Scrublands, Sanctuary, Screens: Co-creating Knowledges alongside Donkeys

Module title	Scrublands, Sanctuary, Screens: Co-creating Knowledges alongside Donkeys
Module code	EAF2514
Academic year	2024/5
Credits	30
Module staff	Dr Fiona Handyside (Lecturer) Dr Benedict Morrison (Lecturer)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks		11

Number students taking module (anticipated)	20

Module description

You will be trained to evaluate critically the portrayals and experiences of donkeys in film and other screen media and contrast that with in-person donkey observations. You will be fully immersed into the day-to-day practicalities of donkey life including the labour of care, the exact nature of which will be individually determined at Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary (https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/visit-us/sidmouth). No prior experience of working with other species is required. The module includes 2 days at the donkey sanctuary. The days will consist of learning about donkeys in Knowing Donkeys sessions, donkey observations and potentially some interactions. Following health and safety guidance, we could include some day-to-day care. You will explore the myriad ways donkeys have been represented in screen cultures and incorporated into discourse and rethink human-donkey relationships in the process of working on this module. You may be given the opportunity to present your final video assessment on the Donkey Sanctuary website and/or at their Education centre.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The main objective of the module is to provide you with specialised knowledge and critical understanding of donkeys both as a species and as important cultural symbols. This module is designed to foreground issues of well-being across the institutional framework of your degree and in our duty of care to the creatures with whom we share the planet. An important aim of the seminars is to introduce you to a range of representations of donkeys across different screen traditions and media including American, European and Latin American film and TV and social media discourses. The seminars will develop your ability to analyse representations of more than human animals on screen, drawing on a framework informed by film philosophy, critical animal studies and anthrozoology. This module will give you opportunities to work alongside a third sector organisation and to have a video hosted on a professional fund-raising website. This provides significant vocational training experience which may improve your employment prospects. This module contains two forms of summative assessment: a sequence analysis and a video-essay. The video essay may, with your permission, be posted onto the Education section of the Donkey Sanctuary website.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Demonstrate informed understanding of the works studied on the module and the issues of more than human animal labour and welfare, more than human animal representation and the creaturely ethics they raise.
2. Demonstrate an informed understanding of key debates in critical animal studies and their application to screen media

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

3. Argue at length and in detail about an aspect of the topic, supporting the argument with evidence from the text and secondary literature
4. Analyse films and TV shows from a variety of genres and styles, showing awareness of their relation to social, cultural, historical and production contexts, and present the results orally, audio-visually and in writing.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

5. Through participation in seminars and field trips, demonstrate understanding of the labour of care involved in third sector activities
6. Through production of a video essay demonstrate capacity to analyse and synthesise complex material and to critically reflect on your own prior assumptions and knowledge

Syllabus plan

Whilst content may vary, the module will examine the following topics:

Animal Studies and Film

Magic and myth

Beasts of burden

Exploitation and Labour

Knowing Donkeys

Unknowing Donkeys

There will be a 2-day workshop at the Donkey Sanctuary, run by the Donkey Sanctuary, called Knowing Donkeys.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
56	244	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	8	Lectures
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	16	Seminars
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	16	Screenings
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	16	Field Trip
Guided independent Study	244	Preparation for lectures, seminars, assessments

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay plan	500 words or 1-2 minutes rough cut	1-6	Written

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Sequence analysis	35	1,500 words	1,3,4	Written
Video essay	65	3-6 minutes plus optional reflective commentary of up to 1000 words	1-6	Written

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Sequence analysis (1,500 words)	Sequence analysis (1,500 words)	1,3,4	Referral/Deferral Period
Video essay (3-6 minutes plus optional reflective commentary of up to 1000 words)	Video essay (3-6 minutes plus optional reflective commentary of up to 1000 words)	1-6	Referral/Deferral Period

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as defined above. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Bough, Jill. Donkey. Reaktion Books, 2011.

Calarco, Matthew. Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida. Columbia University Press, 2008.

Calarco, Matthew. Thinking Through Animals: Identity, Difference, Indistinction. Stanford University Press, 2015.

Calarco, Matthew. Animal Studies: The Key Concepts. Routledge, 2020.

Clancy, Cara, Emma McClaughlin & Fiona Cooke, “Invisible Animals: Exploring Public Discourses to Understand the Contemporary Status of Donkeys in Britain” Anthrozoös, DOI: 10.1080/08927936.2023.2248762

Crary, Alice and Lori Gruen. Animal Crisis: A New Critical Theory. Polity, 2022.

Derrida, Jacques. The Animal That Therefore I Am. Edited by Marie-Louise Mallett. Translated by David Wills. Fordham University Press, 2008.

Donaldson, Sue and Will Kymlicka. Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights. Oxford University Press, 2013.

Gruen, Lori. Entangled Empathy: An Alternative Ethic for Our Relationships with Animals. Lantern Books, 2015.

Haraway, Donna. When Species Meet. University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

McMahon, Laura. Animal Worlds: Film, Philosophy and Time. Edinburgh University Press, 2019.

di Mello, Margo. Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies. Columbia University Press, 2012.

Midgely, Mary. Animals and Why They Matter. University of Georgia Press, 1984.

Pick, Anat and Guinevere Narraway (eds). Screening Nature: Cinema beyond the Human. Berghahn Books, 2013.

Pick, Anat. ‘Vegan Cinema.’ In Thinking Veganism in Literature and Culture: Towards a Vegan Theory. Eds. Emelia Quinn and Benjamin Westwood. Palgrave, 2018: 125-146.