This course will look at fictional representations of animal advocacy; vegan practices and values like recognition and compassion; and farmed, free living, and companion animals in popular Anglophone, Western popular media, and participants will learn how these have shaped our relationships to animals and animal ethics in modern history.

bell hooks discusses her book Outlaw Culture in relation to her concerns with problematic patterns appearing in popular culture. She tells how sometimes she found the best way to teach students or individuals about "otherness" was by relating it to a medium they were familiar with, the media and popular culture.

 

Unlike critical theory that may be hard for a lot of people to access or understand, popular culture is for the masses and is easily understood. Thus, the masses are far more likely to be educated by popular culture rather than theory-based essays.

Instructor

Christopher Sebastian McJetters