HAS Courses Midwest Test
Albion College
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
TEST
His 2007 revelation that he'd
strapped the family dog, Seamus, to the top of the car (no room inside!) and
driven to the vacation destination hundreds of miles away, has quite naturally
created an uproar. Romney continues to defend it and appears to see it as a bit
of humorous family lore (or, even more strangely, as an example of his problem-solving
skills). (Fact check time: Seamus was inside a dog carrier with a "specially
built windshield," but this article details the negative reaction the dog had to
his traveling accommodations. The picture of Seamus (below) is from a site called aboutmittromney.com
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 19th 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 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, Madison
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 between looking at animals, watching animals, and being with animals? What do we not see
(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.
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
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 01/16/2012 14:42:26
