Faculty of Humanities School of Social Sciences SOCIOLOGY COURSE UNIT GUIDE 2018-19 SOCY30041: Sociology of Human-Animal Relations Semester: 1 Credits: 20 Convenor: Dr Richie Nimmo Contents 1. Essential Information 2. Course Content A. Aims & Outcomes B. Lectures & Reading List C. Tutorial Guide D. Assignments & Assessments 3. Feedback 4. Your Commitment 5. Referencing & Plagiarism 6. Assessment Criteria Please read this guide and bring any questions with you to the lecture. Note: This course guide should be read in conjunction with the Blackboard website for the course and the Degree Handbook for your degree programme. Degree Handbooks for social science programmes are available here: http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/student-intranet/undergraduate/course- information/ If your degree is based in another school, please contact your Programme Administrator for your handbook. 1 1. ESSENTIAL INFORMATION Contacts Lecturer(s): Dr Richie Nimmo Room: 3.041 Arthur Lewis (third floor) Telephone: (0161) 27 52463 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tuesdays 14.00-16.00 (email by Monday 17.30 to arrange) Administrator: Chantel Riley [email protected] UG Office G.001 Arthur Lewis Building; (0161) 27 53953. Times and Dates Lectures: Mondays 14.00-17.00 Williamson G47. Workshops: Reading-based discussion workshops will follow each lecture, so you must complete the required reading before the lecture (see the Workshop/Tutorial guide in the second half of this course outline). Reading week: Monday 29th October – Friday 2nd November (no classes). Additional office hours: Additional office hours for discussion and feedback on essay plans will be available on Thursday 29th November 10.00– 14.00 (email by 5pm on Weds 28th Nov for an appointment). Feedback half-day: Additional office hours for one-to-one feedback on essays and/or consultation on exam revision will be available on Monday 14th January 10.00–14.00 (email in January if you wish to make an appointment). Assessed Coursework Assignments to be submitted via Turnitin by 2pm on the Submission: deadline. See further details in section 2 below. Examination Period: 14 January – 25 January 2018 Resit Examination Period: 19 August – 30 August 2018 Assignments and Assessments One 3000 word assessed essay, worth 50% of total course mark, to be submitted by 2pm on Tuesday 11th December 2018. One 2 hour unseen examination in the January examination period at the end of the course, worth 50% of total course mark. Refer to later pages of this course unit for full details of assignments and assessments. Communication Students must read their University e-mails regularly, as important information will be communicated in this way. It is sometimes necessary to make changes such as seminar rooms and assessment details and such changes will be communicated by email. Failing to check your emails will not be an acceptable excuse for non-attendance or missed deadlines. 2 2. COURSE CONTENT Course Aims This course explores the significance of human- Get Organised animal relations for understanding human Use this guide to find out: societies. With reference to the diverse and often KNOW HOW controversial roles of animals in modern Where and when to attend societies, as pets, as foods, as entertainment, as classes. laboratory animals, and as agricultural machines What to read before and commodities, it examines the important but lectures and tutorials. Where to start your often unacknowledged role of nonhuman reading for assessments. animals in human social life. How your progress will be Throughout history nonhuman animals have assessed. Read on to ensure that you played key roles in human societies. In different know how to get the most out historical periods and in different cultures of your degree. animals have been key sources of calories, clothing, labour power, transport, physical protection and companionship, as well as cultural symbolism, identities, mythology and religious beliefs. In late modern societies, animals and the various products derived from their bodies continue to play a huge role in both material and cultural aspects of human social organisation. This has led some to argue that it is necessary to understand social life as comprising more than just the interactions between human beings, and this course takes up that argument. The course draws upon philosophical, historical and cultural approaches to trace how human-animal relations have changed over time and how these changes have been connected to social transformations, with an emphasis upon changing human-animal relations in modernity. The deeply ambiguous and contested place of animals in modern societies is explored in depth, with reference to the diverse roles of animals in different locales, from the home to the farm, from the zoo to the laboratory. In this way the course combines ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ analysis, exploring the nature of human-animal interactions in everyday life as well as in rationalised modern systems of production and consumption. Learning Outcomes On completion of this unit successful students will be able to: Appreciate the importance of human-animal relations for understanding human social life. Explain how the relations between humans and nonhuman animals have changed over time in relation to social transformations. Understand the diverse and often ambiguous roles of animals in a range of social institutions and locales. Identify the changing ideological functions of animals in various modern discourses and representations. Understand how social relations between human beings are interconnected with human- animal relations. Critically assess the material and cultural significance of nonhuman animals in late modern societies. 3 Course Readings Required readings will wherever possible be made available electronically via the course website. All other readings should be available from the University Library, either through the E-journals catalogue, as an E-book, or as a hard copy. Remember that all journal articles can be accessed online through the University Library. Multiple copies of several key books have been placed in High Demand. It is not a requirement of the course that you purchase any books. However, if you do wish to buy a book to refer to at your convenience, then any of the following texts can be recommended: Margo DeMello (2012) Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies. (A good current textbook in human-animal studies). Adrian Franklin (1999) Animals and Modern Cultures: A Sociology of Human-Animal Relations in Modernity. (A core text, highly useful for several weeks of the course). Barbara Noske (1997) Beyond Boundaries: Humans and Animals. (Another core text). Arnold Arluke and Clinton Sanders (eds) (2009) Between the Species: Readings in Human-Animal Relations. (Contains many useful readings and extracts). Nik Taylor (2013) Humans, Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies. (Another good textbook). Samantha Hurn (2012) Humans and Other Animals: Cross Cultural Perspectives in Human-Animal Interaction. (An excellent introduction and overview, from a broadly anthropological perspective, but still relevant for the course). The following edited collection is available in the University Library High Demand section. It contains many of the course readings, which can be sought here if you cannot find them elsewhere. Volume 3 is particularly useful: David Inglis and Rhoda Wilkie (2007) Animals and Society: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences. E-books The following useful texts are available as electronic books through the University Library catalogue (click on the ‘e-book’ link from the search results page). Note that there are limits on how many pages can be printed from e-books, so before you start printing, check that there are not other chapters that you will need to print as required readings later. Aubrey Manning and James Serpell (eds) (1994) Animals and Human Society: Changing Perspectives. Linda Kalof (ed) (2007) Looking at Animals in Human History. Leslie Irvine (2004) If You Tame Me: Understanding our Connections with Animals. Kay Peggs (2012) Animals and Sociology. Rob Boddice (ed) (2011) Anthropocentrism: Humans, Animals, Environments. Margo DeMello (2012) Society and Animals: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies. Erica Fudge (2002) Animal. Journals Many of the course readings are located in academic journals, which can be accessed through the University Library’s Electronic Journals collection. For access to most journals you will need to choose the option for ‘Institutional log-in’ or ‘Shibboleth’, and then select University of Manchester or The University of Manchester Library from a list of institutions. 4 The following journals have been key forums for publication of scholarly work in the international interdisciplinary field of human-animal studies and critical animal studies. They contain an abundance of relevant articles, and if you require additional or alternative reading material you should browse some of these journals: Society and Animals: Journal of Human-Animal Studies Animal Studies Journal http://www.aasg.org.au/animal-studies-journal Humanimalia: A Journal of Human/Animal Interface Studies http://www.depauw.edu/humanimalia/ Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of the Interaction of People and Animals Journal for Critical Animal Studies The following recent animal-themed issues of non-specialist journals are also dedicated to human-animal relations, and