I had a tissue handy so I just brushed it and melted the snow off with that. I also love having the basket in front, it makes cycling so much more pleasant not having to lug around my backpack!
Schedule:
SASH68: Critical Animal Studies in Society, Culture and the Media
Luckily getting to the SOL Centre (also known as, according to Google Maps, the SOL Library) from Sparta is easy - a 6 minute bike ride where there's plenty of bike parking spots. There are many signs posted around the building which make navigating to your classroom a very simple task, and if you get lost you can always ask the reception desk which is so close to the entrance it's impossible to miss.
Lectures will always be held in the same room for the entire duration of the course. Classes, unless specifically stated otherwise, always begin at 15 minutes past the hour. It's an old tradition that stems from when there were no clocks so the church would ring a bell giving all pupils 15 minutes to find their way around town to class.
The course runs for 10 weeks, split into 5 themes. Two weeks are spent on each thematic. On the first week, lectures will be held and on the following week, seminars will run (sometimes with assignment presentations, workshops among other activities).
My classroom and two of my teachers! View from my vantage point: shamelessly seated in the middle of the front row
Today's class covered a brief introduction of all members of the class, research interests to the teachers, assessments, course expectations (in terms of reading, course outline) and also two short lectures: the first about the field of "animal studies" and "human/animal studies" (e.g., the study of 19th century poems written about the author's dog, true phenomenon, an example given by one lecturer) and the second on how "critical animal studies" differs to the former with an introduction to key course concepts.
For my own revision:
- Anthropocentrism - an ideology where the human's perspective is inherently privileged and is considered the 'universal truth'
- Post-humanism - humanism consists of the ethical doctrine speaking about human rights, where post-humanism refers to a particular stance that is anti-anthropocentric and is against human entitlement
- Intersectionality - a theoretical framework outlining the intersecting markers of social identity (e.g., sex/gender, race, class, species, dis/ability) that can compound one's experience of oppression
- Speciesim - discrimination as founded upon the basis of one's species
- 'Animal Industrial Complex' (Noske, 1997) - refers to entities that are prat of oppressing animals, e.g., meat and dairy lobbies, transport sector, farms, legal systems.
- Power - privilege
- Structural power - human hierarchies and human society
- Compulsory power - direct control (e.g., when a human is "in charge" of confined animals, think of battery hens)
- Institutional power - indirect control (e.g., the legal system that dictates that animals can be considered "property" of human beings)
- Productive power - socially diffused subjectivity and meaning; the creation of meaning and subjectivity of another (can also be referred to as symbolic power). E.g., the label "dog" conjures up a particular role that animal should play, the same way "femininity" has specific connotations of women's behaviour that is not necessarily the true for all identifying women.
Essentially, Critical Animal Studies (CAS) differs from the field of "animal studies" and "human/animal studies" in three main ways:
- Focuses on the animal perspective (think: standpoint theory, thinking from the point of view from the marginalised or oppressed group)
- Considers power relations between humans and animals as central to the most normative perceptions of human/animal interactions
- Provides a critical reflection on the taken-for-granted or normative stances of current practices and differing human worldviews on animal relations
The course sounds incredibly interesting so far! I'm really excited for this course, it's one of the main reasons why I put Lund University as my first preference!
Lunch Break 12:00 - 14:45
I decided to bike home and grab lunch at ICA today. I swear these salads are sooooooo good I'm becoming addicted to them. Especially the mushrooms! I could eat this everyday and not get bored!! (And then after lunch I revised my notes from SASH68, completed the presentation assignment for next week's class and wrote up some of this blog post!)
Yet another Seasonal Salad from ICA <3 My version of treat yourself for the first day of class! (Note: right on 12:00 the line for ICA takeaway salad is really long, but give it half an hour and there's 0 people there and you can get in and out real quick).
SASH86: Food, Tradition and Innovation
Today's introduction class was a very brief overview of how the course is structured, exams, the key themes (as stated in the title), definition of "tradition" (similar to ritual) and an outline of how food structures human social interactions and relations. We got our first assignment due next week - write a 500 word "Food Memory" exercise, positive or negative about a food experience we individually have. I notice that classes at Lund at least in the SAS courses place more emphasis on self-reflexivity which is interesting from a pedagogical point of view!
SUSA Seminar 17:15 - 20:00
This is the second-last SUSA seminar! My key takeaways from this lesson were:
The Weather:
Introduction to Food, Tradition and Innovation
Today's introduction class was a very brief overview of how the course is structured, exams, the key themes (as stated in the title), definition of "tradition" (similar to ritual) and an outline of how food structures human social interactions and relations. We got our first assignment due next week - write a 500 word "Food Memory" exercise, positive or negative about a food experience we individually have. I notice that classes at Lund at least in the SAS courses place more emphasis on self-reflexivity which is interesting from a pedagogical point of view!
SUSA Seminar 17:15 - 20:00
This is the second-last SUSA seminar! My key takeaways from this lesson were:
The Weather:
- Q: Hur ar vardet i svergie? (What's the weather like today?)
- A: Usch, vilket vader! (dislike)
- A: Ah, vilket vader! (delight)
- Det ar varmt (it's warm)
- Det ar kalt (it's cold)
- Det blaser (it's windy, literally "it's blowing")
- Det snoar (it's snowing)
- Det regnar (it's raining)
- De ar mulet (it's cloudy)
- Soen skiner (the sun is shining)
Food:
- gronsaker (vegetables, literally "green things")
- en bit ost (a piece of cheese)
- ett apple (an apple)
- en varm choklad (a hot chocolate)
- chokladkaka (chocolate cake, kaka = cake)
- en kopp te (a cup of tea)
- en kanelbulle (a cinnamon bun)
- smorgas / macka (open sandwich, sandwich)
- flingor (cereal)
Coming Home:
Today it was my "regular" (so food and miscellaneous waste) trash day - my "cleaning buddy" and corridor neighbour showed me where the mailboxes are, the trash stations and the indoor bike shed for tenants! I didn't take photos today but stay tuned for the next instalment of living at Sparta AF Bostader: Taking Out Trash + Bike Shed!
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