I’ve been absorbed these last few weeks in teaching a new course at the University of Washington. A variation on my Animals, Ethics and Food class, this course is called Animals, Ethics and Food: Doing Multispecies Ethnography. It is a condensed course, meaning that instead of a 10-week quarter, the term lasts only 4 1/2 weeks. We meet three times a week: two days a week for over two hours in the classroom on campus and one day a week at Pigs Peace Sanctuary. During our time in the classroom, we discuss documentaries, the readings we’re doing, and our time at the sanctuary. We read The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating last week (read my blog post about that book here), this week we’re reading Eating Animals, and next week we’re reading Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows.
During their time at the sanctuary, the students are doing an ethnography of pigs and the sanctuary. ‘Ethnography’ literally means the study of culture (or more literally, ‘culture writing’). Thus, the students are doing a study of social life at the sanctuary. I have paired each of them with a pig to work with during the quarter and they spend their time at the sanctuary observing the pig and the others around him/her. And they wander around the sanctuary, trying to understand what the sanctuary is as a place. What guidelines and values define the sanctuary as a bordered place in the world? How do the pigs flourish there? What ethical and political questions emerge at the sanctuary? How is the space designed with the pigs (and not humans) in mind? Who are these pigs? How have they healed from trauma at the sanctuary and how do some still carry trauma with them from their time before the sanctuary? These are the kinds of questions we are exploring with these ethnographic projects.
So far, it’s been going really well, I think. The students love the time at the sanctuary. There are only seven people in the class, so our group is intimate and we get to hear everyone’s opinions and ideas about the material we’re exploring. In many ways, it’s a dream-come-true class for me. Working together with the students to explore ideas related to how to come to understand animals, and how we might think differently about other animals in world is an amazing way to spend the summer.
It’s hard to explain, but spending time at the sanctuary is like nothing else. We can talk about animals in the classroom and we can theorize about what ethical responsibility we have to them. But when you’re face-to-face with a pig, it’s entirely different. Being with animals changes us and it teaches us in ways we can’t anticipate.
You can check out the syllabus here: AnimalsEthics&Food_DoingMultispeciesEthnography
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You are so incredibly AWESOME!!! What a wonderful class! Katie, you are changing the world! I am so very honored to know you.
Aww, thanks, Rain! You are so sweet! The class has definitely been fun (and also with quite a learning curve in terms of logistics at the sanctuary). There are things organizationally that I’ll do differently if I get to teach it again, but it definitely is turning out better than I had even hoped it would. 🙂
Hi! This course looks so amazing! I am a PhD student in Canada, and would love to know if you are teaching this class again to see if I could find funding to come for it! Are you planning on teaching it again next year?
Thanks!
Hi Katie – Thanks so much for your interest! That would be AMAZING if you could find a way to come from Canada to take the class. I’m hoping to teach it again next summer (hopefully end of June through end of July), but have not had confirmation for that yet. If you want to check in with me again in the fall, I should have a better idea of whether or not it gets approved for next summer. Feel free to email me directly at serenityinthestorm@gmail.com. Where are you in school in Canada?
thanks! got it through the Our hen House feed on FB–love it—as an “animal” person AND an ethnographer, I got it immediately. will certainly use it for inspiration for an honors course I am hoping to teach next year on animals and society….
Hi Nadine – thanks for commenting! I would love to see your syllabus for the animals and society class if you’re willing to share it at any point. I find such inspiration from seeing the ways people teach about and design courses around animals, so I would love to learn from you about how you’re thinking about it!
Katie-what a brilliant form of advocacy! Participating in an ethnography project rather than an ethology project has the opportunity to immediately shift conscious awareness. I hope you share some results with us when the course is complete!
Jessika – Thank you so much for the positive feedback! We just had our last class yesterday and I do plan to share a recap of the class now that it’s over. It worked out so much better than I had even hoped it would and can’t wait to share thoughts about it, and how I might do it differently if/when I get to teach it again! Stay tuned for that post. 🙂