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Animals - HIS00137H

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  • Department: History
  • Module co-ordinator: Prof. Helen Cowie
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
    • See module specification for other years: 2023-24

Module summary

Humans have always enjoyed a close relationship with other animals. They have farmed them, eaten them, ridden them into war, exhibited them, experimented on them, pictured them, pampered them, killed them and worshipped them. Animal products - flesh, fur, fins and feathers - have been consumed by humans from the earliest periods of history, while animal labour has powered human agriculture and industry. Animals have also served as test subjects for scientists, models for artists, diversions for kings and queens and companions for children. This module explores these multiple-human-animal relationships in different historical periods and geographical settings to chart the human-animal bond across time. From the sacrifice of llamas in Pre-Columbian Peru to the exhibition of pandas in twentieth-century zoos, from wild okapis in the Congo to pet monkeys in a Victorian parlour, we examine changing attitudes to animals in societies across the globe.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2024-25

Module aims

The aims of this module are:

  • To introduce students to the practice of comparative history;
  • To enable students to acquire skills and understanding of that practice by studying a particular topic or theme; and
  • To enable students to reflect on the possibilities and difficulties involved in comparative history

Module learning outcomes

Students who complete this module successfully will:

  • Grasp the key approaches and challenges involved in comparative history;
  • Understand a range of aspects of the topic or theme which they have studied;
  • Be able to use and evaluate comparative approaches to that topic or theme; and
  • Have learned to discuss and write about comparative history

Module content

Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1, then a 1-hour workshop and a 2-hour seminar in each of weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of the semester. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW). Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour workshops and eight 2-hour seminars in all.

Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:

  1. Consumption
  2. Labour
  3. Hunting
  4. Exhibition
  5. Companionship
  6. Knowledge
  7. Biodiversity
  8. Animal Rights

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Online Exam -less than 24hrs (Centrally scheduled)
Open Exam - Animals		 5 hours 100

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

For formative assessment work, students will produce an essay plan relating to the themes and issues of the module.

For summative assessment students will complete an Open Exam in the assessment period.

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Online Exam -less than 24hrs (Centrally scheduled)
Open Exam - Animals		 5 hours 100

Module feedback

Following their formative assessment task, students will receive written feedback, which may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss their feedback during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.

For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission. For semester 1 assessments, the tutor will be available during student hours of the following semester for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.

Indicative reading

For semester time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:

  • Hilda Kean and Philip Howell, The Routledge Companion to Human-Animal History (London: Routledge, 2018).
  • Erica Fudge, Animal (London: Reaktion Books, 2002).
  • Brian Fagan, The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History (London: Bloomsbury 2015).


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.