ESPM 161A: Thinking With Animals

Animals have long been the subject of human inquiry. As historian Harriet Ritvo writes, “Learned attention to the animal is far from new." However, in recent decades social movements, artists, and scholars have focused more frequently, and perhaps more urgently, on what Derrida called “the question of the animal.” In this course we will look to how centering the animal challenges human exceptionalism, anthropocentrism, and traditional critical discourse. Tracing the ways work in animal studies denaturalizes hierarchical taxonomies, defines key concepts such as human and animal, and articulates boundaries between species, this course will follow the various political, relational, ethical and imaginative implications of thinking with animals. Applicants: in your personal statement please include answers to the following questions: 1. Why are you interested in teaching this course? 2. What qualifications do you have for this course? 3. How does teaching this course fit in with your educational plan for your graduate work? 4. What else do you want us to know?