HAS Courses in the Midwest
Anthropology
Molly Mullin
Animals & Human Societies. Examines animal-human relationships in a cross-cultural, historical perspective. Considers the politics of classification, how animals have served as a mirror for human identities, how animal-human relationships can provide a convenient window from which to study human societies, and how ideas about animals and human-animal relationships have changed over time. Specific cases include cockfighting in Bali, rabies eradication and anti-vivisection campaigns in 19th Century England, Sea World, slaughterhouses in France, and xenotransplantation in Sweden.
Philosophy
William O. Stephens
Environmental Ethics. This ethics course examines what duties and responsibilities human beings have to the natural environment and the organisms within it. If speciesism is morally unacceptable by unjustifiably excluding non-human animals from the moral community, then what exactly are our ethical obligations to non-human animals? If anthropocentrism is in general defective, what implications do these defects have for the moral standing of individual plants, insects, and animals, entire species of organisms, waters, land, ecosystems, and the planet as a whole?
DePaul University, School for New Learning
Interdisciplinary
Betta LoSardo
Externship: Animals in Contemporary Life. Students will pursue literature on the historical connections between animals and humans, and will review philosophies concerning treatment of animals. Students will also be exposed to current issues in animal welfare, including a volunteer experience in an animal shelter. Faculty will provide a framework for assessing the roles and condition of animals, particularly domestic animals, in our culture. Assigned readings range from Peter Singer's noted work on animal experimentation Animal Liberation to excerpts from Black Elk Speaks, a Native American treatise on hierarchy and respect for life in American aboriginal culture. Students will pursue their own interests through further readings and commentary.
Patricia McEachern
Animal Ethics. This cutting-edge multidisciplinary course is designed to acquaint the student with the contemporary and historical animal-rights issues. A primary goal of the course is to raise moral consciousness about the most current conditions and uses of nonhuman animals and therein the ethical dimension of relationships between nonhuman animals and human beings. The course is structured in two sections: a) ethical theory and b) applied ethics.
The course will be team taught by professors from across the disciplines. Students will study a range of issues related to nonhuman animals including the animal rights debate, spay/neuter issues, vivisection, animal law, animal fighting, views of nonhuman animals in various religious traditions, sustainability, associations between animal abuse and interpersonal violence, factory farming hoarding, wildlife control, and overpopulation. In addition to Drury faculty, guest speakers will address such issues as puppy mills, animal control, and issues related to local animal shelters. The course will include a visit to an animal shelter or zoo. By the end of the course, students will have continued to develop the ability to read thoughtfully, think critically and imaginatively and communicate ideas powerfully
in writing and speaking.
Biology
Ecological Science: Origins, Findings, and Ethical Issues. Beginning with a brief history of the philosophical underpinnings of scientific thought and the culture in which it arose, the course will proceed to examine exactly how, from a current scientific perspective, the environment sustains us and how its different components function as a system that has the ability to react dynamically to changes. The course will also compare what the science of ecology tells us as to how some non-western primal societies (Australian Aborigine, Native American) view the natural world and its cycles of growth, death, and renewal. The ways in which the values of western thought and those of primal societies differ vis a vis the natural world, and the consequences of those differences in the past and present will also be examined. Laboratory experience will consist of several directed inquiry studies and field trips to local areas of interest. Cannot be counted toward a biology major. Also listed as Environmental Studies 122.
Philosophy
Judith Barad
Ethics and Animals
Philosophy
Judith Barad
Environmental Ethics
Religious Studies
Lisa Sideris
Science, Religion, and the Environment. Examines arguments that hold scientific and religious world views responsible for our environmental crisis and the devaluation of nonhuman animal life. The structure of the course follows a thesis-antithesis-synthesis format. We start with a historical survey of Christian thinkers (Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Luther) up to and including modern Christian thinkers who have been criticized by environmentalists. We then cover scientific thinkers, such as Bacon and Descartes, and modern physicists. The third section involves a reconsideration of the thesis that science and/or religion have been responsible for environmental problems and disregard for animals. We look at thinkers both in science and religion who have contributed positively to the human-nature relationship, both in the past and present.
English
Teresa Mangum
Literature and Society: Capturing Animals. In this course, our overarching goal will be to develop an understanding of what animals "mean" in our culture and of the many ways we use animals-as companions, as metaphors and images to represent fears, pleasures, and assumptions, as food, as objects for pleasure and sadly for abuse, as commodities, as projections of qualities we wish to possess. We will also be participating in a new educational approach called Service-Learning so that in addition to using literary and theoretical printed and visual work as our course texts, we will also be using your own experiences and reflections. During your service at the Iowa City/Coralville Animal Center, the stories and insights that you collect there will essentially form an additional course text. In effect, we'll be "capturing animals" throughout the semester: in fiction, in the Animal Center, in advertisements, in theoretical accounts of human-animal relations, in community policies governing animals, in university policies on animal research, in popular culture, and in politics. Throughout the semester, we'll return to a number of research questions which will knit together class readings, your service at the Animal Center, and, I hope, ultimately the reflections, discussions, written work, and research that will bind us together as a class.
Veterinary Medicine
Suzanne Millman
Animal Welfare. 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.
Animal Science
Janice Swanson, Michael Dikeman
History and Attitudes of Animal Use. A short history of animal use and the livestock industry; attitudes towards animals; the symbiotic bond between humans and animals; the contributions from animals of food, fiber, work, and recreation; animal well-being; the interaction of livestock production and the environment; and ethical issues about using animals for research, food, and recreation. Three hours of lec./rec. a week. Interactive discussion will be emphasized, no prerequisites.
Animal Science
Janice Swanson, Michael Dikeman
Contemporary Issues in Animal Science. The development and management of current issues affecting animal agriculture and science in three primary areas: (1) how do issues develop; (2) the political aspects of issues; and (3) the development of expertise based on objective assessment. Current issues such as animal welfare/rights, environment, genetic engineering, etc., will be used to provide students with practical learning experiences. Recommended pr.: Junior standing.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
Linda Kalof
Animals , People and Nature. This graduate course examines one of the most fiercely debated topics in contemporary science and culture: the animal question - or, what is the fitting role of animals in human culture and of humans in animal culture?
Sociology
Linda Kalof
Animals and Social Transformations. This graduate course is an historical overview of the cultural relationship between humans and other animals and how those relationships have changed with changing social conditions. We will use both visual imagery and extracts from historical and literary sources to experience the human-animal story from prehistory through postmodernity. The course draws on a wealth of information about the animal-human relationship, covering a range of topics rarely discussed in animal studies, such as the Black Plague, dead animal portraiture and animal rituals that reflect hierarchies of gender, race and class, including the medieval backwards ride, horning ceremonies and animal massacres.
Michigan State University/Lyman Briggs College
History
Georgina Montgomery
Animal Histories. This course will analyze the various ways in which human society understands and interacts with wildlife. Human/animal relationships will be examined in a range of physical locations, including the laboratory, field, national park and zoo, and in a range of cultural and social settings. Within these various contexts we will examine how humans relate to animals, how these relationships have been defined and represented, and the consequences of these relationships for human identity.
Philosophy
Mylan Engel, Jr.
Environmental Ethics. This course seeks to determine whether and to what extent we have duties and obligations toward animals and the environment. Some questions to be addressed include: What is the value of nature? Is nature intrinsically valuable or merely of instrumental value? Do we have a duty to preserve the environment for future generations? If so, does this imply that we can have duties toward nonexistent beings (since future generations don't exist yet)? What are the most effective steps we as individuals can take to help preserve the environment? Is global warming real? If so, what steps, if any, should we take to help curb global warming? Should governments be implementing policies which encourage the use of Low Input Sustainable Agriculture [LISA] techniques? Do Western environmental practices oppress humans in developing nations? Are patriarchal patterns of male dominance to blame for many of our current environmental problems? Do we have a duty to protect endangered plant and/or animal species? Is it worse to kill members of an endangered species than it is to kill members of abundant species, and if so, why? Are some ecosystems better and more worthy of preserving than others? What is the moral status of animals? Is it wrong to kill animals for fun? Is it worse to kill animals than it is to kill plants? Is it wrong to torture animals? Is it wrong to wear animals? Is vegetarianism morally obligatory for people living in modern societies? Is animal experimentation (ever?, always?) morally permissible? What is speciesism and is it morally wrong? What bearing, if any, does our current treatment of animals have on the environment? What duties, if any, do we as individuals have regarding the environment?
Philosophy
Mylan Engel, Jr.
Contemporary Moral Issues. The course seeks answers to some of the most controversial moral questions of our time: What is the nature of right and wrong? Who is to say what is right? Is capital punishment ever morally justified? Is abortion morally wrong? Can a just society allow individuals to starve in poverty while other individuals hoard billions of dollars? Do moderately affluent individuals have a duty to assist the poor? Is reverse discrimination morally wrong? Is euthanasia (mercy killing) morally permissible? Is suicide morally wrong? Is homosexuality immoral? Is premarital sex morally wrong? What is the moral status of animals? Is it O.K. to torture animals? Is it O.K. to kill animals for food? Is it O.K. to wear animals? Is it O.K. to experiment on animals? Do we have a duty to protect the environment for future generations? If so, what are the most effective things we, as individuals, can do to help preserve the environment?
History
Susan Pearson
The Human Animal Relationship in Historical Perspective. This course will examine the problems and possibilities of studying the human-animal relationship in historical perspective. Building on recent scholarship, we will consider how animals have served as symbols in human culture, as raw material for human industry, and as companions in human lives.
Animal Science
Steve Moeller, Henry Zerby
Human and Animal Interactions in Europe. This short-term study abroad program will allow you to surround yourself with a different culture, geography, community/government infrastructure, and rich history to directly compare how those, and other aspects of that culture, shape and impact the role that animals have in that respective society. This course offers an opportunity for you to broaden your educational program, and gain a greater appreciation for cultural diversity, and provides a means to utilize skills and knowledge you have learned from multiple disciplines.
Animal Science
Steve Moeller, Henry Zerby
Human and Animal Interactions in the US. The reciprocal connection between human and non-human animals is greatest where humans and animals interact due to the process of domestication. However, human population growth and the continued development and expansion of our habitat mean that very few animal species remain unaffected by human activities. This course explores the biological principles and fundamental theories that have been developed to explain the evolutionary process, and the impact of humans on the selection, domestication and evolution of animals.
Animal Science
Pauleen Bennett, Mariko Lauber, Samia Toukhsati
Animals in Society. Animals in Society is an introductory course designed to introduce students to the social, cultural, economic and legal frameworks within which current human-animal relationships exist. The course was developed by the Department of Animals Sciences in collaboration with the Animal Welfare Science Centre of Australia, a cross-institutional facility that promotes animal welfare science research and education. Animals in Society is approved to fulfill a Social Science GEC and will be offered for the first time during the Autumn 2007 quarter. Students in this course, will explore a wide range of current animal roles with a view to broadening their understanding of how integral our relationships with animals are in maintaining human physical, social and psychological health and well-being.
Animal Science
Ana Hill
Issues Concerning the Use of Animals by Humans. Topics pertinent to contemporary animal rights and animal welfare issues are addressed using lectures, debates, videotapes, guest speakers, and student presentations. Students prepare formal "position papers" on a variety or topics throughout the quarter. Critical thinking, consideration of opposing viewpoints, and evaluation of information sources are stressed. Class discussions, and interaction with speakers representing diverse philosophies and interests, are prominent features of the course. The course, which has been taught sine 1990, fulfills a University General Education Curriculum requirement in the "Contemporary World Issues" category. Enrollment is limited to seniors.
Philosophy
Environmental Ethics. How should we value nature? What is important about it, and why? Is it important to us because caring for nature advances our interests, or because it is valuable in its own right? Do animals have special claims upon us? Should our primary concern be for individual organisms, or for species? This course will aim at thinking through some of the questions that surround the idea of valuing the environment in which we live, and understanding possible views as to the source and nature of that value.
Animal Science
Ed Pajor
Animal Welfare. A multi-disciplinary course that introduces students to the fields of animal welfare and the ethics of animal use. The course will emphasize farm animal welfare and production issues.
Animal Science
Animal Welfare Assessment. The course will increase the student's understanding of animal welfare issues in agriculture. Students will integrate information from various animal science courses and experiences to provide assessments of the welfare of animals under various production scenarios. Students will be expected to do substantial reading outside of class. The top four students in the class will be invited to represent Purdue University in a national animal welfare assessment competition.
Animal Science
Ed Pajor
Recent Advances in Animal Welfare. This is a multi-instructional, multi-disciplinary course offered to senior undergraduates and graduate students at Michigan State University and Purdue. Lectures will originate at Michigan State University or Purdue and be video-linked to the partner universities. Lecturers will address a variety of issues relevant to animal welfare.
Child Development and Family Studies
Gail Melson
Philosophy
Lilly-Marlene Russow
Ethics and Animals. An exploration through the study of historical and contemporary philosophical writings of basic moral issues as they apply to our treatment of animals. Rational understanding of the general philosophical problems raised by practices such as experimentation on animals and meat-eating are emphasized.
Philosophy
Lilly-Marlene Russow
Environmental Ethics. An introduction to philosophical issues surrounding debates about the environment and our treatment of it. Topics may include endangered species, the "triangular affair" between animal rights and environmental ethics, the scope and limits of cost-benefit analyses and duties to future generations. This course was first offered in 1980.
Veterinary Medicine
Seminar in Animal Welfare and Human Interaction
Philosophy
Jordan Curnutt
Environmental Ethics. Critically evaluate the ethical dimensions of environmental and natural resource issues. Identify moral values in alternative solutions and encourage reasoned defense of proposed actions.
Philosophy
Jordan Curnutt
Topics in Ethics: Animal Ethics. Examines moral issues arising from our treatment of nonhuman animals. Questions explored include: What is the moral status of animals? Do they have moral rights? Do animals feel pain? Are they conscious? Do they have desires and beliefs? What are the moral implications of attributing certain mental states to animals? Is there a moral problem with euthanizing companion animals?
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Anthropology
Jane Desmond
The Culture of Nature. Ideas of "the natural" and "the cultural" underpin many of our beliefs, laws, and social practices. This course examines the relationship between these two mutually-defining concepts with an emphasis on the construction of notions of a "natural world." We will see how this concept has varied over time and among different social groups .Emphasis will be on cultural groups and practices within the U.S. but students will be encouraged to relate these issues to their work on other parts of the world as appropriate. Topics will include the idea of "landscape" and of "nature" as a resource to be used, appreciated, articulated, or enjoyed. In addition, at least half of the course will be devoted to analyzing our relationships to animals including the use of animals for entertainment, food, sports, science and education, and in the arts, and in the law. We will discuss the rise of zoos, the American humane movement, contentious debates about factory farming and animal rights, and the ubiquitous family pet. Films, local field trips or guest speakers, and activities will supplement in-class discussion and assigned readings. This course is especially useful for students in anthropology, but will also benefit students interested in ecology, environmental studies, cultural geography, public leisure, farming, animal sciences, and cultural studies approaches to literary representation, art, and social history.
University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Animal Science
Amy Fisher
Companion Animals in Society
Explores the current and historical functions and influences of companion animals in American society. Topics include the evolution of animal protection, the use of assistance and service animals, and the growth of the pet supply industry. Controversial issues which are of current concern to society will also be examined.
Asian Languages and Literature
Christina Marran
The Animal
Veterinary Medicine
Pam Hand
Perspectives: Interrelationships of People and Animals in Society. This course explores various aspects of the interrelationships of people and animals in society today, including the ecological, environmental, cultural, economic, social, psychological, and health/medical dimensions of these interrelationships. Multidisciplinary knowledge of how and why these factors interact is considered to be essential to a better understanding of what is often called the human-animal bond.
University of Missouri Columbia
College of Veterinary Medicine
Rebecca Johnson
Human-Companion Animal Interaction.
Exploration of historical & theoretical bases of human-companion animal interaction (HAI), the nature, issues, & clinical applications of HAI. After completing the course, the student should be able to: Discuss the origins of HAI and its evolution into a scientific discipline; Identify the scientific rationale for HAI in facilitating health & well-being among humans and animals; Analyze therapeutic uses of HAI including animal assisted therapy, animal assisted activity, & service animals; Discuss issues relating to HAI in diverse populations; Delineate the role of HAI across the lifespan; Relate HAI to demographic trends in aging societies; Describe processes of integrating HAI into practice.
University of Wisconsin Parkside
English
Maria del Carmen Martinez
Animals in Literature and Folktale. In this Ethnic American Literature course, we will be studying literary and cultural texts that employ racially marked and gendered animal figures as central elements. The course includes considerable attention to the ideological underpinnings of modern social contract theory and thought that locate women and people of color as existing "closer" to nature than culture. In these models, "dusky" bodies -- particularly maternal bodies -- represent the antithesis of reason and political order. We will also examine eugenic notions of a hierarchical "family of man" in which certain "races" were seen as "naturally" child-like (and therefore, in need of governing).
University of Wisconsin River Falls
English
Greta Gaard
The Literature of Environmental Justice. The concept of environmental justice-that nature is not only found in "wilderness," but also in the places where we live, work, and play-revises our understanding of environmentalism to include both National Parks and nuclear waste sites, wild and scenic rivers as well as mega-dams and levees, industrialized food production and human health, automobiles and indigenous rights. Environmental justice literature provides narratives of individuals and communities organizing and responding to economic and environmental problems on local, national, and international levels. Its stories and investigations show that environmental issues are deeply connected with issues of globalization, gender, race, and class.
University of Wisconsin River Falls
English
Greta Gaard
Investigating Ideas: Reading, Writing and the Disciplines. This is a freshman composition course which teaches writing, but also covers animal issues. One of the texts we use is "Fast Food Nation," since that text allows me to address the ways that industrialized animal agriculture harms animals, humans who eat them, humans who slaughter them (largely undocumented immigrants), the soil, the air (methane emissions), and contributes to world hunger.
University of Wisconsin, Marathon County
Sociology
Ann Herda-Rapp
Sociology of the Environment. Explores the socio-cultural foundations of our relationship with the natural environment. Examines the relationship between environmental degradation and social, political, and economic structures. Explores beliefs and values about the environment and their expression in various forms of environmentalism and environmental movements. Also analyzes the presentation of environmental issues in cultural, political and scientific domains.
University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point
Philosophy
Advanced Environmental Ethics. This course is an advanced study of a certain area, figure, or problem in the field of environmental ethics. The theme of the course will change from semester to semester but may focus on such things as the works of a central figure in environmental ethics, the problem of intrinsic value, the topic of moral pluralism, non-anthropocentric environmental ethics in general, or environmental politics and activism.
University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point
Philosophy
Environmental Ethics. Parallel to the increasing public awareness of environmental degradation has been the need to examine these complex issues from a philosophical vantage point. This course is an exploration of contemporary approaches to environmental ethics, including Judeo-Christian stewardship, animal liberation/rights, biocentrism, and the ecocentric Land Ethic of Aldo Leopold. We will also look at such contemporary topics as Ecofeminism, the debate over the concept of Wilderness, Gaia theory, Deep Ecology, and radical environmental activism. This course also explores larger questions about the nature of nature, human nature, and what an appropriate relationship between human beings and the natural environment might look like.
English
Karla Armbruster
Humans and Other Animals. Almost all works of literature include animals, no doubt because of the many ways that human lives are intertwined with those of other animals. But we often don't pay close attention to how these animals are represented in the literature we read, particularly if they exist on the peripheries of the human story rather than serving as the focus. In this course, we will put what we might call "literary beasts" in the spotlight, reading a wide variety of fiction, poetry, and essays that somehow address the relationship between humans and other animals, whether the animals function as symbols, realistic "beasts," competitors or allies in the human struggle for existence, fellow creatures with acknowledged moral standing, or even the narrators of stories and the speakers of poems.
Philosophy
Contemporary Moral Problems. Examines the opposing positions typically taken in discussions of contemporary moral problems, such as euthanasia, the death penalty, pornography, animal rights, and world hunger. The focus is on developing and critically analyzing reasons used to support a moral position.
Philosophy
Environmental Ethics. An introductory exploration of issues in environmental policy and the value presuppositions to different approaches to environmental problems, including economic, judicial, political, and ecological. Discusses specific environmental problems, focusing on their moral dimensions, e.g., wilderness preservation, animal rights, property rights, values of biodiversity, corporate responsibility, varieties of activism, ecofeminism, resource exploitation, and technological advancement, global environmental politics, and obligations to future generations.
Anthropology
Patricia K. Anderson
Anthrozoology. This course examines the symbolic, economic, ecological, and social consequences of human-animal interaction in a variety of cross-cultural contexts, ranging from small-scale (nonindustrial) societies to the modern industrial world. A global perspective is used to help students better understand world trends regarding modernization and its consequences to animals and their habitats. This course provides a cross-cultural understanding of the concept of animal by examining how our relationship with animals is mediated by culture, and thus how belief systems contribute to current animal and environmental-related social problems. Key topics include domestication and neotenization, the use of animals in entertainment and food production, companion animals, invasive species, and the connection between violence against animals and humans.
Sociology
David Nibert
Sociology of Minority Groups. Since humanity developed the capacity to produce an economic surplus, countless masses of earthlings have been oppressed, and many have had their labor appropriated, by relatively small groups of privileged humans. This course will examine the historical and contemporary causes for the continued oppression of entire groups, including various ethnic groups, women, the impoverished and other species of animals. Special attention will be given to the roots of oppression with an in depth look at the entanglement of oppression of humans and other animals. This analysis will be woven into an examination of the treatment of devalued humans in the United States. The course will include class discussions, videotape presentations, and assignments outside of class. Students are expected to respond actively to assigned readings by discussing key ideas and by using examples to support or question these ideas.
Sociology
David Nibert
Animals & Society. Increasingly, social scientists are focusing on the ethical, environmental and social consequences of human treatment of other animals. This course will examine how human societies have viewed and treated other animals and how the interactions and the structure of the relationship between humans and other animals affect both those animals and human social organization. For example, some scholars argue that cultural practices that define and use nonhuman animals as food contribute significantly to various forms of environmental devastation. Human health research indicates that high rates of heart disease and cancer in many cultures can be attributed to the consumption of animals. Others suggest that human perception and treatment of nonhuman animals are related in significant ways to such enduring problems as racism, sexism and violence against vulnerable groups of people. This course will examine the causes of human exploitation of other animals and the issues that frame the animal rights debate.
Philosophy
Scott Wilson
Moral Problems. Are we permitted to raise and then kill animals for food? Are we permitted to perform experiments on animals that will benefit human beings? Can we keep animals in zoos, hunt animals for sport or use animals for our entertainment? There is a growing interest in these questions today. However, these questions cannot be answered completely without first engaging in a bit of moral philosophy. Whether we can do these things to animals will depend on the moral status of animals. Therefore, we must first understand the concept of moral status and the various possible positions one can take on the moral status of animals. In this class, that is precisely what we will do. We will read three books by leading philosophers on the question of the moral status of animals, as well as numerous articles and excerpts from other leading philosophers. The goal of the course is for students to determine and justify their own beliefs on these matters through careful reading, class participation and several writing assignments.
History
Matthew Brower
Envision Animals: Animals and Visual Culture. This course deals with the role of visual depictions of animals in aesthetic, activist, environmental and biological contexts. It explores the role of imagery in constituting contemporary and historical conceptions of animality. The course objectives are to develop an understanding of the importance of imagery in human-animal relations.
