All Staff Members | David A H Wilson

Biography

1972-1975 Archaeological excavation and museum work, Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1975-1978 Museum Assistant, Beamish North of England Open Air Museum
1978- 1980 Assistant Curator, Southend-on-Sea Museums and Art Gallery
1980-1988 Senior Museums Officer, Derby Museums and Art Gallery
1988-1991 Principal Curator, Bristol Museums and Art Gallery
1991-2010 Course Leader of HND and BA Heritage Management, BA Joint Honours Programme, Integrated MA Programme (Cultural Heritage, Fine Art, Media), BA History, and PGR supervision, Cumbria Institute of the Arts and University of Cumbria.
2010-2022 Honorary Research Fellow, School of History, University of Leicester
2025- Visiting Research Fellow, Institute of Education, Arts and Society, University of Cumbria

I served as a member of the Peer Review College of the Arts and Humanities Research Council between 2009 and 2013, assessing and advising on the quality of research grant applications.

Until 2025: member of Editorial Board of Anthrozoös, a journal of the interactions of people and animals (International Society for Anthrozoology). Reviewer for Early Popular Visual Culture, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Animals.

Historical research for a BBC television documentary. Contribution to publication under the auspices of the Imperial War Museum, as part of commemorations of the First World War, and to similar commemorative material for BBC local radio.

Research material has been used for the BBC 'Coast' series. In addition to appearances on the BBC, I was asked to advise the BBC Natural History Unit about the thematic content and structure of a radio programme. 'From Vicars to Clones' would investigate how the historic development of animal behaviour theory responded to and threw light on contemporary human interests, activities or preoccupations, in areas such as altruism, group loyalty, processes of learning, sexual morality, industrial efficiency, co-operation, and motivation.

Qualifications and memberships

1972 BA Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Birmingham
1979 MA by research Later Roman Documents, University of Birmingham
1999 PhD Encouragements and Constraints in the Development of Experimental Animal Behaviour Studies in Great Britain since the Late Nineteenth Century, University of Leicester
2005 PG Cert in PGR Supervision, University of Central Lancashire
2005 to date Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Academic and research interests

My specialist research area and publications concern both historical anthrozoology and the history of comparative psychology as well as other studies of animal behaviour (pure and applied) especially in Britain, including interdisciplinary, institutional, professional, ethical, religious, recreational, literary and military aspects.

Current research: Clerics and animal welfare in the age of George III.

Published book reviews:

(2023) Ana Lucia Camphora Animals and society in Brazil from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Winwick: White Horse Press, 2021. Anthrozoös, vol. 36 (6), pp. 1129-1131. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08927936.2023.2182031.

(2019) Hilda Kean The great cat and dog massacre. The real story of World War Two’s unknown tragedy. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Anthrozoös, vol. 32 (3), pp. 437-439.

(2017) Peta Tait Fighting nature: travelling menageries, animal acts and war shows. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2016. Anthrozoös, vol. 30 (3), pp. 521-522.

(2016) Philip Howell At home and astray: the domestic dog in Victorian Britain. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2015. Anthrozoös, vol. 29 (1), pp. 171-172.

(2012) Harriet Ritvo Noble cows and hybrid zebras: essays on animals and history. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2010. Anthrozoös, vol. 25 (2), pp. 247-249.

Publications

(2017) ‘Circus animals and the illusion of wildness’, Early Pop Vis Cult, 15 (3), 350-366.
(2015) The welfare of performing animals: a historical perspective. Berlin: Springer.
(2011) ‘British animal behaviour studies in the twentieth century', in C. Blazina et al. (eds) The psychology of the human-animal bond. Springer, 25-44.
(2010) ‘Animal performance: interdisciplinary features of a special area of performing arts history’, J Scot Soc Art Hist, 15, 7-16.
(2009) ‘Racial prejudice and the performing animals controversy in early twentieth-century Britain’, Society & Animals, 17 (2), 149-165.
(2009) ‘“Crank legislators”, “faddists” and professionals’ defence of animal performance in 1920s Britain’, Early Pop Vis Cult, 7 (1), 83-101.
(2008) ‘Politics, press and the performing animals controversy in early twentieth-century Britain’, Anthrozoös, 21 (4), 317-337.
(2006) ‘Avian anti-submarine warfare proposals in Britain, 1915-18’, Int J Nav Hist, 5 (1), 1-25.

Conferences

(2013) ‘“Samson making sport for the Philistines”: “wild nature” in the music hall and circus’, conference paper, British Animal Studies Network: Looking, University of Strathclyde, 26-27 April. http://www.britishanimalstudiesnetwork.org.uk/Portals/108/Wilson%20paper.MP3
(2012) ‘“Let us clear the stage and clear our conscience, too”: historic British campaigns against animal performance’, conference paper, The Arts and Sciences of Human-Animal Interaction, International Society for Anthrozoology, University of Cambridge, 11 July. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8hAV8ZvU5I&feature=plcp
(2011) ‘The performing animals controversy in early twentieth-century Britain: interdisciplinary perspectives’, public lecture and seminar, Centre for Animal Welfare and Anthrozoology, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, 14 February.
(2009) ‘How historic graphic art reflected aspects of the performing animals controversy in early twentieth-century Britain’, conference paper, Cross-overs: an Interdisciplinary Symposium, Scottish Society for Art History and the Subject Centre for History, Classics & Archaeology, 7 November.
(2009) ‘Performing animals and illusions of nature’, conference paper, International Visual Sociology Association Conference, School of Humanities, University of Cumbria, 22-24 July.
(2009) ‘British gulls versus the U-boat, 1915-17’, conference paper, 2009 International Academic and Community Conference on Animals and Society: Minding Animals, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia, 17 July.
(2009) ‘British sea lions and the “underwater ship”’, conference paper, 2009 International Academic and Community Conference on Animals and Society: Minding Animals, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia, 14 July.
(2002) ‘Ethical problems in animal behaviour studies: historical context and professional awareness in Britain’, public lecture, History and Philosophy of Science Seminar Series, School of Philosophy, University of Leeds, 23 October.
(2004) ‘The public relations of experimental animal psychology in Britain in the 1970s’, Contemp Brit Hist, 18 (2), 27-46.
(2004) ‘Seagulls, sausage meat and the underwater ship’, J Defence Sc, 9 (1), 21-29.
(2003) ‘British female academics and comparative psychology’,  Hist Psych, 6 (1), 89-109.
(2002) ‘Animal psychology and ethology in Britain and the emergence of professional concern for the concept of ethical cost’, Studs Hist Phil Biol Biomed Sc, 33, 235-261.
(2002) ‘Experimental animal behaviour studies: the loss of initiative in Britain 100 years ago’, Hist Sc, 40, 291-320.
(2001) ‘A “precipitous dégringolade”? The uncertain progress of British comparative psychology in the twentieth century’, in G.C. Bunn et al. (eds) Psychology in Britain. Brit Psych Soc / Science Museum, 243-266.
(2001) ‘Admiralty science, U-boats and the performing arts, 1916-1917’, J Defence Sc, 6 (2), 157-167.
(2001) ‘Sea lions, greasepaint and the U-boat threat .. in 1916’, Notes Recs The Royal Society, 55 (3), 425-455.