CORE 3999 Global Search for Justice: Voices of Dissent Animal Rights
Details
Instructor: Prof. Jill Jepson Time: Sat. 8:30 – 12:00 Place: Whitby 120B
Goals
1. To explore the relationship between nonhuman and human animals.
2. To discuss various perspectives on animals:
Social justice approaches focusing on animal rights Compassionate and charitable approaches focusing on animal welfare Religious views: Christian and Buddhist Feminist and ecofeminisit approaches
3. To examine a variety of specific issues related to animals:
Animals as food, clothing and other commodities Imprisoning and killing animals as sources of entertainment Animals as tools for research Animals as beloved companions Animals as dangers and pests
4. To discover the relationship between the oppression of nonhumans and the oppression of humans.
5. To examine our own individual behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and practices with respect to animals.
6. To develop our own individual approaches to the rights and welfare of animals.
7. To create personal action plans based on our individual approaches.
My Contact Information Office: Whitby 207 Office Hours:
3:30 – 4:30 Monday 11:00 – 12:00 Tuesday and Thursday by appointment (please feel free to email me at any time and set up an appointment!)
Email: [email protected] (preferred method of contact) Phone: 8717
Blended Learning Format
Every other week will be a face-to-face (F2F) class.
Alternate weeks will be off-campus, with no face-to-face meeting.
The dates for each are marked on the course schedule below, as well as on the Registrar’s webpage.
Off-campus meetings are asynchronous. You do not have to go online specifically during the class hours. You do need to go online within the dates set on the syllabus and submit assignments by the due dates.
As part of the Blended Learning format, you will be doing other activities:
Service learning. Each student will complete 12 hours of service learning at an animal- related organization. Site visit. Everyone will be visiting an animal-related site (to be done on your own). Movie. One assignment requires you to watch a movie (to be done on your own).
These activities will count as class time.
More information about these activities can be found in handouts on D2L.
Textbooks Peter Singer, Animal Liberation Tom Regan, Empty Cages: Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights Matthew Scully, Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy Charles Patterson, Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust GSJ Reader Course Pack and Online Readings
Assignments Research Project Draft 1 5 points Draft 2 5 points Draft 3 5 points Final Paper 75 points Presentation 10 points Weekly Assignments 10 points each Completion of Service-Learning 20 points (including 2 online discussions & final brief report) In-class work for both F2F and 5 points per class off-campus classes, including in-class assignments reading, sharing & discussing your weekly assignment with the class in-class and online discussion
Grading Final grades will be assigned on a percentage basis (decimal scores will be rounded to the nearest whole number):
A = 94 - 100% A- = 90 – 93 B+ = 88 – 89 B = 83 – 87 B - = 80 – 83 C+ = 78 – 79 C = 73 – 77 C - = 70 – 72 D+ = 68 – 69 D = 63 – 67 D - = 60 – 62
Reading Groups Each student will be randomly assigned to one of three reading groups. On some days, the different groups will have different reading assignments, so pay close attention to the syllabus.
Course Policies
Attendance is required at all class meetings, except in cases of illness, family emergency, and approved university events. Missed classes will result in points taken off the contribution to class score.
Repeated Lateness or leaving early will count as a partial absence.
Submitting Work
Work should be submitted to Dropbox on D2L.
A hard copy should be brought to class for class discussion. PLEASE DO NOT FORGET THIS.
Due dates. All work is due by the time and date listed in the syllabus. D2L will not accept assignments after the listed time. Please do not submit material at the last minute—keep in mind that the system might be slow. It’s the student’s responsibility to get assignments onto D2L by the deadline.
Late work will be accepted only in unusual circumstances. Late assignments can be submitted to the Late Assignment Bucket in Dropbox. Submitting an assignment to the Late Assignment Bucket does not guarantee it will be accepted. More than two late assignments during a term will result in a lowered class contribution grade.
Sharing work in class. You will sometimes be asked to share, read aloud, or discuss what you wrote in your weekly assignments. Be prepared to do this. It will be part of your grade for that day.
Academic Honesty
Please read the handout on academic honesty on D2L.
It is each student’s responsibility to understand what plagiarism is, to be aware of the campus policies on plagiarism, and to know what is and is not acceptable to submit on a paper or other assignment.
Class Schedule
Sept. 8 Introduction to Animal Rights 1: Love into Justice: F2F
Readings: Amata Miller, “The Many Faces of Social Justice” Thomas H. West, “Love into Justice: The Good Samaritan Revisted” Empty Cages, Prologue
Assignment: Weekly Assignment # 1
Sept. 15 Introduction to Animal Rights, continued: Off-campus
Readings:
Empty Cages Chapters 1 and 2 GSJ Reader, Iris Marian Young, “Five Faces of Oppression”
Group 1: Dominion, Chapter 1, “The Things that Are.” Group 2: Animal Liberation Chapter 1, “All Animals are Equal” Group 3: Eternal Treblinka Chapter 1, “The Great Divide.”
Assignment: Weekly Assignment # 2
Sept. 22 Religious and Spiritual Approaches: Christianity and Buddhism: F2F
Readings:
GSJ Reader, Curt Cadorette, from Liberation Theology: Context and Method GSJ Reader, Luz Beatriz Arellano, “Women’s Experience of God in Emerging Spirituality” Richard Alan Young, “Was Jesus a Vegetarian?” Andrew Linzey, “Reverence, Responsibility, and Rights” from Animal Theology (CP) “Buddhism and Animals” http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/buddhistethics/animals.shtml Group 1: “Was God the First Tanner?” (CP) Group 2: Stephen Vantassel, “Why Christians Cannot Support Animal Rights” (CP) Group 3: “Why Animals Matter: A Religious and Philosophical Perspective: Buddhism” http://www.think-differently-about-sheep.com/Why_Animals_Matter_%20Buddhism.htm pages 1 - 4
Assignments: Weekly Assignment # 3 ______
Sept. 29 Feminism and Animal Rights: Off-campus
Readings:
GSJ Reader, Cecilia Konchar Farr, “The Feminist Critique: Four Questions for Theorizing Across Disciplines” GSJ Reader, Deep Shikha and Shannon Doherty, “Six Sentences: Toward Global Women’s Movements” Lori Gruen, “Dismantling Oppression: An Analysis of the Connection Between Women and Animals” Marti Kheel, “The Liberation of Nature: A Circular Affair” Carol J. Adams, “Caring about Suffering: A Feminist Exploration”
Group 1: Joan Dunayer, “Sexist Words, Speciesist Roots” (CP) Group 2: Linda Birke, “Exploring the Boundaries: Feminism, Animals, and Science” (CP) Group 3: Carol J. Adams, “Woman-Battering and Harm to Animals” (CP)
Assignments:
Weekly Assignment # 4
Oct. 6 The Body as Commodity: Animals as “Things” to Buy and Use – Introduction: F2F
Readings:
Animal Liberation, Chapter 3 & 4 Empty Cages, Chapters 6 & 7
Assignments:
Weekly Assignment # 5 Research Project Draft # 1 (upload to D2L by deadline and bring 3 - 4 copies to class for group to peer review)
Oct. 13 The Body as Commodity 2: Animals as “Things” to Buy and Use - Diverse Voices: Off-campus
Reading:
Dominion, Chapter 6 Kathryn Paxton George, “A Paradox of Ethical Vegetarianism: Unfairness to Women and Children” Animal Agriculture Alliance, “Animal Agriculture: Myths and Facts” Pastor Jim Feeney “Are Vegetarianism and Veganism Biblically Encouraged for Christians?”
Group 1: “A Defense of the Feminist-Vegetarian Connection” Sheri Lucas (CP) Group 2: Bernard E. Rollin, “The Ethical Imperative to Control Pain and Suffering in Farm Animals” Group 3: Kristin Johnston Largen, “A Christian Rationale for Vegetarianism”
Assignment: Weekly Assignment # 6 Dicussion of Service Learning (on Discussion Board)
Oct. 20 The Body as Commodity: Animals as “Things” to Buy and Use – The Relationship between Animal Oppression and Human Oppression: F2F
Eternal Treblinka: Chapters 3 - 5
Assignments:
Weekly Assignment # 7 Research Project Draft 2 (upload to D2L by deadline and bring 2 – 3 copies to class for peer review)
Oct. 27 Entertaining Ourselves with Animal Lives – and Death: Off-campus
Readings:
Dominion, Chapter 2 Empty Cages, Chapters 8 & 9
Group 1: Stephen St. C. Bostock, Zoos and Animal Rights Chapter 4, “Wildness, Cruelty, and Domination,” Group 2: Stephen St. C. Bostock, Zoos and Animal Rights Chapter 5, “Wild Living Versus Zoo Living,” Group 3: Stephen St. C. Bostock, Zoos and Animal Rights Chapter 7 “The Keeping and Display of Animals.”
Assignment:
Weekly Assignment # 8 VISIT TO ZOO, CIRCUS, OR BELL MUSEUM (SEE HANDOUTS ON D2L)
Nov. 3 Animals as Research Tools: F2F
Readings:
Animal Liberation, Chapter 2 Empty Cages, Chapter 10 “I am the Enemy” (CP)
Assignments:
Weekly Assignment # 9 In-class discussion of service-learning experience.
Nov. 10 Animals in Fiction and Film: (Off-campus)
Readings:
Franz Kafka, “A Report for an Academy” http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/kafka/reportforacademy.htm Ursula K. LeGuin, “The Wife’s Story” (CP) Isaac Bashevis Singer, “ The Letter Writer (CP) Katherine Mansfield, “The Fly” http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~yz8h-td/misc/fly.html
Assignments:
Weekly Assignment # 10 Movie. Watch one of the following movies (your choice):
Babe Warhorse The Yearling ______
Nov. 17 Animals as the Beloved; Animals as the Despised (F2F)
Readings:
Jonathan Wojcik “The Five Most Hated Creatures on the Planet (Don’t Deserve It)” http://www.cracked.com/article_17481_the-5-most-hated-creatures-planet-dont-deserve- it.html Ade Vansa, “10 Animals Unique and Interesting But Very Despised by the Human” https://sites.google.com/site/vansalegend/home/articles/10-animals-unique-and-interesting- but-very-despised-by-the-human Eternal Treblinka, Chapter 2 Carter Heyward, Selections from Flying Changes: Horses as Spiritual Teachers View the images on ont the group pool “Beloved Animals” on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/groups/329307@N24/pool/
Assignment: Weekly Assignment # 11 Research Project Draft 3
Dec. 1: F2F
Readings:
GSJ Reader, Ursula K. LeGuin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” GSJ Reader, Nancy A. Heitzeg, “There is No Justice Without Action” GSJ Reader, Mohandas K. Gandhi, from Nonviolent Resistance” Empty Cages, Chapters 3 & 4
Assignments:
Weekly Assignment # 12 Presentations
Dec. 8 Taking Action 2: Off-campus
Readings:
Eternal Treblinka, Chapter 6 Dominion, Chapters 7 & 8
Assignments: Weekly Assignment #13 Final Report on Service Learning
Dec. 15 Taking Action: F2F
Empty Cages, Chapter 11 Eternal Treblinka, Chapters 7 – 8
Assignments:
Weekly Assignment # 14 Presentations Final Version of Research Project
Dec. 20 No class. Weekly Assignment # 15 (final reflection) (online)