JANUARY
January 24th Personal narratives of animals: Anthropomorphism
Reading: Thomas, The Hidden Life of Dogs (entire); Hauser, Wild Minds, Chapter One (“Animal Tales”)
**Reflective Essay #1 (due in class)**
Briefly describe an important experience you’ve had with an animal in your life – and reflect on the ways this experience shaped how you think about animal minds, animal bodies, or both. (aim for approx 750 words, or 3 pages but a little over or under is fine!)
January 31st Cartesian Animals: Descartes’ Mind/Body Split and Early Animal Experimentation
Reading (all
HANDOUTS): Descartes, Hooke, Boyle, Guerrini
plus
Beirne (online at http://www.psyeta.org/sa/sa2.1/beirne.html)
FEBRUARY
February 7th Victorians Animals, Part I – Natural History, from Linneaus to Darwin
Reading: Darwin (Origin, Chs. 4-5 and conclusion: on-line at: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/origin.html),
plus HANDOUTS: Schiebinger, Secord, Ritvo, and Flint
Presentation:“The Sociozoologic Scale”/ the Great Chain of Being: (READINGS: Arluke and Sanders, Chapter 7 plus Arthur Lovejoy’s Great Chain of Being (Harvard, 1936): pp. 58-62 and 227-241)
February 14th Victorian Animals, Part II -- Animal Behavior and Evolution
Reading: Crist, Introduction,
Ch 1 and 2
Darwin Origin, Ch. 1 (on-line at: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/origin.html)
and
Darwin, Descent, ch 3 (on-line at: http://www.zoo.uib.no/classics/descent.html)
Web site: History of Important Scientists in Animal Cognition: http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/history.htm (This site contains an excellent review of the major workers in animal behavior that we will be discussing)
February 21st Early Science of Animal Behavior: The Ethologists
Reading: Crist, Chapter 3; Gould & Gould, Chapters 1-2,
Lorenz’s Nobel Lecture (on-line at: http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1973/lorenz-autobio.html)
plus HANDOUTS: Tinbergen, Von Uexkul
FILM (in-class) Tinbergen: Signals for Survival: A Study of Animal Language, 1970
(See also -- video clip of goose egg-rolling behavior: http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/fap.htm)
Presentation:Ethograms (Get suggested readings from LO)
**ESSAY #1 Due on February 25th**
February 28th Behaviorists and Cognitivists
READINGS: Gould & Gould, Chapters 3-4; Allen, Chapters 1-4
PLUS B.F. Skinner’s talk about his work—“Four Questions in Four Minutes” (MP3 file) at: http://www.envmed.rochester.edu/wwwvgl/seab/seab-audio.htm)
Plus (HANDOUTS): Griffith, Watson (two articles); Capshew; Skinner
Presentation: Pavlovian Conditioning (Daniel Todes (1997), “Pavlov’s Physiology Factory,” Isis, 88: 205-206)
MARCH
March 7th CLASS FIELD TRIP: Bronx Zoo
**Reflective Essay #2 (due in class March 14th, to discuss in detail on April 4th)**
March 14th
SOCIOBIOLOGY -- Readings: Wilson (2 readings), and Bleir (All Handed
Out at Zoo)
Presentation: SOCIOBIOLOGY, Pro- and Con -
APRIL
April 4th Animal Worlds: Building Homes and Neighborhoods
Reading:
Gould and Gould, Chapters 5 and 6,
Hauser Chapters 2 and 4
Recommended -- Linden (all -- or whatever you can finish!)
Presentations:
-- Animal Environments in Zoos
(Shana Lessing &
Sameea Kasim)
--Animal Environments in Laboratories (Amy Litt and Suzanne Nelson)
April 11th Animal Worlds: Social Lives, Part One
Reading:
Gould and Gould Ch. 7 and 8
Hauser, Chapters 5 - 7
Presentations:
-- Animal Deception (Mike
LeVasseur, Kyoko Minegishi, and Lisa Mizrahi)
--Animal Play (FREE)
(Possible Guest Lecture by Janel Tortorice, SLC Anthropology Faculty – on Primates Behavior)
April 18th Animal Worlds: Social Lives, Part Two (Communication and Language)
Reading:
Gould and Gould, Chapters 9 and 10
Hauser, Chapters 8 and 9
Plus Other Readings TBA by Leah Olson
Presentation:
--Language in Apes (Jessica Singer and Zarah Kravitz)
--Language in Dolphins (Matt Klauber and Meg Freitag)
Essay #2 Due Monday April 22nd by 5PM in KR or LO office (or send by e-mail)
April 25th Wild Animals: Ecological and Conservation Perspectives
Readings:
Lutts, Chapters
1, 3, 6, 13-15, 27, and 28 (stories by various authors)
ARTICLES:
Mitman, "Pachyderm Personalities"
(2001, mss)
&
Various Recent Media Articles on Wildlife:
Polar Bears and PETA
Crows as Predators
Migration and big-game hunting
in Tanzania
Presentations:
--Debates over Migration and/or Navigation (Salmon, Homing Pigeon, Termite,
bee, ants, etc.) [FREE]
MAY
May 2nd Making Science with Animals and Making Animals
Scientific, Part I.
20th-Century Biomedical Experimentation
with Animals and its Critics
Readings: (ALL XEROXES)
Paul de Kruif, The Microbe Hunters (1926) Chapter 6: "Massacre the Guinea Pigs"
Michael Lynch, "Sacrifice and the Transformation of the Animal Body into a Scientific Object: Laboratory Culture and Ritual Practice in the Neurosciences," Social Studies of Science, 1989, 18: 265-89.
Arnold Arluke, "'We Build a Better Beagle:' Fantastic Creatures in Lab Animal Ads," Quantitative Sociology, 1994, 17 (2): 143-158.
Susan Lederer, "Political Animals: The Shaping
of Biomedical Research Literature in 20th-Century America," Isis,
1992, 83: 61-79.
Lynda Birke and Jane Smith, "Animals in Experimental Reports: The Rhetoric
of Science," in Society and Animals, 1995, 3: 23-42.
Excerpt from Richard Wright, "The Man Who Went to Chicago" in Eight Men (New York, Thunders Mt. Press, 1987) (17 p.)
Peter Singer, Animal Liberation (New York: Avon, 1975), Chapter 1: "All Animals Are Created Equal..." (25 p.)
Presentations:
--Animal Rights Movements Since Singer [FREE]
-- Nazi Anti-Vivisection [FREE]
May 9th 'New' Scientific Animals?: Scientific and Social Implications Revisited
"In U.S., clone of sheep too practical a
goal,"
Denver Post; Denver, Colo.; Feb 25, 1997; Gina Kolata The New York Times;
"In contrast to Dolly, cloning resets telomere
clock in cattle"
Science; Washington; Apr 28, 2000; Gretchen Vogel;
"Power steer"
New York Times Magazine; New York; Mar 31, 2002; Michael Pollan;
"The cloned pigs and
the "reality" of xenotransplantation"
The Hastings Center Report; Hastings-on-Hudson; Mar/Apr 2002; Gregory E Kaebnick;
"Using Robotics, Researchers
Give Upgrade to Lowly Rats"
New York Times; New York, N.Y.; May 2, 2002; Kenneth Chang;
"Silicon Pets, but the
Pride Is Real"
New York Times; New York, N.Y.; May 2, 2002; Eric a. Taub;
Presentation:
-- Great Apes Project
-- Mad Cow Disease
May 16th
Student Presentations of Conference Work – lunch provided!
Home / Syllabus / Assignments / Web Board