CSP 52 Animals and Society

What is the role of animals in your life?  How and why do you decide who to nurture and who to eat? This course explores the intimate and changing relationship between human and non-human animals, including an examination of how we conceptualize animals:  as companions, food, workers, representatives of self, and more; the rights - or lack thereof - of animals; our animal industries: factory farming, shelters & rescues, animal workers, entertainment, fighting, races, hunting, medical research, and more; boundaries between human and non-human animals; violence against animals, both individualized and institutionalized; animals as a concept: and the social construction of the difference between human and non-human animals.