New Open-Access Resource “Teaching Animal Mobilities: (How to) Move Animals into Your Classroom”
- Apr 2, 2026
- Institute News
- Dept. AAK
- Lisa OnagaGabriel RosenbergMarianna Szczygielska
- Animal Mobilities
Animals and their movements offer a dynamic lens for understanding the biological and social worlds we share.
The new online, open-access digital resource “Teaching Animal Mobilities: (How to) Move Animals into Your Classroom” offers educators and students in the history of science and other disciplines fresh ways to explore how animals in history have moved through landscapes, cultures, and systems of power. From charismatic megafauna to critters that often go unnoticed—educators and students can access the modules online to bring animal mobilities to life in the classroom.
Detail from Ann McCoy, The Night Sea Journey, 1979, pencil on paper on canvas, 108 × 165½’’. Image courtesy of the artist.
Each teaching module is based on one of the articles in Animal Mobilities, volume 40 of Osiris, edited by Tamar Novick, Lisa Onaga, and Gabriel N. Rosenberg (2025). Further modules will be added from additional contributors independent of the Osiris volume in 2026.
From Archival Images to Innovative Teaching
In every module a historical image visually introduces a hands-on guide to classroom instruction with primary sources, discussion questions, assignment ideas, and suggested readings. Together, the materials explore key mobility themes such as captivity, affect, and agency to support innovative approaches to teaching animal histories across disciplines.
Collage depicting three of the teaching modules on the platform. Sources (L–R): Friedländer's poster for Circus Sarrasani (1907). The circus arriving at the station. Source: De theatercollectie Allard Pierson Museum, University of Amsterdam, object number: TEY0010001851; Carr-Hartley seated on a rhino (most probably Gus) at his game farm, 1948. Source: Rhino Resource Center; The Maternal Instinct (1933), Natural History Magazine, vol. 33, no. 6. From the Robert Mearns Yerkes Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.
Behind the Scenes
The “Teaching Animal Mobilities” resource was conceptualized by the Osiris volume’s Executive Editors Tamar Novick, Lisa Onaga, and Gabriel N. Rosenberg and co-created by Marianna Szczygielska as Managing Editor, Johanna Oeste for design and web development, Robert Casties for technical support, Melanie Glienke and Gina Partridge-Grzimek for copyediting, and Ann McCoy for artwork.