THINKING ANIMALS INITIATIVE

 

Thinking Animals is a community of faculty and students working to advance the study of animals, human-animal relationships, and the many meanings of animals in human lives. Participating faculty will periodically offer a set of linked courses that introduce students to ways of thinking about animals that are both grounded in particular disciplines and encouraging of interdisciplinary connections.

 

12302

AS 310      Art, Animals & Anthropocene

Krista Caballero

W       1:30 pm-3:50 pm

New Annandale House

MBV

HUM

Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities; Environmental & Urban Studies

From species extinction to radioactive soil and climate change, we are now in the age of the Anthropocene. This recently proposed geologic period refers to the ways in which human activities have dramatically impacted and altered every ecosystem on Earth. Now in an age of mass extinction, what does it mean to visually interpret our more-than-human world and explore the often messy and complicated encounters between human and nonhuman animals? Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledges will ground our exploration as we consider the cultural, artistic, and technological implications of species decline. Our focus will include examining animal representations from caves to cages and from the living to the virtual, as well as themes of the wild and the tame, zoos, animal rights, laboratory research, and companion species. Each of these topics will be paired with an exploration of the ever-increasing presence of animals in contemporary art with particular emphasis on multimedia and inter-species installations, bio art, as well as experimental video, film, performance, and robotics. Students will work intensively to develop experimental humanities approaches that blur boundaries between physical and digital media, integrate field-based research, and experiment with interdisciplinary practices of art making in order to grapple with ways in which our understanding of other species directly relates to human self-understanding. This course is open to unmoderated and moderated students. It can be used to fulfill the American Studies Junior Seminar requirement for students moderated into that program. This course is part of the Thinking Animals Initiative, an interdivisional collaboration among students and faculty to further the understanding of animals and human-animal relationships.

Class size: 12

 

12565

BIO 106      Mammals

Felicia Keesing                 Lab:

T  Th 10:10 am-11:30 am Th        1:30 pm-4:30 pm

RKC 115 RKC 114

LS

SCI

 In this course, intended for students who do not plan to major in biology, we will explore the biology of mammals. Mammals are a fairly specialized group of creatures with two notable features – they produce nutritious milk to feed their offspring and they maintain a constant internal body temperature, though doing so requires them to eat with near comical frequency. Despite our inherent familiarity with a number of mammalian traits, many people are unaware that some of our mammalian relatives lay eggs, others produce venomous saliva, and yet others live in ant-like colonies with a single queen surrounded by a worker caste whose members don’t reproduce. More surprising still might be that hundreds of new species of mammals have been described in the past 15 years. Yet compared to other forms of life, like plants or microbes or insects, mammals are extremely rare, representing just a tiny fraction of living organisms. In this course, we will explore the ecology, behavior, physiology, diversity, and evolution of mammals, and put these characteristics into context by considering how they compare to the characteristics of other groups. Most importantly, we will explore what focusing on mammals can teach us about life on Earth, particularly in the 21st century as the planet warms and little of the land or sea is untouched by the influence of humans, a particularly adaptable and abundant species of mammal.

Class size: 18

 

12103

BIO 311      Field Ornithology

Bruce Robertson

T  Th  1:30 pm-2:50 pm       F   8:30 am-11:30 am

RKC 111 RKC 111/112

LS

SCI

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies

This course will present birds both as a unique group and as representative of vertebrates.  It will emphasize adaptation, ecology, and behavior of birds, the physical basis of flight, and introduce students to laboratory and field methods used in modern ornithology. We also will consider current views of the systematic relationships among living birds, and the evolutionary history of birds, including the debate regarding their origin in relation to dinosaurs and the origin of flight. Finally, we will examine case studies in bird conservation to understand the interaction of human and biological causes of, and solutions to, those problems. The laboratory portion of the class will include instruction in identification of all regional bird species by sight and sound. This will include field trips to local habitats / biological reserves and the study of museum specimens. Students will design and conduct small-scale behavioral research experiments (e.g. bioacoustics) with on-campus bird populations and will exploit publicly available and continental-scale databases to ask questions about bird ecology, evolution or conservation which will be submitted as both an oral report and scientific research paper.  

Class size: 16

 

12422

PHIL 140      Other Animals

Jay Elliott

M  W    8:30 am-9:50 am

OLIN 101

MBV

HUM

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies

We human beings have learned to think of ourselves as animals, and to think of our pets, our laboratory subjects, wild animals and those we slaughter for meat as “other animals.” Yet the lives of these other animals remained profoundly mysterious to us. Can we understand their thoughts, desires and lives? What do we owe them by way of justice, love or sympathy? What should the future of our relationships with them look like? In this course, we will approach these questions through a variety of sources, including works of philosophy, poetry, fiction and history. The course is part of the Thinking Animals Initiative, an interdivisional collaboration among students and faculty to further the understanding of animals and human-animal relationships. 

Class size: 22