Of A Feather: The Natural and Cultural History of Birds

Catalog description

Through a consilience of biological and cultural approaches, this course will consider how birds have been represented and understood over time and across cultures. Through art and science, fieldwork and observation, analysis and interpretation, rhetorical argument and creative expression, students will examine the vast number of perspectives we apply to the life of birds. Studies of the history and modern methods of ornithology will balance with cultural readings of birds in poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, visual arts and popular music.