Where knowledge and science meet ethics and compassion

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.

Augustana College

Sociology

Debi Reed Hill

Animals and Society. This course is designed to introduce students to the broad new field of human-animal studies by focusing on three key areas. First, we consider non-human animals as thinking and feeling beings and actors, present in every important aspect of human life and society. In this analysis we employ ideas from symbolic interaction, supplemented by cognitive ethology and neuroscience in order to address questions about animals as persons and selves. Second, we consider various specific human institutions and their practices in relation to non-human animals. Third, we discuss the implications of all this for the rights of animals and for the ethical assessment of their treatment by human beings, reading a variety of perspectives, including sociological, zoological, legal, and philosophical sources.

Ball State University

History

Abel Alves

A History of Animals in the Atlantic World. The anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss once wrote that animals are not only good to eat, they are good to think. Throughout the course of human history, people have interacted with other animals, not only using them for food, clothing, labor and entertainment, but also associating with them as pets and companions, and even appreciating their behaviors intrinsically. Nonhuman animals have been our symbols and models, and they have even channeled the sacred for us. This course will explore the interaction of humans with other animals in the context of the Atlantic World from prehistoric times to the present. Our case studies will include an exploration of our early hominid heritage as prey as well as predators; our domestication of other animals to fit our cultural needs; how nonhuman animals were used and sometimes respected in early agrarian empires like those of Rome and the Aztecs; how Native American, African and Christian religious traditions have wrestled with the concept of the animal; the impact of the Enlightenment and Darwinian thought; and the contemporary mechanization of life and call for animal rights. Throughout the semester, we will be giving other animals voice, even as Aristotle in The Politics said they possessed the ability to communicate. We will also explore who we are as a unique species and what we share with other animals.

Carroll University

English

Susan Nusser

Writing Seminar: Animal Themes. This seminar uses a theme-based approach in which we will focus on a body of readings on the same theme: animals and society. By reading multiple texts about animals and our relationship to them, we can examine the many roles that animals play in human societies. The common theme will help you develop your reading skills as we analyze subtle differences between our authors' arguments.

Creighton University

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.

Drury University

Philosophy

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.

Drury University

Sociology

Animals and Society. This course will give students the opportunity to think critically about controversial issues regarding the relationships between humans and other animals. Central to the course will be an exploration of the social construction of animals in American culture including various subcultures and the way in which these constructed social meanings shape human identity.

Drury University

Criminology

Animal Law. This course will examine a wide variety of topics related to the law of animals, such as classes of animals (companion, exotic, domestic), torts (liability statutes, damages and valuation), contract law (landlord/tenant, area animal restrictions, dissolution of marriage), wills and trusts, criminal law (breeding regulations, legal vs illegal breeding, animal cruelty), hoarding, entertainment regulations, dog fighting, the Humane Slaughter Act, the Animal Welfare Act and the Endangered Species Act. Particular attention will be paid to the topics of interest of the students enrolled.

Drury University

English.

Animals in Literature. Students explore the relationships between humans and animals through the lens of American, English, French and Latin American literature. These enjoyable and thought-provoking literary selections offer a unique entrée into the animal rights debate, which is unquestionably one of the most important ethical issues of our day. At the same time, the course is structured to pay particular attention to close-reading, develop an appreciation of canonical literature and improve writing skills.

Hiram College

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.

Indiana State University

Philosophy

Judith Barad

Ethics and Animals

Indiana State University

Philosophy

Judith Barad

Environmental Ethics

Indiana University

Philosophy

Alyce Miller

Animals and Ethics.Through a variety of readings across disciplines, this course engages specific questions about our beliefs about, and interactions and relationships with animals philosophically, religiously, historically, legally, and scientifically, with readings drawn from a wide range of philosophers, ethicists, ethologists, scientists, lawyers, religious thinkers, fiction writers, poets, essayists and filmmakers. Invited guest speakers and "animal friends" add their perspectives. The course examines pet owning, wildlife preservation, hunting, farming, research, zoos and aquaria, and law and activism.

Indiana University

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.

Iowa State University

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.

Iowa State University

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.

Illinois State University

Marion Willetts

Animals and Society

In this course, a sociological examination of the roles and statuses of non-human animals in society is provided. We will explore philosophical arguments supporting and opposing the principles of animal rights, and how these arguments differ from those in support of/opposition to the principles of animal protection/welfare. We will analyze various social movements and organizations concerned with animal rights and animal protection. We will investigate how and why some animals are defined as food, as research subjects, as sources of entertainment, as sources of clothing, and as companions. Finally, we will explore the connections between non-human animal oppression and exploitation and the oppression and exploitation of specific aggregates of human animals (particularly racial and ethnic minorities, women, and the poor).

Kansas State University

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.

Kansas State University

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.

Madonna University

Languages and Literature

Andrew Domzalski

Do Animals Matter? This course is an examination of religious, philosophical, cultural, aesthetic, and societal conceptualizations of animals and their impact on human-animal relations as well as on uses, treatment, and legal standing of animals. Issues are discussed through the lenses of humanities, religious studies, and social sciences within the framework of the Franciscan tradition. This course includes a service learning project.

Michigan State University

Sociology

Linda Kalof and Molly Tamulevich

Animals, People, and Nature. Humans from a diverse range of disciplines have attempted for years to answer the animal question: what is the fitting role of animals in human culture and of humans in animal culture? The interaction between humans and animals has occupied the minds of thinkers from Aristotle to Jane Goodall. By examining the animal question from a variety of contemporary perspectives, we will gain understanding of the role human and non-human animals play in each others lives, deaths and cultures. Each week, we will consider a different area of society where humans and animals interact, attempting to see the meeting of species not only from a human perspective, but by considering the position of the animal as well.

Michigan State University

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?

Michigan State University

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.

Northern Illinois University

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?

Northern Illinois University

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?

Northwestern University

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.

Ohio State University

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.

Ohio State University

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.

Ohio State University

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.

Ohio State University

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.

Ohio University

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.

Purdue University

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.

Purdue University

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.

Purdue University

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.

Purdue University

Child Development and Family Studies

Gail Melson

Purdue University

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.

Purdue University

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.

Purdue University

Veterinary Medicine

Seminar in Animal Welfare and Human Interaction

St. Cloud State University

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.

St. Cloud State University

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.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Sociology

Luis Sfeir-Younis

The Sociology of Animal Rights. This course is designed to examine sociologically the relationships that exist between humans and other non-human animals. Since its birth in Europe in the 19^th century, sociology has focused almost exclusively on human-to-human interactions largely ignoring the nature and significance of the human-animal relationship. However, in the last decades, this relationship has received much public attention. Scholars from all disciplines are focusing the nature, the significance, and the implications of the human-animal relationship. Animals are being placed back into the core of the sociological agenda.

In an effort to fundamentally rethink the relationship between human beings and non-human animals, this course will explore some of the legal, ethical, cultural, political, ecological, and social issues that underlie the concerns for and against animal rights and protections. We will examine the use of animals for experimentation, food, entertainment, work, and their furs, and the consequences of such practices on the well-being of animals as well as its impact on society, its industries and institutions. Different perspective on animal rights and animal welfare will be presented and a comparative analysis of human and animal rights and abuses will be attempted so as to be able to trace whether the abuse and exploitation of animals may be inextricably related to the oppression of human groups. We will examine how the use and abuse of animals in American society may perpetuate unequal and oppressive

University of Minnesota

Asian Languages and Literature

Christina Marran

The Animal

University of Minnesota

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 HAIand 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 Windsor

Education

Beth Daly

Animals and Humans in Society. The goal of this course is to encourage students to develop an understanding of the human-animal bond. Within this class, we will explore and consider the different types of relationships between non-human animals and humans in our contemporary society from a variety of physical, social and psychological perspectives. Topics throughout the semester will include companion animals, animal rights and welfare, animals for food, animals in human health, and animals in sports and entertainment.

University of Wisconsin, Madison

English

Anne McClintock

Empire of the Ark. The Animal Question, Spectacle and Carceral Modernity. Empire of the Ark is an interdisciplinary engagement with the burgeoning field of animal studies, spanning the century from the decline of the British empire to the decline of the US empire. Throughout the course we will explore a range of texts, theories, novels, essays, photographs, and films. We will engage a range of critical approaches but will draw primarily on cultural materialism.

Why has the theme of animals had such recent resurgence? Can our vexed preoccupation with animals be seen, in part, as a requiem for the animals disappearing so rapidly and traumatically from our immediate, intimate lives and from our social landscapes? For centuries we human primates lived amongst other animals in intimate proximity. We touched animals, smelled them, worked with them, sacrificed and ate them, slept alongside them. Animals were our first horizon, as John Berger notes. Zoos became the monument to their disappearance.

How do we now know what we know about animals? How do we see animals? How do we watch and engage them? Why has spectacle and looking, film and photography, become our primary mode of interaction? Why, with the Enlightenment, did the Western eye become the privileged organ of knowledge and authority over animals? What is the difference betweenlookingat animals,watchinganimals, andbeing withanimals? What do wenotsee (slaughter houses, mega-agrifarms, habitat destruction, environmental catastrophes such as the BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf)?

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.

Ursuline College

Philosophy

George Matejka

Animals and Ethics. During the past three decades, there has been an increasing wave of ethical concern about human treatment of nonhuman animals. A primary goal of this course is to provide the student with a foundation from which she can then continue to explore this emerging area of ethics. The course undertakes a study of the various approaches to the question of how ought human animals act in relationship to nonhuman animals? We first explore the animal rights approach and then move to a consideration of the feminist caring approach. Both the local and global aspects of our ethical relationships with animals are examined. Similarly, the course explores both the personal and social dimensions of these relationships.

Valparaiso University

Humane Education

Introduction to Humane Education. This course introduces students to humane education and explores innovative educational philosophies and methods, exciting and effective ways to approach teaching and learning, and positive communication skills and confl ict resolution. Forming the foundation for the issues courses that follow, Introduction to Humane Education invites students to examine the ways in which they can more fully model their message as educators, and bring the underlying concepts of good communication and teaching to their students as they incorporate the important issues of human rights, environmental ethics, animal protection, and culture.

Valparaiso University

Humane Education

Animal Protection. This course covers a variety of animal issues including animal agriculture, experimentation, hunting and trapping, companion animal concerns, and more. It explores different philosophies regarding the inherent rights of other sentient animals to be free from exploitation and abuse, and encourages students to grapple with and determine for themselves their own ethics regarding nonhuman animals. Animal Protection examines the ways in which humans, animals, and ecosystems can be protected for the good of all and helps students develop techniques for teaching about complex issues in a positive manner that invites dialogue and positive solutions.

Webster University

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.

Webster University

English

Karla Armbruster

Perspectives: Werewolves, Seal Wives, Grizzly Men and Other Metamorphoses. In this course, we will examine a wide variety of legends, poems, stories, and films that portray human-animal transformations, ranging from classical mythology to Kafka's The Metamorphosis, to stories of humans being eaten by other animals. While they will come from a range of cultures and time periods, they all provide insight into the varied ways humans have relationship between themselves and other animals (and, by extension, nature), sometimes reinforcing the human-animal distinction that some philosophers say is central to our definition of the human, and other times challenging or complicating that distinction. Our goal, then, is to explore the literature of human-animal metamorphoses in order to question and explore not only our relationships with other animals but also to re-evaluate what it means to be human.

Webster University

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.

Webster University

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.

Western Illinois University

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.

Wittenberg University

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.

Wittenberg University

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.

Wright State University

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.

York University

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.

Published by admin on 11/25/2011 11:26:26

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