Interdisciplinary Interspecies Pedagogies for Educating in the Anthropocene: Bringing Critical Animal Studies to Huxley College of the Environment

This report examines ENVS 499T Introduction to Critical Animal Studies: Theory, Agency, and Action, a 2-credit environmental humanities seminar designed as a M.Ed. in Environmental Education field project through Western Washington University’s (WWU) Huxley College of the Environment. ENVS 499T was created in response to a lack of critical animal studies course offering at WWU. The seminar was designed to provide WWU undergraduates with an opportunity to engage with interspecies ethical issues through an interdisciplinary lens. This report explores literature relevant to the design and implementation of this field project. It draws on scholars from critical animal studies and other liberation-focused fields who argue for the implementation of critical animals studies into other disciplines and educational spaces. It likewise features examples of student work, summative reflections of the field project, and examples of related research that emerged from the field project. These examples and reflections are used to illustrate the importance of bringing critical animal studies into educational spaces where it has not been previously offered