Identity, Gender, and Tracking: The Reality of Boundaries for Veterinary Students

by Jenny R. Vermilya

Overview

Using in-depth interviews with veterinary students, Identity, Gender, and Tracking: The Reality of Boundaries for Veterinary Students explores the experience of enrollment in an educational program that tracks students based on the species of animals that they wish to treat. The identity of a veterinarian is one characterized by care; thus, students have to construct different definitions of care, creating a system of power and inequality. Tracking produces multiple boundaries for veterinary students, which has consequences not just for the veterinarian, but also for the treatment of animals. Written for administrators and students alike, Identity, Gender, and Tracking sheds light on how and why veterinary students construct their identities and end up in certain specializations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612496894
Publisher:	Purdue University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2022
Series:	New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	180
Sales rank:	316,089
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Dr. Jenny R. Vermilya is an assistant professor on the clinical teaching track in the sociology department at the University of Colorado Denver. Vermilya’s expertise and professional interests center on gender and professions, symbolic interactionism, qualitative methods, and animals and society. Her writing about the horse slaughter controversy in the United States appeared in Psychology Today’s blog Animals and Us: The Psychology of Human-Animal Interactions. Most recently, her coauthored research on police shootings of dogs appeared in We Are Best Friends: Animals in Society.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
PART 1. THE BACKSTORY
1. Boundaries, Social Construction, and Tracking: An Introduction
2. A Sociologist at Veterinary College: Research Methods
PART 2. THE STORIES
3. Treatment Discourses and the Privileging of Knowledge
4. Learning to Care: Collective Identity Work in the Tracking System
5. Contesting Horses: The Equine Concentration as a Border Track
6. Gendered Boundary Work in a Feminized Field
Conclusion
Appendix A: Advertisement for Participants
Appendix B: Interview Guide
Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Through detailed ethnographic research and interviews, Jenny R. Vermilya examines the veterinary schools' system of specialties or 'tracks' that focus on companion animals on one hand and production animals (those used for food) on the other. Her skillful analysis reveals how the tracking system influences veterinary students' views of animals and what constitutes appropriate treatment. Through engaging examples, the tracking system becomes a window onto how societies organize and legitimize knowledge about animals, as well as how professions lay claim to systems of knowledge and expertise." —Leslie Irvine, Director of Certificate Program in Animals and Society, University of Colorado Boulder

"With a wealth of data from in-depth interviews and observations, Jenny Vermilya's insightful book reveals how species and specialization play a role in the boundary work of veterinary students. Vermilya demonstrates how the different tracks in veterinary school define professional identities and careers, as she explains how our social constructions of different species, gender, and what it means to be a veterinarian have changed over time. The clear prose and cogent explanations make this book of interest to sociologists and veterinarians." —Elizabeth Cherry, author of Culture and Activism: Animal Rights in France and the United States

"Identity, Gender, and Tracking offers a sociological perspective on the impact of tracking in modern veterinary education. Jenny Vermilya's insightful analysis of the 'small animal' versus 'large animal' dichotomy in veterinary schools raises a host of issues that transcend veterinary education—for example, the 'care-killing paradox,' how the blurring of boundaries caused the horse slaughterhouse controversy, the emphases on caring for herds versus individual animals, treating animals as pets or products, and the feminization of the veterinary profession. Based on four years of fieldwork, Vermilya's book brilliantly explores our conflicted and complex attitudes toward other species." —Hal Herzog, author of Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight about Animals

"This book is easy to read and engaging, and will be valued by veterinary students, educators, and practitioners. I value the methodology the author followed: in-depth student interviews and a qualitative approach. The book concisely explores the history of veterinary medicine and how the role and importance of animals influenced the development and specializations across the veterinary profession." ——Anthrozoos

From the Publisher