Bodies: A Digital Companion Main Menu Why the Body? an introduction to the digital companion Embodiment key concept Cultural Norm key concept Bodily Difference key concept Stigma key concept Intersectionality key concept Body Image Dr. Kristin Novotny, Professor COR 240-04/05 Spectral and Invisible Bodies Dr. Veruska Cantelli, Assistant Professor Visibility / Invisibility / Hypervisibility Alice Neiley, Adjunct Professor Radical Awakening Faith Yacubian, Assistant Professor Paleo Erik Shonstrom, Assistant Professor Borderlands Dr. Patricia DeRocher Walking Dr. Katheryn Wright, Associate Professor (COR-240-03) The Posthuman Dr. Katheryn Wright, Associate Professor Methodologies This page contains links to short explanations of the different methodologies used to understand bodies and embodiment. The Body Project overview of the common assignment Acknowledgements a list of contributors to 'Bodies: A Digital Companion'

The Posthuman: Introduction and Contents

14957 The Body Project overview of the common assignment

"The cyborg is our ontology; it gives us our politics." - Donna Haraway, "The Cyborg Manifesto"

Who is posthuman? Where does posthumanism come from? What are the politics of the posthuman? And, how does posthumanism connect to race, gender, class, and ability? Following this line of questioning, Dr. Wright's focus section on "Bodies: The Posthuman" will examine the significance of posthuman bodies in popular culture. We will also address the connection between the posthuman and key concepts central to understanding the body: mind-body dualism, embodiment, intersectionality, physical difference, cultural norm, and stigma.

At its most general, posthumanism challenges body boundaries that are often taken for granted in the Western tradition. First, the boundary between the body and technology. We will read about, analyze, and make our own versions of the cyborg. Second is the boundary between human and nonhuman bodies. Here, we will focus in on the intersection between disability studies and animal rights. Third, the boundary between bodies and their environments take center stage. After a brief introduction to actor-network theory, we will read a philosophical essay about the anthropocene. We will apply our discussions of these body boundaries to the study of afrofuturism, necropolitics, and algorithmic culture.

A significant portion of  "Bodies: The Posthuman" (click on link to access the syllabus on Google Docs) will be watching/reading examples of the posthuman in popular culture and discussing them using a roundtable format. We will be watching Ex Machina, Ghost in the Shell, and Rhymes for Young Ghouls. We will be reading Alan Moore's graphic novel Saga of the Swamp Thing and Jennifer Marie Brissett's post-colonial apocalyptic debut novel, Elysium. Most of your required readings/screenings are available as content links to this page. Check out the syllabus for specific due dates.

This page has paths:

  1. The Posthuman Katheryn Wright

Contents of this path:

  1. Natasha Lennard and Cary Wolfe, "Is Humanism Really Humane?"
  2. Peter Barry, "Theory Before Theory - Liberal Humanism" in Beginning Theory
  3. Why the Body?
  4. Embodiment
  5. René Descartes, "Meditation on First Philosophy" (1641)
  6. The Body Project
  7. N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman (1999)
  8. Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto" (1984)
  9. Seth Giddens, "Playing with Non-Humans: Digital Games as Technocultural Form" (2005)
  10. Ray Bradbury, "The Veldt"
  11. Mel L. Chen, "Animating Animacies" in Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect (2012)

Contents of this tag:

  1. Methodologies
  2. Noam Chomsky: The Anthropocene Period and its Challenges (2014)
  3. Ana Mendieta, "Earth Work 2" (1976)
  4. Kira Hall, "Cyberfeminism"
  5. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave - Alex Gendler
  6. Abeba Birhane, "Descartes was wrong: ‘a person is a person through other persons’" (2017)
  7. Joseph Stromberg, "What is the Anthropocene and Are We in It?" (2013)
  8. Deus Ex - 15th Anniversary Documentary
  9. The Turing test: Can a computer pass for a human? - Alex Gendler
  10. Claudia Dreifus, "This Stunning Contemporary Art Captures Terror, Wonder and Wit in the Anthropocene" (2015)
  11. Joan Slonczewski, "Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy: A Biologist’s Response" (2000)
  12. How the "Most Human Human" passed the Turing Test
  13. Octavia Butler: Science Future, Science Fiction
  14. Exploring Sun Ra's Afrofuturism - DUST Afrofuturism Ep. 1
  15. Karen Offen, "The History of Feminism is a Political History" (2011)
  16. Rachel Jones, "Art Review: 'Interpose,' New City Galerie" (2017)
  17. Figure 1.3 in Bruno Latour's Politics of Nature

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