Course Catalogue

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This course explores relationships between humans and animals in late medieval and Renaissance Europe and their global context. It examines creatures domestic, wild and imaginary - from pets to exotic menagerie beasts, from vermin to hunt animals, from livestock to mermaids and werewolves. Students engage with the cutting edge of the emergent, interdisciplinary field of historical animal studies and with a range of sources, methods, and approaches to understanding interspecies interactions, reflecting on the historian's task, and asking questions about the human relationship with the natural world that continue to have resonance today.

10x2 hr seminars per week over 10 weeks as scheduled in MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in History and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into History, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes.

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The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ Course essay - 3,000 words - 60% 

■ Report - 1,500 words - 30% - identifying and commenting on source material (including non-textual sources) from the period. 

■ Oral Assessment (Seminar Contribution) - 10% 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available: 

■ There are no alternatives to the Essay, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ There are no alternatives to the Report, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ Written response to seminar material in advance or after seminar as alternative to seminar contribution.  

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.  

This course aims to:

■ Introduce students to the emergent field of historical animal studies in relation to the period c. 1300 - c.1600.

■ Investigate a range of attitudes and behaviours towards animals in the period and to reflect on variation across time and place, including reflection on modern practices.

■ Examine different kinds of evidence - e.g. textual, visual - of relationships of humans and animals in the past. 

■ Assess methods and approaches employed in historical animal studies and to engage with theories and concepts across disciplines.

■ Develop skills in source criticism through analysis of seminar materials and in course assessment.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Identify, contextualise and analyse diverse attitudes and behaviours towards animals in late medieval and Renaissance Europe and their global context, and make connections and comparisons to the present.

■ Critique a range of evidence of historical interspecies interactions, and methods and approaches used to study the subject.

■ Evaluate the fast-growing literature in historical animal studies, including readings across disciplines.

■ Present a critical argument in written work and oral seminar contributions, making use of a range of substantiating evidence, and engage with the contributions of peers.