Animal Studies Research Guide

Students for Animals will bring students together under the united purpose of improving the lives of animals while respecting all life, human and non-human alike.

The W&M Pre-Veterinary Club serves to create a community for students interested in animal-related health careers and to connect students to the resources necessary for navigating prerequisite classes, veterinary experience, veterinary schools and admissions, finances, and what to expect from a career in the field.

SEALS seeks to increase awareness and involvement in environmental and animal law issues; promote and contribute to careers, service, and scholarship in environmental and animal law; encourage stewardship in public policy, jurisprudence, and law; provide opportunities for environmental and animal rights advocacy; and improve environmental policies at the College of William & Mary.

HQ: New York, NY; numerous regional branches

HQ: Watkins Glen, NY

HQ: Washington, DC; numerous regional branches

HQ: Norfolk, VA

Resources related to the legal protections for animals under U.S. and international law

The Animal Legal Defense Fund files high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm, providing free legal assistance and training to prosecutors to assure that animal abusers are held accountable for their crimes, supporting tough animal protection legislation and fighting legislation harmful to animals, and providing resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law.

Environmental Natural Resources Division lawyers in the DOJ work to ensure that full effect is given to the federal statutes and enforcement regimes that provide for the humane treatment of captive, farmed, and companion animals across the United States.

CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

Animal shelter serving Williamsburg, James City County, and District One in York County, VA.

a 450-acre, no-kill, all species animal sanctuary in Orange, VA.

This international activist organization maintains a sanctuary for domestic fowl in Machipongo, VA.

ICAS is an academic-activist research center dedicated to advancing critical animal studies by working in multiple disciplines and movements. By fostering holistic, intersectional social justice spaces, ICAS promotes solidarity with different oppressed groups with an aim towards total liberation. ICAS hosts regional conferences, workshops, and a peer-reviewed a journal, Journal for Critical Animal Studies.

IHE's vision statement holds that education is the key to creating a just, humane, and sustainable world for all people, animals, and the environment. IHE provides education and training opportunities, including graduate courses, for people interested in becoming humane educators. In addition, IHE offers online resources and workshops for educators, activists, and citizens interested in redefining the purpose of education.

The ASI administers the Human-Animal Studies initiative, which helps institutions develop human-animal programs and curricula as well as edits two field journals, Society and Animals and Applied Animal Welfare Science. Other primary programs include AniCare, a direct intervention program developed to stop the cycle of animal abuse and human violence, and resource guides judges, prosecutors, criminal justice professionals, and animal welfare professionals.

The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics believes that the rational case for animals is frequently understated within academia and misrepresented in the media. Their aim is to create a world-wide association of academics from all disciplines who want to pioneer ethical perspectives on animals.

Faunalytics conducts research like nationally representative surveys, randomized controlled trials, impact evaluations, interviews, and other types of studies and maintains a library of thousands of summaries of external research on animal issues.

offers undergraduate concentration in critical animal studies through the sociology department

offers undergraduate major emphasizing ethology and welfare

offers undergraduate degree in animal studies

offers graduate specialization in animal law

offers masters and doctoral level graduate specialization in Animal Studies: Social Science and Humanities Perspectives, which is administered by the Department of Sociology

offers a M.A. program in Animal Studies through the department of Environmental Studies, as well as an undergraduate minor concentration in animal studies

Wesleyan Animal Studies fosters scholarship and programs on human-animal relations from a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives