CULT421-18S1 (C) Semester One 2018

Multispecies Studies

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 19 February 2018
End Date: Sunday, 24 June 2018
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 2 March 2018
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 18 May 2018

Description

This course introduces a new subfield of anthropology concerned with the interconnectedness of humans and other life forms. Recognizing that the human condition cannot be understood in isolation, it considers the meaningful agency of nonhuman others and their entanglement with human lives, landscapes and technologies. The course introduces students to cutting-edge studies of mammalian interspecies intimacies, to intersections with insects, fish, fungi, and microbes, to issues of extinction and invasion, and to the implications of other species for human bodies, economies, foods and technologies.

Learning Outcomes

  • By the end of this course, students will have developed:
  • A critical understanding of posthumanist theory, dualist thought systems, and the multispecies turn in the humanities and social sciences
  • Familiarity with the latest research on human intersections with primates, elephants, microbes, fungi, insects, and aquatic creatures
  • Knowledge of key concepts including coevolution, companion species, mutual ecology, the human microbiome, and the Anthropocene
  • Substantive appreciation of the role of nonhuman species in configuring human worlds, and of species loss and extinction in multispecies environments
  • Improved analytic thinking skills, better scholarly research abilities, and greater aptitude in oral and written communication

Prerequisites

Subject to approval of the Programme Director.

Restrictions

Equivalent Courses

Course Coordinator

Piers Locke

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,811.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Humanities .

All CULT421 Occurrences

  • CULT421-18S1 (C) Semester One 2018