Set of slides to use when talking about a typical assignment in a Sociology Class using the Big Data (Twitter) environment on VIDIA.

1. Society and Animals Sample
Assignment

2. Deconstructing the assignment
 Overview of texts
 Intent of assignment
 Sample student response

3. Synopsis of Assignment
 Each person will submit a PowerPoint presentation, or other electronic presentation, that
features gathered social media (webpages, images, tweets, videos, etc) that extends the
discussion of the social imaginary and animals and/or animals and the environment to a case
of your choice. The presentation should include the following:
 I. A brief description of how the selected subject matter relates to one or more of Waldau’s
Four questions;
 II. At least one reference to Herzog;
 III. At least one reference to Nibert and/or Mooallem;
 IV. A brief discussion of how understanding this topic contributes to a greater understanding
of the broad field of Society and Animals.
 Each presentation should include a brief (2-3) page summary of the presentation and its
findings.

4. Animal Studies: An Introduction
 Author: Paul Waldau
 Core: “Animal studies” is a growing,
interdisciplinary field

5. Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why
It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals
 Author: Hal Herzog
 Core: How we think about animals is rooted in human perceptions and
Interactions, not in the “nature” of animals

6. Animal Oppression and Human Violence:
Domesecration, Capitalism, and Global Conflict
 Author: David A. Nibert
 Core: Human history and societies cannot be adequately understood
without understanding the roles played by “domescration”

7. Summary of
Animal Rights/Human Rights
 Primary variables
 Factor One: Economic exploitation;
 Factor Two: Unequal power “largely vested
in control of the state”;
 Factor Three: Ideological control

8. Theory of Oppression

9. Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story
About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America
 Author: Jon Mooallem
 Core: How do we come to identify with certain animals, many of which
we have never met?
 New York Times 100 Notable books of 2013

10. Two cases: Polar bears and
whooping cranes

11. International Union for Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources Red List of Endangered Species
 Taxonomy [top]
 Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family ANIMALIA ARTHROPODA
ARACHNIDA ARANEAE LYCOSIDAE
Scientific Name: Pardosa diuturna Species Authority: Fox, 1937
Common Name/s: English – Glacier Bay Wolf Spider Assessment
Information [top]
 Red List Category & Criteria: Vulnerable D2 ver 2.3 Year Published:
1996 Date Assessed: 1996-08-01 Annotations: Needs updating
 Assessor/s: World Conservation Monitoring Centre History: 1994 –
Rare (Groombridge 1994) 1990 – Rare (IUCN 1990) 1988 – Rare (IUCN
Conservation Monitoring Centre 1988) 1986 – Rare (IUCN
Conservation Monitoring Centre 1986
 http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/16219/0

12. Intents of assignments
 Syncretic assignment
 Requiring students to synthesize different,
interdisciplinary texts
 Critical thinking through engaging texts
 Deploying ideas from texts in new directions

13. Intents of assignments
 Application of theoretical/ conceptual material
 Taking theoretical perspectives/concepts and directly applying them in
their own research
 Student engagement through data-driven
research
 Could students generate their own data sets and apply ideas
from the above texts in their own research?