ANIMAL ETHOS

This seminar interrogates and challenges assumptions regarding the human/nature divide in socio-scientific contexts. Whereas a surfeit of literature considers animals as objects of study,we will be less concerned with studies of various species and preoccupied instead with how best to work through animals as key sites of social analysis. Of special concern are the meanings assigned to nature, species integrity, interspecies proximity and intimacy, and the moral boundaries of science where non-human species proliferate.  Readings include those drawn from anthropology, political and moral philosophy, the sociology and history of science, and science and technology studies (STS).