Animal Studies: An Introduction

Animal studies is a growing interdisciplinary field that incorporates scholarship from public policy, sociology, religion, philosophy, and many other areas. In essence, it seeks to understand how humans study and conceive of other-than-human animals, and how these conceptions have changed over time, across cultures, and across different ways of thinking. This interdisciplinary introduction to the field boldly and creatively foregrounds the realities of nonhuman animals, as well as the imaginative and ethical faculties that humans must engage to consider our intersection with living beings outside of our species. It also compellingly demonstrates that the breadth and depth of thinking and humility needed to grasp the human-nonhuman intersection has the potential to expand the dualism that currently divides the sciences and humanities.

As the first holistic survey of the field, Animal Studies is essential reading for any student of human-animal relationships and for all people who care about the role nonhuman animals play in our society.


About the Author
Paul Waldau is Associate Professor of Anthrozoology and Animal Behavior, Ecology and Conservation at Canisius College and since 2002 has taught the Animal Law course at Harvard Law School.