The Human-Animal Divide: On Race and Species Thinking
Courses and Other Educational Programming
• FALL 2025 •
• COURSE OVERVIEW • The Human-Animal Divide courses and workshop series are designed for educators and advocates interested in and open to exploring the interconnected systems of oppression and racial hierarchy that impact communities of color and beyond human animals, and ways to engage in meaningful work for dismantling and uprooting these systems in favor of counter-oppressive and liberatory thinking, praxis, and systems change for collective liberation.
The core course offering will be launched in the Fall of 2025, and explores the intersection of racism and speciesism through theoretical frameworks and practical application as it relates to farmed animals and the food system in the United States. The overarching goal of the course is to support primarily humane educators and animal advocates in learning about and understanding the connections between racism and speciesism, and other systems of oppression in the U.S., and to facilitate integration of new ways of thinking and acting into participant work and to promote the building of cross-movement coalitions for collective liberation.
In this course, participants will explore issues of white supremacy, intersectionality, and racial justice within the specific context of speciesism, veganism, and the animal protection movement, and will develop a framework for understanding, articulating, and discussing these issues in light of the United States’ history of colonialism and the broader context of related social justice issues such as environmental justice, labor rights, and food justice. Participants will also engage with real-world materials exploring efforts, many BIPOC-led, to talk about and take action on social justice issues at the intersection of racism and speciesism, such as food justice.
• FUTURE COURSES • “The Human-Animal Divide” foundational course is designed as a survey course, and future additional courses would cover issues of farmed animals and veganism in more in depth (including food justice and food imperialism), as well as companion animals and wildlife and the environment (including environmental justice). Additional course materials could specifically explore the role of U.S. governmental policies, racial capitalism, and modern colonialism.
Future courses would also include a deeper discussion of liberatory practices that promote dismantling racial hierarchy, such as language use, organizational structures, advocacy (legislative/policy) strategies, educational pedagogy, community collaboration and building relational trust, and personal positional practices.
• FUTURE OFFERINGS FROM LIberate in mind • Beyond the courses, other educational programming includes presentations, panel discussions, and workshops, along with tools and resources, to deepen knowledge and understanding about systems of racial hierarchy and oppression that harm both humans and beyond human animals and to inspire shifts in language, narratives and social action in support of greater liberation.