A421 Topics: Animals in
American History
Instructor: Jon Coleman
Time: TH
Office Number: CA 313
Place: CA 215
Office Hours: T and H
Email: jocolema@iupui.edu
This class examines American history
through humans’ interactions with animals—wild, domestic, and symbolic. Using a
variety of texts from folk stories to motion pictures, scientific articles to
stuffed toys the course traces the ways real and imagined animals have wandered
into and altered American history. The class begins with a basic introduction
to wildlife biology and ecological concepts through the investigation of how different
creatures respond to the annual challenges of winter. From there, we will
investigate animals’ roles in colonization, industrialization, folklore,
leisure, politics, and pop culture. The goal of the course is to prompt you to
re-think your own relationship to animals—as meat, as pets, as cultural
icons—through the exploration of the human and animal relationships of the
American past.
Bernd
Heinrich, Winter World ISBN: 0060197447
Ernest
Thompson Seton, The Animals I Have Known ISBN:
0486410846
Felix
Salten, Bambi ISBN: 067166607X
Laura
Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit ISBN:
0449005615
I
will also make available copies of short articles.
ATTENDANCE,
INCOMPLETES, AND PLAGIARISM
Showing
up will greatly improve your chances of learning something in this course. I
will keep attendance, if you miss more than three classes, I will take five
points off your final grade for each additional
unexcused absence. WARNING! You will be in dire intellectual trouble
long before you miss your fourth class. This course is not a television show!
If you miss a couple episodes, all the borrowed notes in the world may not
catch you up. I expect you to demonstrate signs of intelligent life during each
and every class period.
University
policy it that grades of
“incomplete” should be assigned only to students who have
successfully completed most of the course work and who have been prevented by
significant and unanticipated circumstances from finishing all requirements.
“Incompletes” are a pain for you and for me. I will be reluctant to give them
out.
Plagiarism,
cheating on the exams, and other forms of intellectual
skullduggery will not be tolerated. If I catch you, you will fail the exam and
I will report you to the university for further disciplinary
action. Consult the IUPUI Campus Bulletin, 2000-2002, p. 36.
There
will be two midterms and a final 10-page paper. The midterms will include essay
questions and short answer IDs, and will cover information in the readings and
class lectures. The exams will be worth 40% (20% each) of your final grade. If
you wish to improve your exam grade, you can write a replacement 5-page essay.
I will hand out the essay topics the day I hand back the graded exams.
Replacement essays are due the final day of class, April 29.
The
final 10-page paper will investigate a particular animal that interests you. For example, if iguanas are
your bag, you may investigate the spread of lizard ownership in the United
States, American attitudes towards reptiles in general, or the ramifications of
habitat destruction on iguana populations. In other words, I’m giving you free
rein to come up with a project that interests you.
The
paper will have several due dates. First, I would like you to hand in a 2-page
introduction on March 2. Second, I would like you to write a 5-page version of
the final paper on April 1. The final 10-page papers will be due on the day of
the scheduled final, May 9. I will assign a grade to each version of the paper.
The final paper grade will count for 40% of you overall grade.
Class
participation—much of the course will be discussion,
and everyone needs to contribute to these discussions—accounts for the
remaining 20% of the overall grade. Class participation not only includes
coming to class but showing up prepared (
January
13
& 15 Course Intro./Wildlife Biology.
(
20
& 22 Discussion of Heinrich
“Winter World”/No Class on Thurs. (
27
& 29 Animals in Native
America/Germs
February
3
& 5 Domestic Animals/Fur Trade
(
10
& 12 Hunting in Early
America/Horses on the
17
& 19 B’rar Rabbit/First Exam
24
& 26 Nature Fakers/Discussion of
Seton “Wild Animals I Have Known” (
March
2 & 4 Pigeons and hat feathers—two page papers due/Bison
to Cattle (
9
& 11 Wolves and the Federal Government/Individual
Meetings (
16
& 18 Spring Break
23
& 25 Viewing of Disney’s Bambi/
Discussion of Salten’s “Bambi” (
30 & 1 American Zoos/Lassie Come
Home: Animals on TV—Five-page papers due.
April
6 & 8
Discussion
of Seabiscuit (Read Hillenbrand entire).
13 & 15
Second Exam/Individual meetings.
20 & 22 Animals as pets/Animals as
food—viewing of Ted Nugent’s “Spirit of the Wild.” (Reading: James Serpell,
“Of pigs and pets”)
27
& 29 Wolf Reintroduction/Class
wrap-up (
May
6 Final Papers due by