Postgraduate Module Descriptor


ANTM101: Animals, Health and Healing

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Overview

NQF Level7
Credits15 ECTS Value7.5
Term(s) and duration

This module will run during term 2 (11 weeks)

Academic staff

Dr Alexander Badman-King (Convenor)

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Available via distance learning

Yes

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MODULE IS ONLY AVAILABLE VIA DISTANCE-LEARNING.

In this module you will tackle a wide range of human interactions with nonhuman animals which occur in the fields of science and medicine. Nonhuman animals are used extensively in the testing of a wide range of human drugs, but can also be seen to have a therapeutic effect on humans in their own right outside of the laboratory. Due to our close proximity to other animals the issue of zoonotic diseases, i.e. pathogens which can be transmitted across the species barrier, has become particularly pressing, and is another fertile field of anthropological and anthrozoological investigation. Finally, we will consider what is referred to as 'ethnoveterinary medicine', i.e. 'folk' approaches to the health and wellbeing of domestic animals and ask what roles nonhuman animals who self-medicate (a practice known as zoopharmacognosy) have played in the development of human ideas about medicinal plants.

This module provides you with the opportunity to engage in empirical research or a library-based literature review.

You will be provided with the support needed to enable you to synthesise theory and if appropriate, empirical data to produce a research paper which is written in the style of an appropriate academic journal of their choice.

There are no pre-requisites, and the module would be particularly suitable for students on other programmes, especially those which consider human health and wellbeing.

Module created

04/09/2012

Last revised

15/09/2021