This quarter, we examine how the way we think affects the way we see. In the context of colonization and imperialism, this had major effects on the lives of non-human animals and people subjugated and deemed “inhuman” in public discourse. What can the use of animals for companionship, entertainment, sport, transportation, medicine, food, and as a source of biomass energy teach us about the dynamics of empire? Are practices like the confinement, exhibition, and consumption of animals related to the dehumanization and objectification of marginalized peoples?
Animals, People, and Power
What is an animal? How much of what we know about the natural world actually comes from reality, and how much is a projection of human concerns onto other living things? When we represent animals in art, literature, or scientific discourse, what kinds of boundaries between “humanity” and “animality” are drawn? Why are those boundaries so often transgressed or transformed? What kind of cultural or political work is performed when we compare animals to people, or people to animals?
Winter quarter’s lecturing faculty from History and Comparative Literature will teach us how to look closely and see differently by studying archival documents from the Andes, children’s literature and comics, Surrealist art and animation, oral histories from Hawai’i, Latinx performance art, and the history of freak shows and human zoos.
In seminars, students will continue to develop their online presence and will learn how to write about visual primary sources and scholarly secondary sources drawn from the discipline of history.
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Research
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LECTURING FACULTY
Prof. Rachel O’Toole (Dept. of History)
Prof. Eyal Amiran (Dept. of Comparative Literature)
Prof. Adria Imada (Dept. of History)
REQUIRED MATERIAL W2021
Beauchamp, Tamara, ed. Humanities Core Handbook 2020–2021. XanEdu, 2020. ISBN: 9781711493381
WINTER 2021 LECTURE CALENDAR
Students in Humanities Core enroll in a lecture and in a corresponding writing seminar. The prerecorded lecture videos (two per week) will be accessible through the UCI Canvas site for lectures, and each writing seminar will have a UCI Canvas site with a seminar syllabus. All Canvas course spaces can also be accessed through EEE+ GrandCentral.
The following calendar (subject to change) provides information about the lecturing faculty, readings for lectures, and special events. The reading assignment for each lecture should be completed before the lecture. Links for PDF readings are available on the seminar syllabus in Canvas.
New to Humanities Core this quarter? We welcome you and have compiled helpful course information for you.
| Date | Lecture | Readings | Events | |
| Wk 1 | ||||
| 1/4, 1/5 |
Prof. O’Toole: Animals of the Andes: A History |
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| 1/6, 1/7 |
Prof. O’Toole: Inca: An Empire Made by Llamas |
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| Wk 2 | ||||
| 1/11, 1/12 |
Prof. O’Toole: Iegue: Making Pets out of Livestock |
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| 1/13, 1/14 |
Prof. O’Toole: A Myth of Horses |
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| Wk 3 | ||||
| 1/18, 1/19 | Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday on Monday, no lecture for Monday/Tuesday. Tuesday seminars will meet. | |||
| 1/20, 1/21 |
Prof. O’Toole: Dogs of Conquest |
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| Wk 4 | ||||
| 1/25, 1/26 |
Prof. O’Toole: Andean Resistance and the Snake from Below |
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| 1/27, 1/28 |
Prof. Amiran: Wild Things |
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| Wk 5 | Midterm exams administered in seminars this week | |||
| 2/1, 2/2 |
Prof. Amiran: Child Animals: Gender in Winnie the Pooh |
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| 2/3, 2/4 |
Prof. Amiran: Nonsense Animals: Food and Language |
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| Wk 6 | ||||
| 2/8, 2/9 |
Prof. Amiran: Surrealist Animals 1 |
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| 2/10, 2/11 |
Prof. Amiran: Surrealist Animals 2 |
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| Wk 7 | ||||
| 2/15, 2/16 | Presidents’ Day on Monday, no lecture Monday/ Tuesday. Tuesday seminars will meet. | |||
| 2/17, 2/18 |
Prof. Amiran: Krazy Kat: Blackness and the Law |
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| Wk 8 | ||||
| 2/22, 2/23 |
Prof. Imada: Human Zoos |
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| 2/24, 2/25 |
Prof. Imada: “Freaks” and Entertainment |
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| Wk 9 | ||||
| 3/1, 3/2 |
Prof. Imada: Twilight: Wolves as Indigenous Kin or Commodities? |
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| 3/3, 3/4 |
Prof. Imada: Wolf Kills |
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| Wk 10 | ||||
| 3/8, 3/9 |
Prof. Imada: Interspecies Kinship during Incarceration |
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| 3/10, 3/11 |
Prof. Imada: Sharing Carceral Space |
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Final exams will be administered by seminar instructors during a 48-hour period of Finals Week.
Image: Illustration from Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, New Chronicle and Good Government, manuscript, 1615.
