Prf Caroline Clarke

Professional biography

I joined The Open University in 2012, and I am now a Professor of Organisational Studies. I previously worked in Bristol Business School, and prior to that I spent five years as a researcher on the Change Management Consortium (Bath and Cranfield University) while doing my PhD on The Emotions of Management, and The Management of Emotion. Before becoming an academic, and in what now seems like a completely different life, I spent 13 years working for the Prudential Assurance Company in a variety of roles, including commercial underwriter, quality assurance officer, and business development analyst.

My Anno Domini took place in 1992. While in full time employment, I signed up for a part-time undergraduate degree in Social Science at the Open University, and was hooked; I might even go as far as saying that I fell in love with this amazing institution . This saw an end to the intellectual widlerness years, the time before any higher educational study, or academic life, what I now think of as life 'Before OU'. This wonderfully rich, interesting and positive student experience was the start of my intellectual pursuits, and returning to the Open University as an academic fulfilled a desire I had harboured for 17 years.  Accepting the job offer was the easiest decision I have ever made. The rest, as they say, is history.  

Research interests

My research interests originated in identity and emotion, but increasingly I am turning my attention towards human-animal relations, and veterinary surgeons in particular. I am also interested in the ways that ignorance is spread through 'disappeared' knowledge, disinformation and denial, particularly in relation to the Industrial-Animal Complex and the Fossil Fuel industry. The anthropogenic activities of both these industries have significantly contributed to the climate crisis, despite their knowing about the harmful effects of their actions decades ago.  

Empirically, I collaborated with Professor David Knights, studying academics in business schools, exploring the increasingly performative and neo-liberal demands of academia. David Knights and I also interviewed over 120 veterinary surgeons. Our main findings relate to the problems which lead vets to become preoccupied with 'right' and  'wrong' answers based on predictability and certainty, perfection and failure. Other equally important findings relate to the gendered organisation of veterinary work, particularly in relation to securing a partnership in the veterinary practice, as well as the marginalisation of part-time workers.  I was awarded a small grant from the Veterinary Management Group for a project called Returning Vets to Practice? I am currently writing up this research to illustrate why veterinary surgeons  finally exit the profession, and why they are unlikely to return.  

Other research interests include issues relating to age, anthropomorphism, anthropocentricism, and wider concerns around speciesism, the nature of non-human/human animal relations, and how these enable pandemic outbreaks.  

My work is qualitative and is situated within a critical  interpretive framework, with a particular interest and focus on discourse.

I have published in Organization Studies, Human Relations, Academy of Management Learning and Education, International Journal of Management Reviews, Gender Work and Organization, and The Journal of Business Ehitcs.  I also undertake peer reviewing activity for a number of journals. 

I regret that from 2025, I will no longer be taking on new PhD students.

My latest publication is listed below. 

Weller, S. L., Brown, A. D., & Clarke, C. A. (2023). Questing for meaningfulness through narrative identity work: The helpers, the heroes and the hurt. human relations, 76(4), 551-576.

Other papers are currently under review.  For a full list of publications, please click on the publications tab. 

Key words:

Identity. Anthropocentrism. Gender. Human Animal-Animal Relations. Embodied Research. Post-Humanism. Academics. Veterinary Surgeons. Professionals. Anthropogenic violence.

Teaching interests

As an undergraduate student with The Open University myself, I have a lot of empathy and admiration for those learning at a distance. Before returning to the Open University as a central academic, I worked at UWE delivering face-to-face teaching, gaining experience with students at all levels of degree qualification, particularly post-graduate and post-experience management students. Whilst I have taught most topics in organization studies, my favourite topics include identity, power and politics, gender, emotion, and culture.  

I was module chair for the production of B870 - Managing in a Changing World, the first module on the new MBA, and I am now Module Chair for the K presentation. I also authored some of the material on ethics, identity, and managing.  In 2018, I wrote Block 4 (Power and Identity) of the new, cutting edge Level 2 Module: Developing Leadership (B208). I was also chair and author in production of B870 module 1 - Managing in a Changing world.   I have also taught on the PhD Mres course. I am currently module chair in production for the new MBA .

I have supervised 10 PhD students to completion, and currently have four PhD students. In the third year of her doctoral studies, Melda Kelemcisoy is bringing together the discipines of Critical Management Studies (CMS) and Critical Animal Studies (CAS) in her doctorate 'The Organization of Anthropocentrism. 

In September 2025 I have three new students starting their studies:  

1. Meriam Moujahid  (with Richard Longman) - Troubling Truths: The Construction of Knowledge and Ignorance in a Time of Global Crises
2. Lauren-Marie Kennedy (with Matthew Melsa)  - Where it all Ve-Gan: A Multidisciplinary Investigation of the Rise of the Vegan Movement in 20th-Century Britain. 
3. Elaine Wear  (with Gillian Anderson) - A study on the preparation of social work and veterinary medicine students in the UK for encounters in professional practice which involve welfare concerns

External collaborations

The Veterinary Management Group

Vets Stay Go and Diversify