2015 Humans vs. Zombies: Humanistic and Scientific Reflections on the Apocalypse
Who
do zombies represent in contemporary sci-fi dystopias? What would happen to social order during a catastrophic
plague? What are the political, social, and financial ramifications of a global plague? Do we trust
our government to handle a contagion crisis? Do we already engage in social “quarantining”? This course seeks to establish an
interdisciplinary zone of inquiry in which faculty from various departments and
programs enable students to reflect on zombie narratives from
diverse academic perspectives, from
modeling disease transmission using a game-based agent-based
simulator to consider the ethics of killing,
gender dynamics, consumerism, religion, race relations, and graffiti. We want your brain!
Faculty teaching this
course include: Deidre Hill-Butler (Sociology) / Claire Mouflard (French) / Brad Hays
(Political Science) / Erika Nelson (German) / Kirk Wegter-McNelly
(Religious Studies) / John Rieffel (CS),
William García and Christine Henseler (Spanish).
Course Learning Objectives * To Survey the Realm of Zombies as a Global Cultural and an Academic Endeavor. What are zombies? When, why and how the living dead “infect” our culture? What can we learn from exploring the contemporary obsession with the undead? Students will consider multiple aspects related to zombies and their potential cultural and political signification (e.g., race, consumerism, role of technology in social dynamics and behavior, global pandemics).
* To Reflect about the Concept of Apocalypse from Diverse Perspectives. The course intends to be a zone of inquiry from which students and professors approach the concept of apocalypse or any of its variants (plague, invasion, extinction, catastrophe, and outbreak) to reflect on various thematic ramifications. Throughout the term, students will be encouraged to go beyond the literal understanding of a “zombie plague” and consider it a symbolic platform to approach subjects frequently not associated to the zombie cultural lore.
* To Foster the Exchange of Intellectual Knowledges. To allow participants from different academic and artistic backgrounds to interact, learn from each other, and share perspectives while engaging in reflection about zombies and the trope of the apocalypse. The course seeks to invite students to consider how the humanities intersect with other fields of knowledge and to explore interdisciplinary collaboration.
* To Explore and Identify Intersectionalities.Considering and becoming aware of intersectionalities can only lead to a more diverse worldview and enrich the way we learn, teach, interact, communicate, and understand the world.How can we learn from the particular ways of learning and problem-solving of colleagues in other disciplines?How can our research be informed by the exploration of knowledges associated to other academic fields? The course aims to encourage students to be aware of the porous boundaries and interconnection in all fields of knowledge in the age of globalization, ever-changing technologies, new job markets, and constant ethical challenges.
* ToCreate a Space of Academic Experimentation.Through its experimental nature, the course explores the viability of a zone of inquiry project as a vehicle for testing and learning about new subjects, global trends, and engaging cultural themes not included in the curricula of our departments and programs.