Program Overview

Course Overview

Course Description

The W19 offering of this course uses North American history since 1600 as a case study, providing a historical survey of modern human-animal relationships and the contradictions that characterize them in a consumer economy. Topics include anthropocentrism over time, 19th-century horses and animal breeding ideologies, anti-cruelty movements, pet-keeping and consumerism, animal figures in popular culture, natural history, taxidermy and the zoo, history of veterinary medicine, animals in sport and entertainment, 20th-century urban wildlife, animals as biotechnology and research tools, and animals used in industrial agriculture.

Learning Outcomes

HIST 2120 trains students in:

• research and writing skills
• how to examine and clearly explain controversial historical subjects
• how to demonstrate an understanding of the power and limits of human agency with respect to other animals
• a sense of historical development by exploring changes over time with respect to human interaction with animals, as well as the human perceptions of and depictions of that interaction
• how to demonstrate the predictive skills of the historian in observing and analyzing contemporary events and questions about human interaction with non-human species

Methods of Evaluation

• Week 1 Online Introductions & Webquest Discussion - 5%
• Online discussions (2 @ 10% each) - 20%
• Periodic short essays (2 @ 15% each) - 30%
• Digital primary source analysis & online presentation - 15%
• Final examination (take-home) - 30%

Texts and/or Resources Required

• Arnold Arluke and Robert Bogdan, Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2010)
• Jim Sterba, Nature Wars (New York: Broadway Books, 2012)
• Jonathan S. Foer, Eating Animals (New York: Back Bay Books, 2010)
• A variety of articles, book chapters, films, and digital archives (all on ARES reserve)

Course Details

• Course code: HIST*2120
• Section: DE
• Course term: Winter 2019
• Course instructor: Susan Nance

Departments and Schools

• School of Theatre, English, and Creative Writing
• School of Fine Art and Music
• School of Languages and Literatures
• Department of History
• Department of Philosophy
• Interdisciplinary Programs

Centres, Institutes and Labs

• Centre for Scottish Studies
• Grounded and Engaged Theory Lab (GET)
• Interdisciplinary Design Lab
• The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation
• The Humanities Interdisciplinary Collaboration Lab (THINC)
• The School of Fine Art & Music Print Study Collection