This course was taken in Spring 2021 with Prof. E. Derek Taylor. During this course, I learned about how animals were treated in colonial America and England, specifically during the 17th-18th centuries. Prof. Taylor would assign us various movies, videos, and readings to watch/read for homework. As a class, we would discuss the ways animals were depicted or treated in these medias. By doing so, I realized that the way animals were treated in the past directly correlates to how we treat them today.

While I was aware of the animal mistreatment that occurs today before taking this course, I am now much more aware of it. This course has inspired me to be a louder advocate for animal’s rights. I believe this is the same for my classmates as well: from the beginning of the semester to the end, our discussions became much more thought provoking and educated. This is because we all started to be much more aware of the issues we were discussing.

The artifact I picked for this class was the final exam. For this assignment, we were given 4 questions to reflect on and answer in essay format. This assignment allowed me to take a deep dive into what I learned throughout the semester, and how what I learned relates to the goals of perspective classes.