UN3252: Animals in the History of East Central Europe | M. Baar

History
Undergraduate Seminar
Th 2:10-4PM

Over the last two decades scholars in the humanities and social sciences have embraced “the animal turn”: by asking questions about the place of animals in human societies and about animals’ experiences in various times and places they have instigated a field that has come to be known as Animal Studies. This research has expanded the range of analytical tools we have at our disposal to examine social worlds and to study meaning, representation, agency, and context and it also encouraged us to re-consider fundamental questions about the human–animal divide: what it is, where it is, and what its significance is. Moreover, it has become evident that animals are not just passive recipients of human action, but at times they can act as autonomous agents that can contributing the shaping of the world that we share with them.

Although this course adopts a perspective which is first and foremost historical, it also emphasizes the field’s interdisciplinary embedding and intersectional potentials. It shows that the study of historical developments through the lens of animals is not only intellectually rewarding in its own right, but it also provides new perspectives on a range of crucial topics, such as the history of war, capitalism, colonialism, consumption and entertainment. The majority of accounts in the field addresses developments in the Anglophone world. While also paying attention to the results of that research, the regional focus of this course will be on East Central Europe.

Link to Vergil
Note: only courses offered during the two previous semesters have active Vergil links.