Rising academic star honoured by BBC

An international animal rights expert from the University of Sheffield is being tipped to be a future media star by BBC Radio 3 after being named as a 'New Generation Thinker'. Dr Alasdair Cochrane from the University's Department of Politics is one of ten academics from across the UK to be named 'New Generation Thinkers 2014', a partnership between BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), to find the brightest minds who have the potential to turn their ground-breaking research ideas into fascinating broadcast programmes. Considered as the academic broadcasters of the future, Dr Cochrane and the nine other researchers will spend the next 12 months working with BBC Radio 3 presenters and producers to develop his research and ideas into broadcasts. Dr Cochrane will make his debut appearance on Radio 3's arts and ideas programme, Free Thinking, which starts on Tuesday 10 June 2014 and will be invited to make regular contributions to the network throughout the year. Dr Cochrane is a world-leading expert on animal rights. His research takes a distinctively political approach to the question of what is owed to animals, moving beyond debates about what we as individuals might owe to non-human animals, to ask what is owed to them as a matter of justice. Dr Cochrane's focus is on how political practices, institutions, structures and norms affect the lives of animals and how they might be transformed for the benefit of humans and non-humans alike.