Oral and Photographic History of the Working Animals of the
White Mountains & North Country
The gap and upcoming trend in the field that I will be addressing during my sabbatical is the ethics and understanding of the non-human animal experience in working or labor environments. Some of my recent work includes exploratory research of working animals across the globe as well as beginning to focus on the experiences of working animals in the White Mountains [1],[2],[3]. This work has mostly focused on existing literature to develop presentations and assess interest in the topic.
Based on recent conference acceptance and attendance at presentations, I have decided to move forward with this work and design a project that will involve collecting oral histories from people who work with animals as well as documenting the evolution of working animals in the White Mountains from trail clearing oxen and draft horse teams to the pet therapy teams that currently volunteer at PSU.
For my sabbatical, I am proposing an active research project that will allow me to research and document the written, photographic, and oral histories of how humans have relied on non-human animals in the tourism regions of the White Mountains and Great North Woods (North Country) of New Hampshire.
[1] Uttley, C.M. (March 17, 2022). An Exploration of the History and Ethics of the Exploitation of Working Animals. Animal Life Histories. Basel, Switzerland
[2] Uttley, C.M. (March 18, 2022). History of Working Animals in Transportation and Recreation. Emerging Voices for Animals in Tourism Virtual Conference.
[3] Palmer, C.M. (October 4, 2023). Historical Transformation from Working Animals to Companion Animals. Perspectives of the Human-animal Relationship International Anthrozoology Conference. University of Debrecen, Hungary.
Clarissa M. Palmer
I have been working in, and researching, the field of Anthrozoology (Human-Animal Interaction) since 1993 when I was employed as the Education Specialist at a city zoo in Massachusetts. Since that time, I have systematically researched specific areas in the field including the human-animal bond, pet assisted therapy programming, therapy animal certification standards, and animal welfare and ethics in human-animal interaction activities (see referenced works footnoted, selected publications/presentations, and additional works in CV). In addition to actively conducting human subjects research in this field, I have conducted two content analyses (of premier academic journals in the field [1],[2]) that provided an extensive overview of the field in terms of who was publishing, what studies were being conducted, where the studies were conducted, why the research was being conducted, and how the studies were designed. Having this broad understanding of the field allowed me to identify gaps in the research as well as to identify areas that were just starting to be studied. Over the past two years, I have begun shifting my research to address these gaps and also highlight the geographic region where I live and work (Northern New Hampshire).
[1] Palmer, C. M. (2023). Content analysis of research in the human-animal interaction bulletin (2013–2022). Human-Animal Interactions. CABI International. doi: 10.1079/hai.2023.0003.
[2] Uttley, C.M. (July 19, 2013). Twenty-five years of Human and Non-Human Animal Demographics: A Content Analysis of Anthrozoös – the Journal of the International Society for Anthrozoology. International Society for Anthrozoology. Chicago, IL.
