Agamben published a book on the question of the animal: The Open. Man and Animal. Research topics and methodologies Researchers in animal studies examine the questions and issues that arise when traditional modes of humanistic and scientific inquiry begin to take animals seriously as subjects of thought and activity. Students of animal studies may examine how humanity is defined in relation to animals, or how representations of animals create understandings (and misunderstandings) of other species. In order to do so, animal studies pays close attention to the ways that humans anthropomorphize animals, and asks how humans might avoid bias in observing other creatures. For instance, Donna Haraway's book, Primate Visions, examines how dioramas created for the American Museum of Natural History showed family groupings that conformed to the traditional human nuclear family, which misrepresented the animals' observed behavior in the wild. Critical approaches in animal studies have also considered representations of non-human animals in popular culture, including species diversity in animated films. By highlighting these issues, animal studies strives to re-examine traditional ethical, political, and epistemological categories in the context of a renewed attention to and respect for animal life. The assumption that focusing on animals might clarify human knowledge is neatly expressed in Claude Lévi-Strauss's famous dictum that animals are "good to think." See also Intersectionality Anthrozoology (human–animal studies) Animality studies Critical animal studies Ecocriticism Ecosophy References Bibliography Bjorkdahl, Kristian, and Alex Parrish (2017) Rhetorical Animals: Boundaries of the Human in the Study of Persuasion. Lantham: Lexington Press. ISBM 9781498558457. Boehrer, Bruce, editor, A Cultural History of Animals in the Renaissance, Berg, 2009, . De Ornellas, Kevin (2014). The Horse in Early Modern English Culture, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, . Kalof, Linda (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Animal Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . External links Animal Studies Journal Animal Rights History Animal Studies and Film: An interview with Matthew Brower, professor of graduate Art History at York University http://www.animalstudies.msu.edu/bibliography.php/ Animal Studies Online Bibliography] Animals and the Law Australian Animal Studies Group Italian Animal Studies Review Animal Studies at Michigan State University Animal testing Animal rights Social sciences Behavioural sciences Art history Art criticism