Animals in Science, Medicine and Technology

This course considers human-animal relationships as they have developed over time.  How have humans and animals co-evolved? How do humans think about animals and classify animals?  Why is there a boundary between humans and other animals, and how is it defined and maintained? What do humans know about animals and how do they know it?

In particular, the course examines how the sites and knowledge about animals and human-animal relationships developed and changed within the fields of technology, medicine and science after the mid-19th century.   How do animals become technologies? How do animal sciences and medicine emerge and evolve?   We will consider topics such as pets, wildlife, work animals, zoo animals, war animals and lab animals; we will look at evolution, domestication, breeding, archeology, veterinary medicine, ethology, ecology, extinction and predation.