INSTRUCTOR: MIKE WILKINSON
Imagining the Human in Science
Through the nineteenth century, intellectuals frequently blended scientific facts with literary genres and modes not only to express scientific discoveries to the public, but to pose the question: what is the role of subjectivity in science?
This course will present a range of works that imagine the human in science from a variety of perspectives and consider the impact of culture, race, class, and gender. We will examine how genres like the gothic, poetry, the essay, and the memoir explore what H.G Wells called the “human interest and passion” of science. Students will close read and analyze both non-fiction and fiction from the nineteenth century, and then move to consider how questions of the human in science take shape today, particularly with concerns surrounding artificial intelligence. Assignments will involve peer collaboration work, close reading and analysis, and a written essay.
Texts:
Many of our readings (essays, poems, and short stories) are from the nineteenth century and exist in the public domain and are freely available online. Possible authors include H.G. Wells, H.P. Lovecraft, Alfred Tennyson, and Edgar Allan Poe. The only two texts you will need to purchase will be Catherine Wynne’s 2009 edited collection of The Parasite and the Watter’s Mou and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass (2013). We will also watch Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2014), which is available through the UBC library, Netflix, and other online platforms.