Non-Human Animals in Human Society

3 Credits

As humans, we share our lives with other animals in diverse and conflicting ways. Non-human animals can be consumed as food, used for scientific research, and treasured as companions. They are commercialized, worshipped, and stereotyped. Our complex relationships with other animals emerge from and fuel debates about what makes "us" different from "them." In this course, we will ask (and attempt to answer) questions such as: What roles do we open to (or force on) non-human animals in American culture and why? Who makes these decisions and what is their effect on animal life? We will explore the evolution of modern human-animal relationships to contextualize major social and scientific debates that have arisen in the last century, including what it means to be human in this context, and why they matter.