Posted March 4, 2021:
I’m excited to be teaching an English elective titled “Interspecies Friendship” in the fall at Fordham University. I’ve included a course description and brief introduction, below.
Interspecies Friendship
Humans and killer whales, gorillas and cats, pigs and spiders, and even a lion, meerkat, and warthog: stories of interspecies relationships abound. What can we learn from literature about friendships that cross lines between species? What insights are to be found in considering how other species experience the world, and how might friendship traverse differences? This course will consider examples of interspecies friendships from literary works ranging from Black Beauty and The Call of the Wild to scientific and philosophical texts by Darwin and Derrida.