Animal Studies Courses — This is What They Look Like

With interest in Animal Studies — and it’s activist subset, Critical Animal Studies — exploding in the academic world, those who want to teach in this field are finding opportunities to do so, right and left. But because this is an interdisciplinary area of study, drawing interest from fields as wide-ranging as Political Science, to Art History, to Environmental Studies, and beyond, and because this academic interest in animals is relatively new, professors who want to teach an animal studies course might need some help. What are the subject areas, the resources, even the concepts, that might pique students’ interests? And students who want to encourage more Animal Studies courses at their school might also need a way to encourage professors to think that this is worth doing, that, in fact, it’s the hottest trend in academia, and that they have the resources to do it.
That’s why it’s so great that H-Net, a massive website with academic resources in the Humanities and Social Sciences, has gathered together an assortment of syllabi from professors teaching a wide range of animal studies courses, from Una Chaudhuri‘s course, “Topics in Performance Studies: Animal Rites,” at NYU, to Brett Mizelle‘s “Human-Animal Relationships in Historical Perspective” at Cal State, Long Beach, to Rebecca Saunders’ provocatively titled “(Hum)animality” at Illinois State University, and beyond.
Even if you’re not a professor, or a student, these syllabi are a great opportunity for ways to hone your knowledge about animals and the role they play in our society. They are, essentially, carefully thought-out, focused reading lists on topics that we are all passionate about. It is generous of these professors to share their syllabi, which are the result of many thoughtful decisions and a lot of hard work, with those who care about this subject.