The following texts are required reading for this course, and they are available in the College Bookstore.  In case you order books from another merchant, I’ve provided ISBNs so that you can be sure you have the correct edition.

Susan Davis and Margo DeMello, Stories Rabbits Tell: A Natural and Cultural History of a Misunderstood Creature (978-1590560440)

Thor Hanson, Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle (978-0465028788)

Tai Moses, Zooburbia (978-1937006679)

Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish:  A Journey into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body (978-0307277459)

St. Martin’s Handbook (The edition you bought for your FYS is fine.  If you don’t own a copy, the bookstore always has them.)

John Yunker, Writing for Animals (978-1618220585)

Other reading for the course includes the texts listed below.  They will be available as PDFs on Moodle or on reserve in the library.

Gruen, Critical Terms for Animal Studies (selected entries)

—. “Why Animals Matter,” Ethics and Animals: An Introduction

Sy Montgomery, “Athena: Encountering the Mind of a Mollusk,” from The Soul of an Octopus

Robert Macfarlane, Lost Words

Elana Passarello, Animals Strike Curious Poses (selected essays)

David Foster Wallace, “Consider the Lobster”

Because writing comes from reading, we will spend a good deal of time looking carefully about the reading in this course in order to understand what the writing is doing and how it accomplishes its ends.  So that you can participate in those discussions in an informed way, and so that you can apply what you are learning to your own writing, you should read–and reread–carefully.  And by that I mean that you should come to class with your books and articles annotated, and with a set of notes that allows you to easily turn to pages.  And you should be prepared to talk from your notes.

Details about the reading for each week will be posted on Moodle.  You are responsible for checking Moodle, completing the assigned reading and bringing to every class all of the reading scheduled for the day’s discussion.  If you forget something (it happens), please sit next to someone else who does have the reading and ask to share.  (In turn, if you notice that the person next to you does not have the reading, please offer to share.)