HAS Courses in Canada
Social Justice
Animal Liberation and Social Justice. Theories and case studies examining social justice beyond the limits of the human species, including issues such as animal rights, animal liberation, speciesism in relation to other forms of oppression, alternative ethical and political relationships to animals.
Sociology
David Sztybel, Lauren Corman
Animals and the Law. This course will explore questions pertaining to animals and the law in terms of both theory and practice. The law illuminates key interrelationships between humans and other animals. Not only the law but sociology itself interweaves with ethical concerns about how we should relate to others. Indeed, three competing theoretical groundings of present or proposed animal law are: (1) animal welfare; (2) animal rights; and (3) animal liberation (the latter often rejects rights in favor of a utilitarian approach). After reflecting on animal law in Canada as it exists, we will ask, as does Gary Francione, if society's profession of animal welfare is, after all, self-contradictory. After examining the property status of animals and Francione's vision of animal rights among other approaches, theoretical questions about the comparability of oppression will be addressed, including: can we compare speciesism to racism and sexism? Animals and the Law in Practice will occupy the second half of the course and will principally be concerned with animals as entertainers, companions, in laboratories, and as sources of food. Also, we will contemplate the practices of litigating and legislating in relation to animals, their advocates, and users.
Sociology
David Sztybel, Lauren Corman
Animals and Human Society. This course will explore how animals relate to human social organization. The sociology of animals interweaves with ethical concerns about how we should relate to others. We will examine how animal rights and human rights, although they seem disparate to some, are actually very close conceptual neighbours. Different versions of animal liberation and animal "welfare" will be discussed. Since this is the first in Brock University's series of Critical Animal Studies courses, it is fitting that we take a sustained look at an area in which 95% of animals killed by humans meet their fate: animal agriculture. We will examine not only flesh-eating but indeed vegetarianism. Fox's insight that people "compartmentalize" their thinking about humans and animals will help to guide our reflections on animals used as performers, competitors, clothing, and research tools. Before concluding, we will contemplate how speciesism can be compared not only with racism but sexism, and how themes of liberation also intimately intertwine.
John Sorenson
Critical Animal Studies. In 1980, John Berger asked: Why Look at Animals? We consider some possible answers to Berger's question by analyzing various ways of looking at animals, for example, as food, pets and objects of entertainment. We will examine how they are represented in visual media, especially photography, and in campaigns by animal advocates. ‘Representation' does not simply refer to visual images but also to the control and circulation of images and how they operate in society. Thus, in our examination, we will undertake a sociological investigation of the meaning and power of these images in our society and how visual representations draw attention to or are contradicted by the actual situation of various animals. ‘Representation' also connotes the process of standing in for another' - i.e. representing them politically and we will also discuss how academics and activists look at animals in the newly-emerging field of Animal Studies and, with our positioning of this course as Critical Animal Studies, ask what sorts of responsibilities are involved in the representation of animals.
Media Studies
Carol Gigliotti
Environmental Ethics. The primary goal of this course is to prepare students to understand and to critically evaluate various ethical perspectives on human beings' interactions with nature and these perspectives' applications to environmental issues. An important secondary goal is to provide students with tools to integrate those perspectives into their practice as cultural workers.
Carol Gigliotti
Media Studies
Critical Animal Studies. Once one begins to notice, it becomes clear that animals play a central role in how meaning is made in the arts and humanities. This course deals with how and why visual, narrative and metaphorical depictions of animals affect our ways of being with animals in aesthetic, activist, environmental and biological contexts. You will be looking closely at these roles through examples in the arts, literature, media, film, design and performance. You will also be reading materials from a range of areas - literary theory, philosophy, history, art and film history, sociology, anthropology and critical theory - and encouraged to think about how representing animals differs from "using" them; how do these representations affect animals themselves; how do literature, the arts, media and design respond to, and act upon ethical and political debates particularly the rights of animals. In what new ways can literature, the arts, film, design and media affect our ethical relationships with animals?
Sociology
Leanne Joanisse
Animals and Society. Much of human society is structured through interactions with animals or through interactions with other humans regarding animals, yet sociology has largely ignored these types of interactions. This course is designed to bring into the realm of sociological study the relationships that exist between humans and animals. It will examine how animals are socially constructed, challenge traditional representations of animals, and study animals as minded social actors. We will apply sociological approaches to the study of human-animal relationships and even animal-animal relationships. A major focus will be on the social construction of animals in North American culture, although we will also examine controversies surrounding human-animal relationships. Finally, we will consider the moral status and rights of animals in human society.
University College of Cape Breton
Anthropology
Tracey Smith-Harris
Animals & People. A critical and comparative examination of the relationship between people and animals. This course explores human attitudes toward animals by examining such topics as animal representations in art, literature and popular culture, as well as the social and cultural constructions of legal, political, economic and philosophical issues pertaining to animals. Much of the focus is on the controversies surrounding this complex social relationship.
Animal Science
Gaylene Fasenko
Companion Animals and Society. To explore the evolving roles of different companion animal species ; To introduce the concept of the human-animal bond and the influence it has on human behaviour, health, society, and government policy ; To learn about the physiology, health, behaviour and care of diverse species that are now considered to be companion animals ; To examine how companion animals have been selectively bred and trained to optimize certain physiological and behavioural traits in order to fulfill the needs of individuals and society ; To develop student awareness regarding the rapidly expanding companion animal industry and the recent expenditure trends of pet owners ; To theorize and discuss the future of companion animals ; Through interactions with companion animal organizations, laboratory sessions will provide the opportunity for students to gain direct hands-on experience with the different companion animal species ; To provide a fun, interactive learning environment that engages and encourages students to continue to apply the knowledge gained in this class to everyday situations.
University of British Columbia
Agricultural Sciences
David Fraser, Dan Weary
Animals and Society. An interdisciplinary introduction to the place of animals in human society. The course introduces students to (1) the place of animals in mythology and Western thought, (2) the role of animals in world food production, biomedical research, companionship and entertainment, and (3) attempts to safeguard animals through by practical innovations, the humane movement and the law. The course involves reading, discussion, critical thinking and written work.
University of British Columbia
Agricultural Sciences
David Fraser, Dan Weary
Undergraduate Thesis in Animal Welfare. This course provides the opportunity for students to take an active role in a research project on animal welfare, including involvement in experimental design, data collection and data analysis. Ideally students identify a research topic and begin data collection during the summer, and work on the data analysis and writing their thesis during the Fall and Spring semesters. The final thesis will be in the format of a scientific article, and, when appropriate, students may submit their work for publication.
University of British Columbia
Agricultural Sciences
David Fraser, Dan Weary
Topics in Animal Welfare. This involves reading and discussion of current research in animal welfare and ethics. Topics will be chosen to fit the interests of students, and may include the interplay of science and value issues in assessing animal welfare, research on animal cognition and its implications for animal ethics, effects of trade agreements on the welfare of agricultural animals, use of animal and non-animal models in research, and the relation between animal welfare and environmental concerns. Offered September-December.
University of British Columbia
Agricultural Sciences
David Fraser, Dan Weary
Overview of Animal Welfare and Animal Ethic. A graduate level overview of animal welfare and animal ethics, covering scientific assessment of animal well-being, ethical concepts applied to animal use, and animal welfare issues arising in agriculture, biomedical research and other areas. This course is intended especially for new graduate students specializing in animal welfare. It will be linked to the undergraduate course AGRO 315 and students will cover a common curriculum. Graduate students enrolled in the graduate course will be responsible for a greater breadth of readings and will write an in-depth term paper.
University of British Columbia
Agricultural Sciences
David Fraser, Dan Weary
Tutorials in Animals Welfare Research. This consists of 8 tutorials run with an instructor and a small group of students. Each week students will be set readings covering key topics in the field of animal welfare. Students will be expected to write a short essay on the readings and then discuss their essay and the readings during the tutorial session.
English
Pamela Banting
The Human and its Others: The Question of the Animal. In this seminar we will begin to think with animals first and foremost by considering them in their Otherness. Beginning with a brief investigation into poststructuralist, postmodern, postcolonial, feminist, and ecocritical interrogations of Otherness and the ethics of representation, we will examine the humanist bias and the blind spots regarding the animal in existing theories of the Other. Then we will interrogate theorizations of the animal in relation to the question of language. One of the traditional demarcations between humans and other animals has been the notion that humans are the only ones capable of language and that this trait sets us above other species. Research in zoosemiotics and the long-term studies of naturalists, however, challenge this proprietorial exclusivity, and deep ecologists like Christopher Manes question why we privilege language over photosynthesis or sporogenesis. Thinkers such as James Hatley, Val Plumwood and Jacques Derrida propose that edibility be factored into concepts of subjectivity, including, in Hatley's words, "the uncanny goodness of being edible to bears." Emmanuel Levinas proposes the face as the basis for an ethics of self and Other, but the faces of animals (except pets) are widely believed to be the faces of species, not individuals. In summary, we will examine questions of subjectivity, the gaze and the face, constructions of the animal Other in nature photography, communication between humans and other mammals, the question of emotion as it pertains to animals other than humans, problems of anthropomorphism and antianthropomorphism, problems of realism in relation to representing the animal Other, captive and/or domestic vs. wild animals, ethics and etiquette in human/non-human relationships, postmodern animals, inter-species collaborations (e.g. musicians and birds), conservation rhetoric and the difficult of representing creatures who do not create documents and whose languages we do not comprehend, how theorizing the animal Other alters our sense of ourselves and our own species, and other topics.
Veterinary Medicine
Georgia Mason
Animal Welfare Science. This elective comprises readings and discussions of animal welfare theory, and how these concepts may be applied to issues of veterinary medicine and animal care. Students participate in weekly seminars, involving discussions and background readings. Students develop skills in analysing and communicating concepts of animal welfare.
Veterinary Medicine
Georgia Mason
Animal Welfare. Animal industries, policy makers and animal protection organizations indicate strong needs for professionals with expertise in animal welfare. Students explore animal welfare issues commonly confronting veterinary practitioners, the role of veterinarians in animal cruelty investigations, and techniques to assess animal welfare in individuals and in animal populations.
