Course Title Studies in the Humanities SPECIAL TOPIC: Critical Animal Studies
Course mnemonic HUMN-305			Day/Time Thursday 12:30PM -03:20PM
Section number F001			Start Date	September 2, 2008
Credits 3			End Date	December 13, 2008
Hours per week 5			Location NB 281
Prerequisites			** Please see note on Syllabus page re last week of classes.
Instructor Dr. C Gigliotti			Fax	604 844 3801
Office number	241A/243A		Email: gigliott@eciad.ca
Office telephone	844-3800 Local TBA		Office hours Thursday 3:20 – 5:00 and by appointment

 

Website Catalogue Description  |  www.ecuad.ca

This course offers the opportunity to explore specific issues and texts in the humanities. The issues and readings will vary, but students will gain a better understanding of contemporary thought and methods in philosophy, history or literature, especially as they relate to critical issues in art and design.

 

Course Content [for this specific offering of this course]

Once one begins to notice, it becomes clear that animals play a central role in how meaning is made in the arts and humanities. This course deals with how and why visual, narrative and metaphorical depictions of animals affect our ways of being with animals in aesthetic, activist, environmental and biological contexts. You will be looking closely at these roles through examples in the arts, literature, media, film, design and performance. You will also be reading materials from a range of areas - literary theory, philosophy, history, art and film history, sociology, anthropology and critical theory - and encouraged to think about how representing animals differs from using them; how do these representations affect animals themselves; how do literature, the arts, media and design respond to, and act upon ethical and political debates particularly the rights of animals. In what new ways can literature, the arts, film, design and media affect our ethical relationships with animals?

 

Course Learning Outcomes

The primary goal of this course is for students to understand and to critically evaluate various ethical perspectives on human beings' interactions with animals and how these perspectives are related to environmental, political, social, cultural and economic issues. An important secondary goal is to provide students with opportunities to see how others have questioned these perspectives and how they might also ask these questions in their chosen areas of cultural work.

 

Required Reading:

10 copies of each are available locally at Chapters, also available at chapters.ca, amazon.ca. At this time, all three are in stock at Chapters.ca

 

The Animals Reader: The Essential Classic and Contemporary Writings by Linda Kalof and Amy Fitzgerald (Editors) Oxford: Berg Publishers. (also shown as Palgrave) ISBN 9781845204709

 

Barbara Gowdy, The White Bone, HarperCollins Canada. ISBN 978-0006474890

 

J. M. Coetzee, The Lives of Animals, Princeton University Press ISBN 978-0691070896

 

Also, Two Handouts and two online readings:

Steven Best The Killing Fields of South Africa: Eco-Wars, Species Apartheid, and Total Liberation. Online at

http://www.uta.edu/huma/agger/fastcapitalism/2_2/best.html

Lisa Brown, "The Speaking Animal." HANDOUT

Carol Gigliotti, "Leonardo's Choice: the ethics of artists working with genetic technologies." AI & Society, Volume 20.1, January 2006. HANDOUT

MIchelle Lindenblatt, "Ethnography of a PETA Protest." Online at http://www.extensionsjournal.org/the-journal/4

Required Films Screened:

The Witness, by Tribe of Heart

The Urban Elephant, by Argo Films

The Year of the Dog, by Paramount Village

Recommended Readings, Films, and Literature

Evaluation Criteria

Attendance	20%
Participation	30%
Written Summaries/Discussion Papers	20%
Presentations/Essay	30%
Total	100%

Evaluation Criteria Definitions

Opportunities for understanding these persepcectives will be offered thorugh readings, written summaries, class discussion, films and videos and other media. Students' projects will include essays presentations, and art, media and design proprosals.