Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the module students should have acquired the following capacities:
1. Knowledge of the field of Human-Animal Studies, including the ability to identify and describe the place of sociology within this multi-disciplinary field;
2. Comprehension of the major concepts, claims and bodies of evidence used in debating the nature and significance of distinctions between humans and animals;
3. Knowledge of a series of case-studies of human-animal relations, and a capacity to analyse and assess the arguments and conclusions based upon these studies;
4. Capacity to evaluate and judge contested claims about the conditions and status of agricultural, wild, working, and companion animals;
5. Ability to discern aspects of the complicated weave of relationships between humans, animals and the natural environment, and to construct arguments and interpretations based on empirical case studies and informed by theoretical frameworks.