Teaching and Research Specialties
Early Modern Atlantic World, Historical Animal Studies
Biography
Abel Alves is the author of The Animals of Spain: An Introduction to Imperial Perceptions and Human Interaction with Other Animals, 1492-1826 (Brill, 2011), Brutality and Benevolence: Human Ethology, Culture, and the Birth of Mexico (Greenwood, 1996), “Pets and Domesticated Animals in the Atlantic World” and “Columbian (Faunal) Exchanges and Ecological Imperialism: Animals, Empires, and the Anthropocene” for Oxford Bibliographies, and of articles in The Sixteenth Century Journal and other publications. Alves was the first recipient of the Miriam Chrisman Award of the Society for Reformation Research. In 1997, he received Ball State's Hurley Goodall Distinguished Faculty Award, and in 2000, BSU's Lawhead Award for teaching in the University Core Curriculum. In 2024, he was invited to present the master class “Animals and Empire” for the Centro de Humanidades, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (available on YouTube).
Course Schedule
| Course |
No. |
Term |
Level |
Hours |
Location |
| The West in the World [syllabus] |
HIST 150.804 |
Spring 2026 |
Undergraduate |
3.0 |
Online (Asynchronous) |
| Mexico since Independence [syllabus] |
HIST 324.1 |
Spring 2026 |
Undergraduate |
3.0 |
Lecture |
| Magic, Witchcraft & Science [syllabus] |
HIST 498.1 |
Spring 2026 |
Undergraduate |
3.0 |
Lecture |