Course Details

“You know why you can enjoy a day at the zoo?” Donald Trump Jr. asked in a 2019 Instagram post. “Because walls work.” Such a statement provoked immediate criticism, but it is an artifact of the long and entangled histories of humanity and animality as they converge in the constructions of race, empire, and nation. This seminar invites students to think critically about what it means to be human. We will engage ideologies of race, empire and species, and consider how animality has been central to the project of western civilization. Students will explore histories of zoos and food production, the politics of immigration and decolonial movements, and the significance of Indigenous epistemologies. By the end of the course, students will be able to critically discuss the work of classic and contemporary social theorists, describe the ways in which varied vectors of difference (e.g. race, dis/ability, gender, species) have been objects of civilizing projects, and explain the ontological and epistemological contributions of Indigenous scholars to critiques of western civilization. Through seminar discussions, field trips, collaborative projects, and in-class exercises, we will think together about what foregrounding a more-than-human understanding of “life” might make possible in the construction of alternative political and social orders.