Background

Animal agriculture has been part of human experience since the beginning of history. Cave paintings, the archeological record, and oral traditions reveal our complex and evolving relationship with animals. This relationship creates a diverse array of challenges: how to feed and clothe ourselves, make a profit, sustain animal resources, promote animal welfare, and preserve the environment. But to these practical questions can be added experiential ones: how do we feel about animals in the way our lives touch them? Do we have a sense of guilt, pleasure, awe, fear etc in our treatment of animals? Exploration of these feelings might help us to improve our experience with animals, and their experience of us.

The purpose of this class is to stimulate curiosity of participants from any academic discipline, (physical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, arts etc), in the challenges posed by animal agriculture. Students will formulate a research question specific to animal agriculture, according to the disciplines of science, social science, or the arts; apply research techniques relevant to the discipline; and communicate findings in the format commonly used by the discipline.

Research areas include:

1. Practice: Questions related to improving agricultural production, animal welfare, and minimizing environmental impact

2. Policy: Legislative, regulatory and ethical considerations of animal agriculture

3. Perception: What is the human experience of animal agriculture, and how might his be expressed, explored, or engaged through the arts or personal reflection.

Course Syllabus

REL150 Syllabus

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