SPRING 2001
This information effective for Spring 2001.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Spring 2001
Instructor: Delcianna Winders
E-mail: annajoy@cats.ucsc.edu
T/Th 10:00 - 11:45 A.M., Oakes 103
This course will begin with a critical examination of factory farming and its position within an animal industrial complex. We will focus particularly on the treatment of livestock animals in factory farms. Once we establish an understanding of contemporary agribusiness, we will turn to a study of the movement that has risen up in opposition to it. After considering the philosophical underpinnings of this movement, we will proceed to an ethnographic overview of the movement. Finally, for the rest of the quarter we will engage in an analysis of the tactics used to resist factory farming practices, including legislation, litigation, consumer activism, and direct action.
Course requirements: The course is a seminar and every student is expected to be an active participant each day. A reasonable amount of reading will be assigned for each day, and it is imperative that you do the reading so that you can engage in fruitful dialogue with your peers. Reading responses will be assigned to help you critically engage with, integrate, and move beyond the texts. There will also be a take-home final, which will be a six-page essay assignment. You will be evaluated based upon your participation (which includes attendance, since you cannot participate if you are not present), your reading responses, and your final.
Text: All of the assigned readings are in a course reader.
*3/27 - Introduction to the Course and Each Other
Video presentation and discussion to acquaint us with the factory farming industry
*3/29 - The Rise of Modern Agribusiness
Selections from Beyond Boundaries by Barbara Noske, Hungry for Profit by Fred Magdoff, and The Meat Business by Geoff Tansey and Joyce DíSilva
*4/3 - Inside the Factory Farming Industry
Selections from Animal Factories by Jim Mason and Peter Singer, and Slaughterhouse by Gail Eisnitz
*4/5 - Confronting an Entrenched Economic System
Selections from The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery by Marjorie Spiegel and Beyond Boundaries by Barbara Noske
*4/10 - Defining Speciesism
Selections from Animal Liberation by Peter Singer and Animal Revolution: Changing Attitudes toward Speciesism by Richard Ryder
*4/12 - Welfare, Rights, and the Critique of Rights
Selections from Rain Without Thunder by Gary Francione, "Animal Rights and Feminist Theory" by Josephine Donovan, and Beyond Animal Rights by Carol Adams
*4/17 - An Examination of Domestication
Selections from Beyond Boundaries by Barbara Noske and The Animal Estate by Harriet Ritvo
*4/19 - The History and Composition of an "Animal Rights" Movement in the U.S.
Selections from The Animal Rights Movement in America by Laurence and Susan Finsen, Animal Rights: History and Scope of a Radical Social Movement by Harold Guither, and Unleashing Rights by Helena Silverstein
*4/24 - The Politics of the Movement
Selections from Eco-Wars: Political Campaigns and Social Movements by Ronald T. Libby and Unleashing Rights by Helena Silverstein
*4/26 - International Comparisons: the Movement in Australia, Great Britain, and the U.S.
Selections from Compassionate Beasts: The Quest for Animal Rights by Lyle Munro
Mid-Quarter Evaluations
*5/1 - Comparative Policy-Making and Policies - The U.S. and Britain
Selections from Political Animals by Robert Garner
*5/3 Legal Welfarism
Selections from Rain without Thunder by Gary Francione, the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, and the Downed Animal Protection Act
*5/8 - The Industry's Interest in Welfarist Measures
Selections from Animal Welfare and Meat Science by Neville Gregory and Temple Grandin and Farm Animal Welfare by Bernard Rollin
*5/10 - The Issue of Standing
"Should Trees Have Standing?" by Chris Stone, selections from Animals, Property, and the Law by Gary Francione, and Jones v. Butz
*5/15 - Libel and the Industry
Selections from McLibel: Burger Culture on Trial by John Vidal and Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman
*5/17 - Suing the Industry for its Costs to Human Health?
Unpublished essay by Lucy Goodrum analogizing the cigarette industry and the meat industry
*5/22 - Vegetarianism
Selections from The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist Vegetarian Critical Theory by Carol Adams and Radical Vegetarianism: A Dialectic of Diet and Ethic by Mark Braunstein
*5/24 - Consumer Activism
Selections from Ethics into Action by Peter Singer and articles on McDonaldís recent welfare demands on its suppliers
*5/29 Direct Action
Selections from Civil Disobedience by Christian Bay and Free the Animals: The Story of the Animal Liberation Front by Ingrid Newkirk
*5/31 - The implications and effectiveness of different approaches, and the importance of a network of strategies. Uniting theory and practice.
Final papers are due
Course evaluations