This course provides an introduction to the notion of the Anthropocene—the idea that humankind is the main agent of planetary transformation—from a perspective that intertwines the sciences and humanities. This is a 2nd 8 weeks class.
Learn more about this courseFrom trickster coyotes and devilish snakes to mundane folk ideas like a dog is man’s best friend and cows are good for tipping, this course examines the ways that our folklore about animals affects humans’ interactions with animals more generally.
Learn more about this courseIn this course, students explore how other cultures have addressed relationships between people and animals, using archaeology, ethnography, historical texts, and literature. We consider how people's interactions with animals are varied and unique across cultures and through time, and how anthropologists specifically have tried to address these issues.
Learn more about this courseWhat makes us human? This class will introduce you to the scientific quest for human origins, and how understanding the anatomy and behavior of our close living Primate relatives helps us understand human evolution.
Learn more about this courseIn this course, students will create two and three-dimensional works of art and design that explore the relationship of animals and humans.
Learn more about this courseThis course focuses on representations of the animal in modern and contemporary literature and film, with emphasis on the aesthetic issues that arise when we seek to imagine and interact with other animals.
Learn more about this courseThis course deals with the communication systems of non-human animals, addressing them both on their own terms and in comparison with the major communication system of human animals--Language.
Learn more about this courseEvery year over 50 billion animals are killed in the production of food, clothing and other commodities, for experimentation, entertainment, in the pet trade, or just through the destruction of their environment. In this course, students will gain a panoramic view about the international debate on animal issues. The course is conducted in English.
Learn more about this courseIn this course we explore the philosophical foundations of human and animal cognition.
Learn more about this courseThis course introduces Uralic languages and the diverse cultures of Finns, Hungarians and Estonians and their linguistic relatives living as minorities in Russia and Scandinavia through their close connection to the animal world.
Learn more about this courseAs the sea ice melt accompanying climate change opens heretofore frozen hinterlands, possibilities excite the imagination of global shipping, mining and tourist industries as well as scientists, scholars and artists. Interdisciplinary study of ecological, cultural and legal knowledge and practice will guide our understanding of these rapidly transforming animal/human encounters.
Learn more about this courseFrom philosophy and fable to poetry and performance, both sentimental and satiric; as pets and companions, and as servants and laboring partners; in the early modern era before the industrial revolution, animals played an important—and long neglected—role in the ways humans defined themselves and those they marked as alien in literature and culture.
Learn more about this courseFrom microscopic gut bacteria to wild chimpanzees, the hormones and behaviors of organisms interact and respond to changes over contemporary and evolutionary times.
Learn more about this courseIn this class, we will focus on the evolution of animal nervous systems, and the consequences for animal behavior.
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The College of Arts