GEND6501 Technoculture and the Body

Offered By	School of Humanities
Academic Career	Graduate Coursework
Course Subject	Gender Studies
Offered in	GEND6501 will not be offered in 2009
Unit Value	6 units
Course Description	This course investigates the impact of technological advances on contemporary understandings (and lived experiences) of identity and the body, with a focus on biomedicine. It also examines the biopolitics of technological interventions into the human body. It understands ‘technoculture' in a broad sense to encompass the discourses, practices, representations and subjectivities (identities) enabled by the contemporary technological landscape and it examines the body as a product of these various forces. It will investigate three major areas where technology and the human body interact: The biotechnical fragmentation of the human body (including organ and tissue donation and sale, IVF and related conceptive technologies). Body modification (cosmetic surgery, gender realignment and related surgeries). Psychopharmacology (SSRI anti-depressants and dance party drugs). Linking these case studies are the following themes: how advances in medical technologies destabilise distinctions between categories such as the human and the machine, nature and culture, and life and death. how technology enables the production of new subjectivities and relationships. how technology is implicated in both reproducing and destabilising dominant models of sex, gender, race and identity. how dominant understandings of gender and sexual difference influence the development and use of technology. how representations of technologised bodies produce both desire and horror. The course will draw on critical accounts of technology from the fields of science and technology studies (STS), feminist and queer studies, cultural studies and anthropology. It will introduce concepts such as the posthuman, the cyborg, the body as a technocultural object, technological determinism, performativity and embodied subjectivity.
Indicative Assessment	6,000 words of written assessment (2 reflective papers of 500 words, 1 research essay of 5000 words) worth 90%. Seminar/online participation worth 10%.
Workload	24 hours of lectures/seminars.
Course Classification(s)	TransitionalTransitional courses are designed for students from a broad range of backgrounds and learning achievements, which provide for the acquisition of generic skills; or an informed understanding of contemporary issues; or fundamental knowledge for transition to Advanced or Specialist courses.
Areas of Interest	Gender Studies
Incompatibility	Incompatible with GEND2026
Programs	Master of Culture, Health and Medicine
Academic Contact	Helen Keane

The information published on the Study at ANU 2009 website applies to the 2009 academic year only. All information provided on this website replaces the information contained in the Study at ANU 2008 website.