Instructor Spotlight: Kali Guise and Nora Bond

What inspired you to teach this course?

Nora: My parents said I couldn’t have a dog when I was little and instead of taking “no” as an answer I learned everything about dogs I could! I showed dogs (Basenjis) in high school and loved to be quizzed on dog breeds. I also learned early that dogs! are! political! There is no human-dog relationship that isn’t connected to a value-system (class, race, ability, religion, etc.). The dogs in my life have taught me so much about play, patience, and interspecies families; I call my current dog Samson my baby son (which is so weird? So normal? Let’s discuss!). When I met Kali at Tufts, our shared enthusiasm got us thinking about teaching an ExCollege class—and here we are!

Kali: I’ve always been an animal lover and have had dogs my whole life. I first began thinking about dogs and animals through a political lens when I was introduced to ecofeminism and Critical Animal Studies as a Gender & Women’s Studies major in college. I found that my passion for animal justice was deeply connected to my commitment to human-centered social justice movements. I pursued this interest through my Master’s program in Social Justice & Equity Studies where I was able to study under incredible Critical Animal Studies scholars and research the intersection of racism and speciesism in dog breeding and showing practices. Since joining Tufts almost four years ago, I had the hope of one day teaching a course related to Critical Animal Studies through the ExCollege. Meeting Nora led to discussions of our shared passion and knowledge of dogs and social justice, which eventually led to us thinking up this dream class!

What is critical animal studies?

Critical Animal Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that, at its most basic level, is interested in cultural representations of animals in our human society. It not only wants to look at how the stories we tell about animals impact the animals themselves, but also how these stories impact how we think of ourselves as human. Critical Animal Studies works to destabilize the human-animal divide—it examines how rendering marginalized communities nonhuman or animal is used to justify their oppression, while also calling into question the notion that to be animal is an inherently inferior position. This field is dedicated to the liberation of all beings and is thus interested in exploring how the oppression on animals, also known as speciesism, is not only connected to forms of human oppression such as white supremacy, patriarchy, settler colonialism, ableism, classism, but is at the foundation of these human systems of power. Critical Animal Studies takes seriously the experiences of all beings, and calls for the collective liberation of animals and humans alike.

What is one thing you wish people would consider before adopting a dog?

There is no substitute for early, consistent socializing. I took my dog as a puppy to the hardware store, the bus station, the skate park—everywhere I could think of to make everything (wheelchairs, people in different dress, loud noises) seem normal and fine. If you don’t get your dog as a puppy, socialize at their pace. We owe dogs an intentional introduction to our “normal” and a deep understanding of their normal before we can ever expect them to calmly and predictably interact with us.

When looking to the future, how do you think the human-dog relationship is going to evolve?

We don’t think it’s possible to answer this question ourselves! That’s the point of our class—exploring the radical possibilities for reimagining companionship and multispecies liberation within the dog-human relationship. Our hope is that—with a critical lens—our students can build the best kinds of answers to this question, and keep the human-dog relationship as mutually life-giving as possible.

What do you hope that students will take away from your course?

Dogs are political. We want our students to ask better questions of themselves and the dogs they encounter or spend their lives with. We want them to understand how dogs came to play a particular role in our society, and how they can be used to both reinforce oppression (think: police and military dogs used to intimidate and harm communities of color) and how they can invite us into a deeper understanding of loving interspecies relationships (think: beloved companions we share our lives with).

Kali Guise is currently the Interim Director at the Tufts Asian American Center. She received her MA in Social Justice and Equity Studies from Brock University, where she conducted research in Critical Animal Studies.

Nora Bond is the Associate Director for Programs at the Tufts University Chaplaincy, where she creates and evaluates applied learning experiences for students of all religious and philosophical traditions.