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Animal House: Class Reveals Our Complicated Relationship With Animals

Anita Ritenour
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Flickr via Creative Commons

As students head back to school later this month, they'll be studying the basics, like geometry and world history.  But increasingly, students are exposed to a relatively new field of study involving animals and humans.   Marion Willetts is a sociology professor at Illinois State University and teaches a class she designed called Animals in Society.  This class is a part of what Willetts calls an emerging subfield of social science.

  • This subfield is multidisciplinary, including sociology, anthropology, philosophy and even English literature.
  • Willetts said students learn about different philosophical and religious perspectives of animals, the main societal uses of animals, and animals used in research , entertainment and as personal companions.
  • One particular angle is the similarity of the oppression of animals and certain human groups, focusing on women and racial and ethnic groups, religious minorities and the poor.
  • This field of study is a recent movement and there's been a struggle to gain serious acceptance.
  • Willetts said the class opens people's eyes towards how animals fit into our lives.
    160802AnimalHouseBonus.mp3
    Is trying to find cruelty-free eggs an impossible task? Marion Willetts explains in this bonus audio.
Reporter, content producer and former All Things Considered host, Laura Kennedy is a native of the Midwest who occasionally affects an English accent just for the heck of it. Related to two U.S. presidents, Kennedy appalled her family by going into show business.