Kieran O’Mahony
Kieran O’Mahony
Research profile
Kieran received his PhD in 2020 from Cardiff University. Engaging with literature from critical geography, the environmental humanities and STS, Kieran’s research broadly addresses a range of human-animal relations and the dynamic environmental settings within which they occur. His previous experience working in conservation practice helped foster a prolonged interest in the knowledge practices and spatial-temporal politics that shape (feral) ecologies, wildlife management, biosecurity, nonhuman belonging, and more-than-human health. He has explored such matters in a variety of regional contexts (the UK, Europe and Japan), in relation to different organisms (including wild and domestic pigs, cows, wolves, and microbes) and through novel, multi-modal methodologies. Kieran is currently a postdoctoral research associate on the ERC BOAR Project, "Veterinarization of Europe? Hunting for Wild Boar Futures in the Time of African Swine Fever".
Special Issues
2023 Walker, A., O’Mahony, K., & Boyer, K. Recollecting the Everyday: Emotion, Memory and Spaces of Mundane Practice. Emotion, Space and Society. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/emotion-space-and-society/special-issue/10TZWWXT7KS
2020 Wynne-Jones, S., Clancy, C., Holmes, G., O’Mahony. K., & Ward, K. Rewilding ‘Feral Political Ecologies’. Conservation and Society 18(2). https://www.jstor.org/stable/e26937280
Peer reviewed journals
2023 von Essen, E., O'Mahony, K., Szczygielska, M., Gieser, T., Vaté, V., Arregui, A., & Broz, L. The Many Boar Identities: Understanding Difference and Change in the Geographies of European Wild Boar Management. Journal of Environmental Planning and Managementhttps://doi:10.1080/09640568.2023.2269312
2023 Walker, A., O'Mahony, K., & Boyer, K. Recollecting the everyday: Emotion, Memory and Spaces of Mundane Practice. Emotion, Space and Society 48, 100961 p1-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2023.100961
2023 Bongi, P., Baruffetti, M., Gazzola, A., & O'Mahony, K. Coexistence in Ecological Corridors: Understanding Tolerance of Wolves in the Northwestern Apennines, Italy. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 28 (1) p53-69 https://doi.org/10.1080/10871209.2021.2010288
2022 O’Mahony, K. Inhabiting ‘Forest of Dean’ Borderlands: Feral Wild Boar and Dynamic Ecologies of Memory and Place. Emotion, Space and Society 45, 100902 p1-12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2022.100902
2022 Enticott G., O'Mahony, K., Shortall, O. & Sutherland, L. ‘Natural Born Carers’? Reconstituting Gender Identity in the Labour of Calf Care. Journal of Rural Studies 95 p362-372 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.09.034
2021 Broz, L., Arregui, A., & O'Mahony, K. Wild Boar Events and the Veterinarization of Multispecies Coexistence. Frontiers in Conservation Science 2 p1-10 https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2021.711299
2020 Wynne-Jones, S., Clancy, C., Holmes, G., O'Mahony, K., & Ward, K. J. Feral Political Ecologies? The Biopolitics, Temporalities and Spatialities of Rewilding. Conservation and Society 18(2) p71-76 https://www.jstor.org/stable/26937282
2020 O'Mahony, K. Blurring Boundaries: Feral Rewilding, Biosecurity and Contested Wild Boar Belonging in England. Conservation and Society 18(2) p114-125 https://www.jstor.org/stable/26937286
2018 O'Mahony, K., Corradini, A., and Gazzola, A. Lupine Becomings: Tracking and Assembling Romanian Wolves through Multi-sensory Fieldwork. Society and Animals 26(2) p107-129 https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-12341501
2023 O’Mahony, K. Feral Landscapes and the Messy Biopolitics of of Resurgent (Porcine) Life. Contested Spaces- Animals, Activists and the Law: Ruling on Nature Project Seminar. Paris, Sept 28.
2023 Enticott, G., & O’Mahony, K. Temporal Borders, Calf Care and Anti-Microbial Resistance. Crises and the Futures of Rural Areas: 29th European Society for Rural Sociology Congress. Rennes, July 3-7.
2023 O'Mahony, K., Keil, P. G., & Vate, V. Relating ‘wild’ (and not so ‘wild’) pig worlds in tumultuous times. Relations and beyond: Annual Conference of the Finnish Anthropological Society. Rovaniemi, March 21-23.
2022 Broz, L., O’Mahony, K., & Keil, P.G. Bewildering numbers: a social analysis of how population estimates shape human-wild pig relations. 13th International Symposium on Wild Boar and Other Suids. Barcelona, Sept 6-9.
2021 Enticott, G and O’Mahony, K. Marginal Biosecurities and Gendered Ecologies of Calf Care”. Borders, Borderlands and Bordering: Royal Geographical Society and International Board of Geographers Annual Conference. London, August 31- Sept 3.
2020 O’Mahony, K. From Sheepscapes to Swinescapes: Presences, Absences and Feral Transitions in the Forest of Dean, England. Hunting, Haunting and the Wayward Boar: Aarhus University Centre for Environmental Humanities Seminar. Online, Oct 20.
2018 O’Mahony, K. Mess, Risk and Enchantment: Disturbing Place with Reintroduced Wild Boar”. Porcine Futures 1: Re-negotiating “Wilderness” in More-than-human Worlds Conference. Prague, Oct 16-17.
2018 O'Mahony, K. Communities, Publics, Responsibilities: The Problematic Nature of England's Wild Boar Strategy”. 12th International Symposium on Wild Boar and Other Suids. Lazne Belohrad, Sept 4-7.
2018 O'Mahony, K. Digging up the Past: Material Memories in Flourishing Swinescapes. Geographical Landscapes/Changing Landscapes of Geography: Royal Geographical Society-International Board Geographers Annual Conference. Cardiff, Aug 28-31.
2018 O'Mahony, K. Upturned Places: Material and Temporal Change in (Re)introduced Swinescapes. Nottingham University Animal Geography Research Workshop. Nottingham, July 4.
2017 O’Mahony, K. Contested Knowledges and Participation in Governing Unsanctioned Wild-life”. Decolonising Geographical Knowledges: Royal Geographical Society-International Board of Geographers Annual Conference. London, Aug 29-Sept 1.
2017 O’Mahony, K. Catching up with Wildlife: The Contested Politics of Reintroduced Wild Boar in England. The Value of Life Conference: Measurement, Stakes, Implications Conference. Wageningen, June 28-30.
2016 O’Mahony, K. (Re)Introducing Ruralities: Rewilding and the Nature of Place. Nexus Thinking: Royal Geographical Society-International Board of Geographers Annual Conference. London, Aug 30-Sept 2.
2022 The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation (GBSF). Recipient of grant for ‘Historic and Future Management of Wild Boar in the UK and Japan’ research project.
2018 School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University. Recipient of ‘Postgraduate International Travel Grant’.
2017 School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University. Recipient of ‘Postgraduate International Travel Grant’.
2015 UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Full PhD scholarship for ‘Feral Bo(a)rderlands: Living with and governing wild boar in the Forest of Dean, England’.
2022 Szczygielska, M., Kuen, L., O'Mahony, K., & Keil, P.G. Feral ethics: Thinking feral with pigs. New Alphabet School (HKW) https://newalphabetschool.hkw.de/feral-ethics-thinkingferal-with-pigs/
2017 O’Mahony, K. “Wild boar in the Dean: Welcome back?” ECOS: British Association of Nature Conservationists. 38 (1) https://www.ecos.org.uk/wild-boar-in-the-dean-welcome-back/
