You are here: Home > Masters > Modules > SOCL933: Animals, Science & Society

SOCL933: Animals, Science & Society

Course convenor: Richard Twine

This module examines the way in which contemporary developments in science and technology intersect and potentially reframe our social relations with nonhuman animals.  Drawing upon literature from both the sociology of human/animal relations and the broader interdisciplinary field of (critical) animal studies this course engages with empirical research and the contemporary importance of the ‘question of the animal’ for social theory, as well as debates around posthumanism and sustainability.  

Topics Covered

  • A Sociology of Animals?
  • The social construction of animals and the human
  • Feminist perspectives on nonhuman animals
  • Capitalism, biopower and the animal body
  • Posthumanism and animal ethics
    Queering the nonhuman, queering the human
  • Animal Biotechnology and the merging of the medical and the agricultural
  • Conceptualising and consuming animal bodies – sciences of animal production
  • Human/animal relations, Climate Change and sustainability
  • Posthumanisms in Practice

Reading List

  • Richard Twine (2010) Animals as Biotechnology – Ethics, Sustainability and Critical Animal Studies. Earthscan(COURSE TEXT)
  • Linda Kalof & Amy Fitzgerald eds. (2007) The Animals Reader – The Essential and Contemporary Writings. Berg. (COURSE TEXT)
  • Cary Wolfe (2009) What is Posthumanism? University of Minnesota Press
  • Cary Wolfe (2003) Animal Rites – American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory. Chicago University Press
  • Donna Haraway (2008) When Species Meet. University of Minnesota Press
  • Carol J Adams (1990) The Sexual Politics of Meat. New York: Continuum
  • Sarah Franklin (2007) Dolly Mixtures: The Remaking of Genealogy. Duke University Press
  • Matthew Calarco (2007) Zoographies – The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida. NYC: Columbia University Press
  • Henry Buller, & Carol Morris (2003) “Farm animal welfare: a new repertoire of nature-society relations or modernism re-embedded?” Sociologia Ruralis Vol.43, No.3, pp.216-237
  • Adele Clarke (1998) Disciplining Reproduction: Modernity, American Life Sciences, and the Problems of Sex. Berkeley: University of California Press. The social construction of animals, species and the human

«Go Back

Degrees at a Glance

MA Sociology

MA Sociological Research

MA Media and Cultural Studies

MA Gender and Women's Studies

Combined Masters Degree

 

Postgraduate Drop in Sessions

Interested in postgraduate study? Talk to programme convenors, come to a research event, or visit the department, 1st Tues of every month. Find out more»

 

| Home | About | Contact | Undergraduate | Masters | PhD | Staff |
| Research & Publications | Current Students | News and Events |
Bowland North, Lancaster University, LA1 4YT, UK | Tel: +44 (0) 1524 593148 Fax: +44 (0) 1524 594256 E-mail: sociology@lancaster.ac.uk

Save this page: delicious logo Del.icio.us Digg It Reddit Reddit Facebook Stumble It Stumble It!