I am a social psychologist and vegan of 20+ years. Right now I like looking at diet-based prejudice, interventions to reduce meat consumption and cultured meat attitudes. I care about exploitation, oppression and intersectional issues such as the connections between the treatment of non-human animals and women.
I am currently writing about the history of diet conflict and running intergroup contact experiments in Scotland and online. My past work includes taking members of the public to a working dairy farm and seeing how this exposure changed their attitudes. I typically work quantitatively but also have qualitative experience.
I have spoken about my research at VARC 2026 and was on the organising team for the PHAIR Society Animal Advocacy Conference in 2025.
Feel free to email me to discuss cool projects: S.vellana[at]sms.ed.ac[dot]uk
