Kathleen Curtin Do earned her PhD in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has experience teaching literature, linguistics, and writing. Her research focuses on life writing and the intersections of religious and cultural identity in the early modern period.
Human and animal lives have always been intertwined, and animals are omnipresent in human society on both metaphorical and practical, material levels. Animals often play a central role in cultural metaphors and myths, but they are also physically present in homes and workplaces, and in local as well as global economies. Both levels in this complex web of relationships structure society in areas as varied as art, economy, entertainment, health, law, media, and science. However, the ways in which human society deals with its coexistence with animals, and the ways it interacts with, uses, and handles them; are complex and embedded in paradoxes that are often affected by structures of power. The purpose of this course is to stimulate critical reflections on different social constructions and the ethical and moral implications of human relationships with animals. Over the course of the semester we will: (1) examine the evolution of human/animal relationships over time, (2) consider the unique roles that different species play in human lives and the ways we treat them as a result, and (3) engage in interviews, personal reflections, argumentative essays, and research reports about human/animal relationships.
Human and animal lives have always been intertwined, and animals are omnipresent in human society on both metaphorical and practical, material levels. Animals often play a central role in cultural metaphors and myths, but they are also physically present in homes and workplaces, and in local as well as global economies. Both levels in this complex web of relationships structure society in areas as varied as art, economy, entertainment, health, law, media, and science. However, the ways in which human society deals with its coexistence with animals, and the ways it interacts with, uses, and handles them; are complex and embedded in paradoxes that are often affected by structures of power. The purpose of this course is to stimulate critical reflections on different social constructions and the ethical and moral implications of human relationships with animals. Over the course of the semester we will: (1) examine the evolution of human/animal relationships over time, (2) consider the unique roles that different species play in human lives and the ways we treat them as a result, and (3) engage in interviews, personal reflections, argumentative essays, and research reports about human/animal relationships.
Tucson is a multilingual city, an urban space in which many cultures and languages coexist, interact, and stake claims on inhabitants and space alike. This course seeks to clarify the distinctive characteristics of multilingual cities by focusing on Tucson and its heterogeneous cultural and linguistic context. Throughout the semester, we will use a variety of critical, theoretical, and cultural lenses to expand student understanding of the relationship between the spatial organization of a city and its linguistic profile. The course will balance readings and in-class/online discussions with guest lectures and off-campus field trips to help students develop the necessary tools and competences needed to engage with multilingualism in Tucson and in other large and diverse cities.
Tucson is a multilingual city, an urban space in which many cultures and languages coexist, interact, and stake claims on inhabitants and space alike. This course seeks to clarify the distinctive characteristics of multilingual cities by focusing on Tucson and its heterogeneous cultural and linguistic context. Throughout the semester, we will use a variety of critical, theoretical, and cultural lenses to expand student understanding of the relationship between the spatial organization of a city and its linguistic profile. The course will balance readings and in-class/online discussions with guest lectures and off-campus field trips to help students develop the necessary tools and competences needed to engage with multilingualism in Tucson and in other large and diverse cities.
This course explores the past, present, and future of urban life by looking at speculative representations of cities. We focus especially on practices of time travel and world building used by futurists and creatives as tools for thinking about how our cities ought to be. In addition to engaging with a range of materials that demonstrate these practices over the course of the term, we will also experiment with using these practices as methods for problem solving, critical study, and the creation of urban futures in the real world, taking into particular consideration markers of identity such as race, gender, or class.