Animal Trials

Laboratories are modern-day truth factories, but they are also places where monkeys bargain, dolphins mimic human speech, and rodents suffer heartbreak. What are the juridical conditions of possibility for the study of animal minds? Do the conclusions of certain experiments on animal subjects undermine their ethical justification? This course investigates the significance of animals to legal, literary, and scientific explorations of personhood.

Legal Ghosts

What is it like to be legally dead? How does this peculiar condition inform the way the law defines personhood? This course examines the role of civil death, or “civiliter mortuus” in making and unmaking juridical identity. We will read key works by Hannah Arendt, Franz Kafka, Toni Morrison, and Shakespeare in addition to secondary texts by Michelle Alexander, Colin Dayan, Percival Everett, John Mbiti, and Orlando Patterson. Along the way, we will attend to the ancient and medieval cultural techniques that survive in modern legal practices.

Eunkyung Song

Submitted by admin on
Primary Title:  
Lecturer
Institution:  
UMASS Amherst
Department:  
DACSS
Email Address:  
eunkyungsong@umass.edu

Donovan A Parker

Submitted by admin on
Primary Title:  
Maintainer
Institution:  
UMASS Amherst
Department:  
Campus Center Facilities Services
Email Address:  
donovanparke@umass.edu
Telephone:  
413-577-8225
Office Building:  
Campus Center

Man The Nguyen

Submitted by admin on
Primary Title:  
Culinary Worker
Institution:  
UMASS Amherst
Department:  
UMass Dining - Berkshire Commons
Email Address:  
mannguyen@umass.edu

Josh J Liddy

Submitted by admin on
Primary Title:  
Research Assistant Professor
Institution:  
UMASS Amherst
Department:  
Kinesiology
Email Address:  
jliddy@umass.edu
Telephone:  
413-545-1337
Office Building:  
Life Sciences Lab

Emily DeMartino

Submitted by admin on
Primary Title:  
Advance Practice Clinician
Institution:  
Mount Holyoke College
Department:  
Health Services
Email Address:  
edemartino@mtholyoke.edu

Shannan Fields-Foley

Submitted by admin on
Primary Title:  
Associate Director of Communications
Institution:  
Amherst College
Department:  
Loeb Center for Career Exploration & Planning
Email Address:  
sfields@amherst.edu
Office Building:  
College Hall
Office Room Number:  
Room 125A

Weston Dripps

Submitted by admin on
Primary Title:  
Director of Sustainability
Institution:  
Amherst College
Department:  
Provost and Dean of the Faculty
Email Address:  
wdripps@amherst.edu
Telephone:  
+1 (413) 542-8497
Office Building:  
Service Building/Police Department
Office Room Number:  
Room 103B

Polly Devereux

Submitted by admin on
Primary Title:  
Academic Administration Specialist
Institution:  
Amherst College
Department:  
Provost and Dean of the Faculty
Email Address:  
pdevereux@amherst.edu
Telephone:  
+1 (413) 542-3720
Office Building:  
Converse Hall
Office Room Number:  
Room 102E
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