New minor available, Human-Animal Studies

Declaring a minor that’s both fun and engaging can be difficult to find. The new Human-Animal Studies minor manages to do both. 

English Professor Melissa Purdue said that the minor was created after discovering Associate Professor of Sociology Carol Glasser and Associate Professor of Philosophy Julie Wulfemeyer had similar interests in animals and animal studies. 

“We were talking about turning our interests into something more since we didn’t have anything like this on campus. We wanted to see if we could get the program up and running, and we did,” Purdue said. 

Students can complete the minor in one  or two years because  there are only six courses to take. One of the core classes is SOC 214W: Animals and Society taught by Glasser. The course talks about animals through a sociological lens and incorporates project based learning. 

“One of the projects this semester was going and cleaning our community up and paying attention to the different types of trash that might hurt other animals. Students could also choose if they wanted to go vegan or vegetarian for a week,” Glasser said. 

Wulfemeyer teaches PHIL 477:Animal Minds, a class that focuses on the cognitive linguistic abilities of animals and the other kinds of consciousness. 

“People are looking for linguistic evidence of certain kinds of cognitive abilities when arguably that’s not what we should be looking for. That’s not the only way evidence could show up,” Wulfemeyer said.

While the minor is open to any students interested, Glasser said that students who have biology or zoology majors would benefit the most from taking the minor as it offers studying animals from the perspective of the social sciences and humanities.

“Often, some of the sciences focus on other animals by seeing them as objects, whereas this minor in this field of study brings them in as subjects of our social world and of our interpersonal lives and in terms of our relationships,” Glasser said. 

Sophomore Madison Tebbe is a psychology major who recently declared the Human-Animal Studies minor. Along with her minor in biology, she said that pairing the two minors fits well for her future career.

“I hope to work with therapy animals after college and I feel that [the minor] will give me a better understanding of how animals affect us and how we affect them,” Tebbe said. 

Junior Rachel Ryan also chose to take the minor. With goals of becoming a conservation biologist, taking Animals and Society has helped her learn more about the environment, animals and how they interconnect. 

“I’ve really enjoyed this class because it’s brought my attention to things I didn’t know about. It’s really opened my door about it all,” Ryan said.

Ryan said that taking courses in the minor will help her future career by learning about the intersection of animals and the environment. 

“I want to help animals and the environment and [Animals and Society] taught me that if one impacts the other, it will affect everything else,” Ryan said. “It’s going to be beneficial in my career path.”

Wulfemeyer said that students should consider taking the minor to set themselves apart from any competition if they have an interest in working with animals. 

“There’s a myriad of ways the program connects to a bunch of different fields. Since the minor isn’t common, it’s something that can distinguish you from other people you’re competing with for jobs,” Wulfemeyer said. “It sets yourself apart from the rest.”
For students interested in learning more about the minor, they can contact animals@mnsu.edu.

Header photo: Julie Wulfemeyer (left), Melissa Purdue and Carol Glasser co-created the Human-Animal Studies minor after sharing similar interests in animal studies. (Dominic Bothe/The Reporter)

Write to Emma Johnson at emma.johnson.5@mnsu.edu