HAS Courses in the Southwest
Arizona State University
Social Work
Christina Risley-Curtiss
TAA1 Human-Other Animal Relationships. This course focuses on two broad areas of current significance for health and human service professionals;(1) the link between non-human animal abuse and other forms of violence such as domestic violence, child and elder abuse; and (2) the powerful potential that positive connections with other animals have for healing and promoting resiliency in human beings while at the same time benefiting other animals. This course examines issues of prevention and treatment; it considers animals across the human life span, non-human animal abuse, and healing connections within an ecological and empowerment context; and works to build sensitivity to various cultural contexts. This is a prerequisite for courses TAA2 for students pursuing one of the two certificates.
Arizona State University
Social Work
Christina Risley-Curtiss
TAA2 Assessment and Treatment of Animal Cruelty. Designed for both mental health practitioners and other professionals working with adults and children, this course presents AniCare an assessment and treatment approach for children and adults and children who have abused animals. Based on a well-established clinical theory and interventions for perpetrators of domestic violence, AniCare emphasizes the social-psychological causes of violence. Building on cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, and attachment theories, AniCare Child keys on empathy and self-management. Through a manual, a demonstration DVD, and clinical case materials, students are introduced to a variety of exercises and other tools, such as puppet role play and projective material.
Arizona State University
Social Work
Christina Risley-Curtiss
Animal Human Connections. Animals are an integral part of the lives of many of the clients that social workers serve. This may be in the form of violence to animals as well as other family members, or as companions and/or therapeutic supports. This course is designed to help the student develop an understanding of the animal-human connection-both the negative and positive sides-- and acquire some basic skills in identifying animal cruelty and in accessing and utilizing animal-assisted activities and therapy.
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Education and Integrative Studies
Aubrey Fine
Animal Assisted Interventions and Education. It will be a graduate class geared for educators and those working in schools.
California State University Long Beach
History
Brett Mizelle
Human Animal Relationships in Historical Perspective. This seminar on the literature of history is designed to engage with a wide-range of scholarship on the history of the relationships between human and non-human animals. This literature, sometimes grouped under the rubric "animal studies" (a term that, as we will see, comes with its own problems), emerged as a subset of social, cultural, and environmental history, although parallel inquiries into the human use and "thinkability" of non-human animals were occurring in anthropology, literary studies, and the biological sciences. Much of the work in this emergent interdisciplinary field has been, like the social and cultural history before it, connected to larger social movements, many of relatively recent vintage. The term "speciesism"-used to connote prejudice against non-human animals similar in kind to racism and sexism-was only coined in 1970, for example, when there was a renewed interest in the idea of animal protection and animal rights. In this seminar we will trace the rise of interest in the welfare of animals and the subsequent shift toward the idea that non-human animals may deserve some of the same moral and legal considerations typically extended to humans. In the process, we will necessarily interrogate the relationship between the past and the present, which explains why several of our readings and texts are not traditional historical monographs.
California State University, Long Beach
Brett Mizelle
Animals in American Culture
Interdisciplinary examination of the role of non-human animals in making cultural meaning. Traces the many ways in which animals, not just humans, have shaped American history and culture.
California State University San Bernardino
Philosophy
Susan Finsen
Interpretation and Values. This upper division interdisciplinary general education course is designed to allow students to reflect on the values and assumptions implicit in their daily lives, culture, science, media and technology. Examines global environmental crises (global warming), intensive agriculture, and the values that have put us in these crises. Also examines the plight of animals and explores the moral status question.
California State University, Bakersfield
Psychology
Carol Raupp
People, and Other Animals. Examines peoples' attitudes toward other animal species and the current psychological research describing our differing relationships with companion animals, animals used for food, animals used in research, sports, or entertainment, and so-called "wild" animals. This course is now available online to students everywhere.
California State University, Bakersfield
Psychology
Carol Raupp
Environmental Psychology
Central New Mexico Community College
Sociology
Margo DeMello
Animals & Society. This course explores the spaces that animals occupy in human social and cultural worlds and the interactions humans have with them. Central to this course will be an exploration of the ways in which animal lives intersect with human societies. We will also examine how different human groups construct a range of identities for themselves and for others through animals.
Claremont School of Theology
Grace Yia-Hei
Kao
Animal
Theology, Animal Ethics: Rethinking Human-Animal Relations
Animal
studies (a.k.a. human-animal studies) represents the cutting edge of academe,
as scholars from a wide variety of disciplines are increasingly acknowledging
that we can no longer bracket �the question of the animal� if we are to live
truly examined lives. This course provides a serious engagement with
philosophical and theological discourse on the ethical status of nonhuman
animals as well as the nature and extent of human obligations toward them. As
we raise classical philosophical, theological, and legal/public policy
questions about animals (e.g., can animals be directly wronged? Does/did God
delight in animal sacrifices?), we will discover that we are simultaneously
raising perennial questions about the human condition.
Colorado State University
Agriculture
Bernard Rollin
Ethical Issues in Animal Agriculture. This pioneering course has been a part of the required block for agricultural students at Colorado State University since 1980. It deals with issues of farm animal welfare, ethical theory, and emerging social ethics for animals.
Colorado State University
English
Michael Lundblad
American Literature in Cultural Contexts: Contemporary American Animality. Animals are everywhere in American cultural texts: from children's movies to critically acclaimed postmodern writing; from Animal Planet to King Kong; from bestsellers on the inner lives of animals to blockbuster documentaries on people living and dying with wild animals. Why are we so fascinated with these various animals and the people who know them? This course will explore representations of animals and humans as animals in the work of contemporary writers, such as Linda Hogan, Mark Doty, Philip K. Dick, and J. M. Coetzee, as well as films, such as Gorillas in the Mist, Grizzly Man, and the 2005 remake of King Kong. Our interdisciplinary approach will draw upon debates from the academic fields of animality studies, American studies, and critical theory, in order to focus on several key issues: animal rights; arguments for the humane treatment of various human and animal populations; evolutionary theories used to explain human and nonhuman behavior; and narrative attempts to redeem the human in relation to how we interact with the animal. We will also pay close attention to the historical relationship between discourses of animality and the construction of human categories of sexuality, gender, and race. With these issues and questions in mind, we will dive deeply into course texts and films and hope to develop frameworks for thinking about other representations of animality in America today.
Colorado State University
Philosophy
Philosophical Issues in Animal Science. Philosophical problems, theories relevant to professions in animal science.
Colorado State University
Philosophy
Agricultural Ethics. Basic concepts in ethics and their application to agriculture
Colorado State University
Philosophy
Philip Cafaro
Environmental Ethics. Scientific, philosophical, and religious concepts of nature as they bear on human conduct; an ecological perspective.
Colorado State University
Philosophy
Seminar in Animal Rights. Contemporary issues concerning nature and moral status of nonhuman animals.
Colorado State University
Veterinary Medicine
Veterinary Ethics. This pioneering course, implemented in 1978, is required in the veterinary medicine curriculum at Colorado State University. It deals with ethical theory, animal welfare, and animal rights.
Denver University
Social Work
Phil Tedeschi
Animals in Therapeutic Settings. Explores the human-animal bond and potential for therapeutic intervention with the animal as teacher, therapist, facilitator and companion in a number of therapeutic settings. Focuses on core skills for social workers seeking to integrate this clinical approach into their practice. A required course for the Animal-Assisted Social Work Certificate.
Denver University
Social Work
Phil Tedeschi
Animal Assisted Social Work Practices. This course provides a comprehensive examination of approaches to Animal Assisted Social Work (AASW) and emphasizes clinical application skills utilized with a broad array of persons and in a number of therapeutic settings. Students will learn to design, implement and analyze the efficacy of AASW approaches within their chosen area of specialization, providing an opportunity to practice these approaches in their field internships. Students will learn to clearly articulate, assess, and intervene in "link" violence as it relates to social work practices and AASW implications. A required course for the Animal-Assisted Social Work certificate.
Humboldt State University
Philosophy
Susan J. Armstrong
Animal Ethics. Deals with animal awareness, moral development, language ability, pain and suffering, personhood, factory farming, experimentation, genetic engineering, sport hunting, legal rights and zoos.
Humboldt State University
Philosophy
Susan J. Armstrong
Moral Controversies.
Humboldt State University
Philosophy
Susan J. Armstrong
Environmental Ethics
Humboldt State University
Philosophy
Susan J. Armstrong
Ecofeminism
Loyola Marymount University
Religious Studies
Christopher Chapple
Ecology and Theology. In this course we will explore the responses to ecological degradation from a variety of the world's religious traditions. We will also engage in service projects that relate to actions being taken to correct and improve the environment . The course will begin with an overview of how the world's religious traditions are responding to such issues as global climate change, rising species extinctions, issues over access to clean water, and the effects of chemicals within the environment.
Loyola Marymount University
Enhancement Courses
George Jacobs
Teaching about the Interaction of Humans and Other Animals. Human interactions with our fellow animals have a major impact on other animals and on us. This course explores how these interactions can be included in our teaching. Topics include a debate about animals in schools, exploring literature, movies, tv and cartoon interactions as well as food, disease, communities and service learning. Online Course
Loyola Marymount University
Enhancement Courses
Do Dogs Smile? A Study of Animal Intelligence and Emotions. This course is designed to provide an overview of animal intelligence and emotion, and evidence of these traits. Included materials provide an intimate look at Koko demonstrating her ability to communicate in sign language, an examination of animal intelligence and emotion in the wild with observations of wolves, chimps and great apes; and a revealing talk with a professor of marine science who specializes in dolphin intelligence.
Notre Dame de Namur University
English
Ken White
Animals in Literature. Through fiction, poetry, drama and literary nonfiction, this course examines the varied and significant roles that animals have played in human life throughout history and continue to play in contemporary society. Works by U.S. authors as well as some from other cultures are read to explore the ways in which literature uses companion animals and wildlife, real as well as imagined, to shape and reflect social values. Readings are approached from sociological and literary perspectives. Students are asked to develop creative writing exercises with animals as theme and/or character along with a small literary body of their own.
Notre Dame de Namur University
Sociology
Cheryl Joseph
Sociology of the Animal-Human Bond. This course explores the unique relationship that humans share with other animals, the implications of this relationship and the potential. We examine the attitudes our society holds toward animals other than ourselves as well as how and why our social institutions create these attitudes. We also address the connection between animal and human cruelty along with the similarities between animal oppression and racism, sexism, ageism and social class privilege. Finally, we direct attention to the ways in which animals enrich human lives and humans can benefit other animals. This course uses historical, cultural, institutional, interpersonal and environmental perspectives to examine the human-other animal bond.
Notre Dame de Namur University
Sociology
Cheryl Joseph
Animals, People and the Environment. By combining natural science with social science, this class explores the interactions between people, wildlife and our ecological environment. We focus on the value of animal life and nature in such specific areas as conservation/wildlife management, food production, energy needs assessment, biomes and populations, urban sprawl, biomagnification and chemical pollution, environmental disease, endangerment, extinction, globalization and ecotourism within the context of social inequality and social justice. Particular emphasis is given to the deforestation of Africa and the Amazon; the introduction of kingfish into the Quechua and Imara Indians of Southern Peru; the Arctic wilderness and oil drilling; mountaintop removal in West Virginia; chemical pollution of the Great Lakes; creation of compatible eco-environments in Northern Minnesota; and the impact of tourism on Moorea. This course uses historical, biological, sociological, cultural, institutional and environmental perspectives to examine the connections between animals, people and our environment.
Notre Dame de Namur University
Sociology
Cheryl Joseph
Animals in Society. This course begins by exploring capabilities of animals other than humans along with the implications of these faculties. Using experts in their various fields, we examine the bond between people and animals, focusing on the cruelty and compassion connections, then discuss ways in which humans and our furry, feathered and finned friends can enhance the lives of others.
University of California, Berkeley
Women's Studies
Mel Chen
Men, Women and Other Animals. This course explores various ways that human groups and interests, particularly in the
United States, have both attached and divorced themselves from other animals,
with particular focus on gender, race, ability, and sexuality as the
definitional foils for human engagements with animality.
University of California, Davis
Animal Science
Joy Mench
Animal Welfare. Examines animal welfare from the animals' point of view. Who are animals, and what can they (do they) experience? Which practices compromise their welfare, and which do not? How can management practices and environments be modified to improve the welfare of animals?
UC Davis
American Studies
Jay Mechling
Animals in American Culture. This course explores the meanings we attribute to animals in our everyday lives. We experience real animals as our pets and in zoos, theme parks, circuses, rodeos, and as hunters. We eat animals (or don't), drink their milk (or don't), and wear their skins and fur (or don't). We consume representations of animals in children's stories, on television, in film, in print advertisements, in Gary Larson cartoons, and more. We look at these animal "texts" and their meanings toward understanding some larger questions in American culture, including questions about gender, sex, race, and the range of values at odds in "the Culture Wars." We shall draw upon a number of disciplines (anthropology, folklore, geography, history, literary criticism, psychology, rhetorical criticism, sociology, and visual studies, among others) to understand the various meanings of these texts in their historical, social, and cultural contexts.
University of California, Davis
Veterinary Medicine
Joy Mench
Ethics of Animal Use. Covers such concepts as moral good, pain and suffering, welfare evaluation, and animal minds. Other topics include limits on human right to use animals, use of animals in research, ethics and behavioral research, views of researchers and veterinarians, alternatives to animal use, and rules and regulations.
University of California, Davis
Veterinary Medicine
Lynette Hart
Human-Animal Interactions: Benefits and Issues. The contributions of animals to human society, including historic, anthropologic, developmental, human health and therapeutic perspectives, as well as effects of humans on animals.
University of California, Irvine
Claire Kim
Political Science
The Politics of Animal Rights. This course examines the animal rights/welfare movement's efforts to transform the moral, practical, and legal standing of nonhuman animals in the contemporary U.S. Topics to be covered include: philosophical debates about the moral status of animals; current knowledge about animal minds and emotions; factory farming; the use of animals in scientific experimentation and product testing; the use of animals for human entertainment; the ethics of vegetarianism and veganism; competing ideologies and strategies within the animal rights/welfare movement; and the connections among speciesism, sexism, and racism.
University of California, Irvine
Claire Kim
Political Science
Race, Gender, Species. This class examines the intersections among race, gender, and species in Western culture. Questions to be addressed include: How have the categories of race, gender, and species been constructed and reproduced in intimate relation to one another? How have bodies categorized as nonwhite, nonmale, and/or nonhuman been imagined, exploited, and subjugated historically? To what degree and in what ways has the domestication of nonhuman animals served as the template for modes of treatment toward nonwhites and women? What are the connections (or lack thereof) among justice struggles on behalf of groups of color, women, and nonhuman animals today? What happens when these justice struggles collide and proponents of racial equality, sex equality, and species equality find themselves at odds? Do ecological perspectives offer a way to integrate these struggles or do they in fact work against some or all of them?
University of California, San Diego
Latin American Literature
Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond
Latin American Literature in Translation: Brazilian Humanimals: Species and Postcoloniality in Brazilian Literature. This course looks at Brazilian texts wherein representations of animals intersect with postcolonial (racialized, classed and gendered) power relations. Situating our readings vis-a-vis other media-essays, cinema, music--we will consider the animal not simply as metaphor for "human" objectification but question precisely the human/ animal divide that enables colonialist systems of domination. Though we will focus principally on Brazilian texts, we will situate them in the context of cross-cultural discussions in ecocriticism and species studies. How do gender, race and species intersect in literary representations? What is at stake in scrutinizing the ethical dimensions of human/ animal relations?
University of California, Santa Barbara
Environmental Sciences
Jo-Ann Shelton
Animals in Human Society: Ethical Issues of Animal Use. Identification and exploration of the ethical issues which arise when humans interact with other animals. Analysis of the philosophical debates about the moral status of animals, and examination of the controversies surrounding the extension of human rights concepts to non-human animals. Discussion of conflicting attitudes toward the value of animal life in such specific areas as food production, scientific research, recreational activities, pet ownership, and environmental protection.
University of California, Santa Barbara
Lisa Jevbratt
Art
Interspecies Collaboration. Interspecies Collaboration is an experimental and experiential class exploring the possibility of making art projects together with animals. The focus of the class is on finding, communicating and working together with other species. The projects can be
manifested in a wide range of media and genres, they can be performative, visual, conceptual etc. They should make us aware of, and facilitate, an intellectual, emotional and spiritual partnership with the species around us.
University of California, Santa Cruz
Science Studies/Feminism
Donna Haraway
Animal Studies as Science Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz
History of Consciousness
Donna Haraway
Plants, Animals, Science, Food, and Justice. This course is organized around the knots of plants, animals, knowledges, people, markets, research institutions, justice projects, and daily life that come together in practices of eating. Food is at the heart of the quarter. Students will begin by keeping a detailed diary of everything they eat and then write an account of the worlds brought into play by the entries in that diary.
University of California, Santa Cruz
History of Consciousness
Donna Haraway
When Species Meet: Categories, Encounters, and Co-Shapings. Consider related, but non-isomorphic, constitutive binaries prominent in western traditions that have focused feminist attention: Man/woman, human/animal, culture/nature, white/color, civilized/primitive, mind/body, sight/touch, normal/abnormal, etc. Themes: Thickening inter-sectionality in feminist theory, "human exceptionalism," defining species relationally, animalization/racialization/beastialization, "we are what we eat," ethics for human animals, metamorphoses within a philosophical tradition
What does feminist theory have to say about species, human-animal co-shapings, and the problem of categories for humans and animals? To morph Bruno Latour's "we have never been modern," I suggest that we have never been human. Post-humanism and the posthuman do not get this point. What happens if the ontological dance is companion species all the way down?
University of Colorado, Boulder
Sociology
Leslie Irvine
Animals and Society. Examines the role of non-human animals in human society. Investigates the social construction of the human/animal boundary. Challenges ideas that animals are neither thinking nor feeling. Examines the many ways humans rely on animals. Considers the link between animal cruelty and other violence. Explores the moral status of animals.
University of New Mexico
Freshman Seminar
Marsha Baum
Advocating for Animals. In this seminar, we will explore the legal and political status of nonhuman animals in the U.S. by examining the development of law for companion animals, wildlife, captive animals, and animals used in industry and research. We will begin the exploration through discussions of readings and films and trips to facilities such as the zoo, a shelter, and a farm. Finally, our classroom will become a setting for advocacy regarding the legal status of animals, with mock trials, debates, and negotiations to allow each student to develop and present arguments on either side of the issues presented in real-life problems. Assignments include team preparation for advocacy projects, written student impressions of various topics, and a research paper.
University of New Mexico
Philosophy
Walter Putnam
Zoophilosophy. Many philosophical and literary attempts to locate, define, describe, and understand the human animal have been formulated with respect to the larger animal world or to some notion of animality. Is man a "featherless biped," as Plato claimed or a "soulless machine" as Descartes believed? Do animals feel pain like us? Do they know they exist? How can there be thought without language? What separates the human from the non-human animal? And what do we share in common? These are some of the pressing questions that are being re-evaluated in light of scientific discoveries and cultural transformations along the fault line between human and non-human animals. The bulk of the semester will focus on
continental philosophers and writers who have based some aspect of their
thinking on animals: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Agamben, Deleuze, Derrida,
to cite the most prominent. Questions of identity and ethics will
direct our thinking as we deal with issues of the status and treatment
of animals. This course will bridge the literary and the philosophical
by reading texts such as Kafka's "Metamorphosis" in light of Deleuze and
Guattari's concept of "becoming-animal." I would like to devote some
attention to the visual representation of the postmodern animal. This
multi-disciplinary approach will allow us to gauge the range and
richness of thought not only "about" but "with" the animal.
University of New Mexico
Communications and Journalism
Tema Milstein
Ecoculture: Humans and the "Environment." This course explores cultural and communicative ways that humanity informs, shapes, and shifts relations with the environment. Following extant scholarship, the course situates human-nature relations as both actively socially constructed and as deeply and materially experienced. As learners, through readings, discussion, field study, and research, we will explore how: 1) Cultural and communication processes and contexts inform, construct, and produce perceptions of and actions toward nature; and 2) Cultural and communication research can be used to deconstruct and critically investigate dominant and alternative understandings of nature. The course will lead to a deeper understanding of culture, communication, and the human relationship with nature. The learning focus in this course is on student-driven creative and critical exploration and discussion, as well as out-of-the-classroom group field experiences.
University of Redlands
Philosophy
Kathie Jenni
Ethics and the Environment
University of Redlands
Philosophy
Kathie Jenni
Taking Animals Seriously. A four week long internship at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah that is grounded in study of the history, issues, philosophies, and strategies of the animal welfare movement. One and one half days per week are devoted to class time; the remaining three and one half days each week are devoted to full time work in all aspects of the Sanctuary: cleaning, feeding and watering, socializing with and exercising animals, veterinary care, adoption services, humane education, and community outreach. Students may specialize in one facet of animal care during their final two weeks.
Utah State University
Psychology
Frank Ascione
Abuse, Neglect and the Psychological Dimensions of Intimate Violence. This course has evolved from a child abuse and neglect course to a course covering all forms of intimate violence across the life span. During the semester, we will address issues related to child abuse and neglect (including physical, sexual, and emotional maltreatment), animal abuse, dating violence, domestic violence, and the abuse of elderly individuals. We will examine theory and research addressing various forms of maltreatment and will incorporate developmental, historical, and cross-cultural perspectives whenever possible.
