Module manager: Dr Diane Morgan
Email: D.L.Morgan@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2024/25
This module is not approved as an Elective
Crucial for thinking what and how “we” are and could become as a “humanity”, is the thinking of “our” difference and similarities with other life forms. This module therefore engages with theories and practices of animality so as to interrogate the category of The Human. A wide range of material- literary and philosophical texts, films, paintings and installation projects- will be considered that reflect how our notion of “species” is subject to ongoing change.
This module aims to interrogate the nature and limits of the human in relation to other life forms, namely ”animals”. This enquiry will lead to essential ethical issues regarding rights (what rights? who has them? how? And when?). By identifying a wide range of “texts” –e.g. literary works, films, philosophical texts, paintings, “natural history” exhibits, TV programmes, zoos, circuses…), this module aims to foster a creative response to the hybridity that is “animality”.
On completion of the module you will be able to:
1.Recognise contemporary debates surrounding the human, the posthuman, the transhuman and “animality”.
2. Identify a wide range of material with which to interrogate the nature and limits of human animal relations.
3. Formulate creative approaches to contemporary debates surrounding human animal relationship
4. Assess the ethical, social, political issues attendant on human animal relations.
Skills learning outcomes
5. Critical Thinking about the ways non-human lives have been represented, conceptualised and instrumentalised and to what ends.
6. Ethical Issues relating to othered beings will be discussed, necessitating a discussion of systemic, cultural and individual acts of violence, exclusion, incarceration, elimination, suffering and sacrifice.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supervision | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Seminar | 10 | 3 | 30 |
| Private study hours | 268 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 32 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 300 | ||
The (unassessed) assignment gives the tutor an opportunity to gauge student involvement with the module. Regular individual tutoring will be on offer in the form of office hours.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Written | 100 |
| Coursework | Written | 0 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
No alternative format for resit coursework.
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 8/29/2024
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team