some programs where graduate students are treated like they're just a number, at Guelph graduate students are treated like colleagues. It's a nice environment to be in while receiving a top-notch education.
Studying the behavioural biology of cattle sheds light on how they see and experience the world, and ultimately offers us insight into their feelings. What drives their behaviour? How do the ways that we interact with them, house them, and manage them, impact their well-being? In our lab, answering these questions are fundamental to ensuring that the animals we farm, in this case cattle, live a good life.
I examine professional interactions in the context of therapy. I use discourse and conversation analysis to study the micro-details of social interaction.
My current research explores the role of rural governance, place-based development, philanthropy, rural policy, community economic development, and rural immigration and mobility.
My lab studies lung disease in horses, cats, and dogs. We look for relationships between air pollution and the incidence of asthma. As well, we are developing more detailed ways of understanding how lung diseases arise, and finding more accurate methods for diagnosing them.
