The relationships between literature and medicine are many, varied, and at least as old as the Greeks. Above the door of the ancient Library at Thebes an inscription read, “Medicine for the Soul” and at the heart of the philosopher Aristotle’s description of the effect of tragic drama on its audience, we find a medical Continue Reading »
We currently live amidst the sixth mass extinction in the history of life on Earth. The last mass extinction event is known as the K-T event, and it occurred 65 million years ago. It resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs and most other large land animals. Unlike the K-T event, however, our mass extinction Continue Reading »
From Kari Nixon and Lorenzo Servitje: Endemic: Essays in Contagion Theory (Palgrave 2016) Exploring the nexus of contagion’s metaphorical and material aspects, this volume contends that contagiousness in its digital, metaphorical, and biological forms is a pervasively endemic condition in our contemporary moment. The chapters explore both endemicity itself and how epidemic discourse has become endemic to Continue Reading »
We will examine how black writers have articulated utopian visions, from Emancipation to the 20th century, and how they have intervened in the utopian traditions of American literature and culture, including anti-utopia, heterotopia, and dystopia. Novels, short stories, and film by African-American authors that portray utopian societies and movements, along with cultural criticism grounded in Continue Reading »
Welcome aboard! I assume that you know that you are in for a Cognitive Psychology course at the college level. I have designed this course as an overview of the scope of cognitive psychology, its key exciting findings, and the methods used by psychologists to arrive at those findings. I intend to impart to you Continue Reading »
What is science? What is art? Are they two separate worlds? Or two cultures in the same world? Do they divide up this world? Is there anything outside of these two comprehensive realms? To get a grasp on these big issues, we will read art and science theory, as well as science and technology texts. Continue Reading »
From Jeff Karnicky: Scarlet Experiment Birds and Humans in America Emily Dickinson’s poem “Split the Lark” refers to the “scarlet experiment” by which scientists destroy a bird in order to learn more about it. Indeed, humans have killed hundreds of millions of birds—for science, fashion, curiosity, and myriad other reasons. In the United States alone, Continue Reading »
From Paul Cobley: This is the first book to consider the major implications for culture of the new science of biosemiotics. The volume is mainly aimed at an audience outside biosemiotics and semiotics, in the humanities and social sciences principally, who will welcome elucidation of the possible benefits to their subject area from a relatively Continue Reading »
DECODINGS Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts Newsletter Fall 2016, Vol. 25, No.3 *Upcoming Conferences–SLSA 2016 with HSS & PSA, Atlanta –SLSA 2017 Arizona *Election Results for 2nd VP and Member-at-large *SLSA Website: Contributions welcome *SLSA Bibliographer Needed *AnthropoScene: SLSA Book Series *European Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts announcements SLSA 2016 will Continue Reading »
From Roar Høstaker: My publisher has a best seller campaign with reduced price for my book A Different Society Altogether: What Sociology can Learn from Deleuze, Guattari and Latour. Here is the link: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/a-different-society-altogether-10
