Pru Hobson-West

Dr Pru Hobson-West is Associate Professor in the School of Sociology and Social Policy, and an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham, UK. Dr Hobson-West holds a first class MA (Hons) in Politics from the University of Edinburgh, and a PhD and PGCHE from the University of Nottingham. She is based in the Institute for Science and Society and the Centre for Applied Bioethics. In 2019 Pru was also a Visiting Academic at the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, and was previously a Visiting Fellow at the JFK School of Government at Harvard. Pru is a social scientist with expertise in the topic of vaccination, in the socio-ethical dimensions of human-animal relations in the clinic, and in the laboratory. In 2017, Pru's leadership in interdisciplinary research was recognised in her appointment to the University of Nottingham's Research Leaders Programme. In 2019, Pru became the academic lead for the University of Nottingham's new Wellcome Academy, designed to improve engagement with the Wellcome Trust.

Dr Pru Hobson-West is a social scientist with expertise in the fields of science and technology studies, medical sociology, and animals and society.

She has published on fields including vaccination (of humans and animals), the use of animals as laboratory models, and questions of consent in veterinary practice. Her vision is to encourage social scientists to engage with animal medicine, and to encourage practitioners including natural scientists and clinicians to engage with social scientific methods and theories.