TY - JOUR
T1 - Dog at my feet
T2 - A moment of identity construction within dissertation acknowledgements
AU - Billany, Ruth
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Human-animal studies (HAS) is a legitimate and multidisciplinary academic endeavor. In the last three decades, there has been a proliferation of articles revealing multiple ways of knowing about the human-animal relationship. This paper, informed by social psychological theories, turns the mirror upon new researchers as they emerge as professional selves into academia. Post-graduate students engage multiple and sometimes contradicting identities throughout their candidatures. The unit of analysis is the dissertation acknowledgement (DA) at both a structural and functional level. The DAs have recently become objects of serious empirical investigation as linguistic choice promotes a situated academic, cultural, and social identity in a moment of time. This paper examines the generic structure and purpose of 104 DAs, with a particular focus on the student-writer's identity with relationship to nonhuman animals in their lives. Fourteen sub-themes are subsumed into thanking, reflecting, and announcing moves. A case is made that the study of DAs is a potentially fecund research area for a unique moment of identity construction.
AB - Human-animal studies (HAS) is a legitimate and multidisciplinary academic endeavor. In the last three decades, there has been a proliferation of articles revealing multiple ways of knowing about the human-animal relationship. This paper, informed by social psychological theories, turns the mirror upon new researchers as they emerge as professional selves into academia. Post-graduate students engage multiple and sometimes contradicting identities throughout their candidatures. The unit of analysis is the dissertation acknowledgement (DA) at both a structural and functional level. The DAs have recently become objects of serious empirical investigation as linguistic choice promotes a situated academic, cultural, and social identity in a moment of time. This paper examines the generic structure and purpose of 104 DAs, with a particular focus on the student-writer's identity with relationship to nonhuman animals in their lives. Fourteen sub-themes are subsumed into thanking, reflecting, and announcing moves. A case is made that the study of DAs is a potentially fecund research area for a unique moment of identity construction.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84899474162&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/15685306-12341325
DO - 10.1163/15685306-12341325
M3 - Article
VL - 22
SP - 221
EP - 240
JO - Society and Animals
JF - Society and Animals
SN - 1063-1119
IS - 3
ER -