Across disciplines there is a growing awareness, backed by robust scientific evidence, that humans are not unique in this world and that we share our sentience with other animal and plant species. The Cartesian divide between human, animals and plants can no longer be sustained: We differ not in kind but in degree. This holds across disciplines in academia, including African Studies. But how to teach students about this shared sentience? We argue that the classical lecture hall does not suffice. This emerging new scientific paradigm asks for equally new pedagogical approaches. In this seminar we want to present you with one of these innovative pedagogical approaches, named ‘wild pedagogy’, which takes us first of all out of the lecture hall (and in this seminar that is a goat farm), but secondly also out of our comfort zone in many other ways. The latter we do around the theme of animal communication, the area of research in southern Africa of the current visiting fellow at the African Studies Centre Leiden, Dr Vanessa Wijngaarden. Click here to register for this event

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