Animal Studies (2022-2024)
Animals and Society
ANST-UA 200 Identical to ENVST-UA 610 and SOC-UA 970. Jerolmack. 4 points.
How relationships with animals reflect and shape social life, culture, and how people think about themselves. Explores the myriad and contradictory positions that animals occupy in society and deconstructs the social origins of these seemingly natural categories. How humans and animals coordinate interaction without language.
Primate Communication
ANST-UA 257 Identical to ANTH-UA 59. Prerequisite: Human Evolution (ANTH-UA 2). Higham. 4 points.
Topics include signals and cues, signal honesty, concepts of signal information content and evolutionary signal design, communication in different sensory modalities, and the evolution of language.
Introduction to Marine Ecology and Conservation
ANST-UA 323 Identical to ENVST-UA 323. Jacquet. 4 points.
Analyzes several aspects of our oceans, with particular emphasis on human impacts, and examines some recent major threats, including lack of governance for the high seas, deep-sea mining, and the effects of climate change on aquatic animals. Focus on ecological relationships between marine organisms and their environment, with the introduction of humans as marine predators and ecological disturbers.
Making Art in the Anthropocene: Project on Ecology, Species, and Vibrant Matter
ANST-UA 393 Identical to ENVST-UA 593 and THEAT-UT 801. Not open to first-year students. Chaudhuri, Erti. 4 points.
Prior artistic training/practice is not required, but artistic and creative work is expected. Examines "post-humanist" theories of species, ecology, and matter, as well as a variety of literary, cinematic, and visual art works reflecting them. Students use space, objects, movement, sound, imagery, and writing to explore the aesthetic implications of these theoretical ideas.
Ethics and Animals
ANST-UA 400 Sebo. 4 points.
Examines how animals have been denied/granted moral status and the significance of human/animal differences. Surveys the main philosophical moral theories in animal ethics and the practical issues surrounding our varied relationships with and use of animals. Considers whether animals should have legal rights, and the best strategies to protect them.
Animal Minds
ANST-UA 410 Sebo. 4 points.
How do animals experience the world? What is a mind? Which animals have minds? How can we learn about them? What kinds of emotions and thoughts do nonhuman animals have? Is language required for thought? Who is self-conscious? Can animals have culture and moral agency?
Food, Animals, and the Environment
ANST-UA 440 Identical to ENVST-UA 440. Offered every spring. Schlottmann. 4 points.
Studies human interaction with both food and animals and the environmental impacts and ethical issues that arise from such interaction. Focuses on the moral standing of animals, animals as food, and the environmental impacts of agriculture, transportation, and consumption.
Literature and the Environment
ANST-UA 475 Identical to ENVST-UA 675 and ENGL-UA 675. Topics determine prerequisites. Athanassakis. 4 points.
Topics vary.
Animals and Public Policy
ANST-UA 500 Identical to ENVST-UA 630. Offered every fall. Wolfson. 4 points.
Considers how public policy is created, how social change occurs, and the influence of science, government, business, and non-governmental organizations on animal-related policies, legislation, litigation, and consumer campaigns, as well the meaning of "animal rights" and the impact of the modern animal protection movement.
Topics in Animal Studies
ANST-UA 600 Prerequisites vary. Offered every spring. Chaudhuri, Jacquet, Jamieson, Jerolmack, Schlottmann, Sebo, Wolfson. 4 points.
Employs social science, natural science, and/or humanistic perspectives to consider animals' interaction with humans, their environment, and one another.
Topics in Animal Studies
ANST-UA 650 Prerequisites vary. 1-4 points.
Employs social science, natural science, and/or humanistic perspectives to consider animals' interaction with humans, their environment, and one another.
Related Courses
Many of these courses have prerequisites, which are noted in the course descriptions under the sponsoring departments in this Bulletin.
ANTHROPOLOGY
Primate Behavioral Ecology
ANTH-UA 54 4 points.
Comparative Biology of Living Primates
ANTH-UA 56 4 points.
COLLEGE CORE CURRICULUM
Texts and Ideas: Animal Humans
CORE-UA 400 4 points.
Texts and Ideas: Of Beasts and Books
CORE-UA 400 4 points.
DRAMATIC LITERATURE
Topics in Performance Studies: Animal Rites
DRLIT-UA 301 4 points.
TISCH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
Animals, People, and Those in Between
ITPG-UT 2746 4 points.