Technologies of the Body
From the figurative tattoos and piercings of prehistory to contemporary advancements in prosthetics and implants, humans have been modifying their bodies for millennia. But science is allowing us to alter ourselves in new and unprecedented ways -- not only to beautify or overcome so-called deficiencies, but to enhance and exceed our current capabilities. In doing so, technology is also challenging the very notion of what it means to be human. Courses in this cluster explore the ethical, historical, and cultural questions raised at the intersection of science, technology, and the body.
Associated Course Pairings:
Course Descriptions
CC100: Discovery of New Antibiotics
Instructor: Amy Dounay & Olivia Hatton
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Scientific Analysis
CRN# 12507
Block: 1
Antibiotics are one of the primary tools we have to treat bacterial infections and have saved millions of lives. However, the increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections presents a significant challenge for science and society. How do antibiotics work and how does antibiotic resistance develop? How do scientists discover novel antibiotics and other medicines? How are new medicines tested for safety and efficacy? In this course, we will explore how new medicines are designed, tested, marketed, and administered in the community. Throughout, we will consider how these processes have benefitted or marginalized different identity groups. Finally, students will participate in a collaborative research project to test potential novel antibiotics for the treatment of biofilm-mediated bacterial infections.
Instructor: Adam Light
CRN# 12558
Block: 2
Failure is at the heart of science. Experiments whose results are consistent with expectations do little to challenge our views, practices, culture, or boundaries.
Nevertheless, we operate in competitive systems with success-based metrics, participate in culture that elevates those who are deemed successful, and often judge ourselves
harshly when we fail. This course will explore what it means to fail and how we tell the story of failure, particularly in the field of physics. Who writes the stories? When and how is failure justifiably framed as success? How can we think and communicate about failing in ways that are healthy and productive? In the process of considering these questions, students will investigate a variety of scientific genres, texts, and practices. We will also embark on open-ended research projects for students to practice the process of scientific failure and communicate about their work.
CC100: The History of the Body
Instructor: Donna Drucker
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Historical Perspectives
CRN# 12555
Block: 1
Every person has a body. But how do we know what we know about bodies? Where do bodies begin and end, and how do categories of personhood—such as race, gender, disability, or even being alive or dead—affect the meaning of having a body? This course explores the ways that historians, sociologists, and body studies scholars have developed ways of thinking, writing, and arguing about the meaning and significance of human bodies across time. It introduces students to the humanistic study of the body, and the different ways that historical actors have classified and organized bodies and body parts, often to the detriment of underprivileged individuals and groups. It illustrates the methods that humanities scholars use to develop knowledge about the human body. Students will develop an understanding of how different disciplines organize knowledge-making and knowledge about the body itself, and how they can use these methods in their own future scholarship.
CC120: Thinking, Feeling, and (Inter)Acting: Core Principles & Diverse Experiences
Instructor: Emily Chan
CRN# 12517
Block: 2
People from different backgrounds often think, feel, act, and interact in strikingly similar ways. At the same time, there is remarkable diversity in human thought, emotion, and behavior that is tied to the identities we hold, the places we live, the languages we speak, and a host of other cognitive and sociocultural factors. In this CC120, we will use
tools and perspectives from psychological science to study the core principles that unite all humans, as well as the diverse experiences based on our social identities. In this second block of your FYP series, we will study how identity (such as race, class, gender) and context (e.g., culture, power) affect social perception and cognition. We will
tackle questions of how identities and groups are formed. We will examine how stereotypes affect social perception, performance, and interaction. We will discuss how culture impacts our day-to-day lives, including interpersonal relations, cognition, communication norms, perception of art, judgment and decision making, and issues of multiculturalism and intercultural dynamics.
The primary methodological lens we will use this block will be social psychological methods. We will also engage in interdisciplinary discussions of important topics, and it will be your opportunity to go beyond the psychological lens to explore how different systems and levels of analyses converge to provide a rich understanding of prejudice and intergroup relations.
CC100: Monsters, Robots, and Cyborgs
Instructor: Chet Lisiecki
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
CRN# 12496
Block: 1
What does it mean to be human, and what are the limits of being human? What is "humanism" and what are the (bio)politics surrounding this concept? That is, how have "humanism" and the German concept of "Bildung" ("proper" education) been marshaled to construct discourses around civility and civilization, normativity, and propriety? What groups do these discourses target and exclude, and how has the study of literature been complicit in such exclusion? What current trends in "Literaturwissenschaften" (literary
studies) have sought to challenge "anthropocentric" modes of writing and reading, how have they done this, and why is it important?
Our class will interrogate these and related questions through both its content (literature, film, history, philosophy) and its methods (close reading, distant reading, literary analysis and interpretation, comparative analysis, digital humanities). We will study representations of the non-human (animals and monsters), the almost human (robots), and the post-human (cyborgs), analyzing how such representations reflect changing cultural attitudes towards and anxieties about being human. We will also reflect on methodological trends in the discipline of German Studies, and literary studies more broadly, which have both embraced-and leveled strong critiques against-humanism. These include hermeneutics, poetics, didacticism, close reading (New Criticism), distant reading, disability studies, animal studies, and the digital humanities.
Instructor: Chet Lisiecki
CRN# 12537
Block: 2
This class will focus primarily on the fairy tale (or “Märchen” in German), a branch of folklore that contains elements of the supernatural, miraculous, and wondrous. In Germany, the fairy tale is most closely associated with the Brothers Grimm, who collected and transcribed these tales in the early nineteenth century. In 1812, they
published the first edition of "Children’s and Household Tales" ("Kinder- und Hausmärchen"), which they continued to edit and update throughout their lives. This collection contains many fairy tales that are familiar to us today, including “Hansel and Gretel,” “Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Snow White,” and “Sleeping Beauty.”
Our class will engage with fairy tales and fairy tale scholarship in a variety of ways. We will study the social and political history of fairy tales and analyze their formal structure. We will critically examine how fairy tales represent different aspects of human identity— including gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, and age—as well as how these stories represent animals, plants, and the natural world. We will also compare different versions of the same tale, including queer, Black, and feminist adaptations and retellings.
CC100: The Science and Ethics of Genome Editing
Instructor: Darrell Killian
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Scientific Analysis
CRN# 12508
Block: 1
Recent technological advances have empowered scientists with molecular tools that facilitate the modification of the blueprints of life—the genomes within living organisms. Students in this course will learn about the science behind genome editing by performing genome-editing experiments (or computer simulations if in-person classes are not possible) in the context of addressing a biological research question. Students will learn about how scientists use (or plan to use) genome-editing technology for applications such as biotechnology, gene-edited foods, pest control, and gene therapy. With such vast applications, genome editing has raised important questions about its ethical use. Students will be challenged to consider the possible benefits, alternative approaches, and unintended negative consequences of genome editing.
Instructor: David Gardiner
CRN# 12529
Block: 2
"The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." This famous quote from Jesus of Nazareth is but one example of what seems a natural division between mind and body. This division is not only common in many religions but is a mainstay in everyday cultural thinking, globally. In what ways does this bipartite framework get articulated? Inform views of life's purpose? Views of an afterlife? How is it established in secular culture? What reasonings support it? On what bases does it get critiqued? How can philosophical inquiry help us understand this paradigm's power and possibly construct alternative models?