Mar 28, 2024  
Academic Catalog 2020-2021 
    
Academic Catalog 2020-2021 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

LALW408 Imagining Others: From Strangers to Cyborgs 3cr.


“Imagining Others” is an intentionally ambiguous
title. This class is as much about how
“otherness” is being imagined in our culture as
it is about the imaginative power of the voices
that have been historically silenced,
marginalized, made into “others.” In this class,
we will read about and critique a wide array of
narratives of “otherness”: from strangers to
androids, from artificial intelligences to
aliens, from avatars to cyborgs. We will delve
into colonialization and de-colonization, cyborg
feminism, Afrofuturism, and move across science
fiction stories, art, and popular culture. We
will also interrogate the value and limits of our
communication technologies, and the use that
artists and activists are making of the
cyber-world. The common thread of the works we
study is that they all hack into systems of
meaning based on the dualism “us vs. them”.

Due to its integration of reading, art-critiquing
and art-making, Imagining Others is an ideal
class for artists approaching their final
projects in their major departments.

Due to the intensive nature of this class, Prof.
Preziuso does not accept any student who wishes
to enroll in her class after week 1 of the
semester, hence having missed the first week of
class.

Prerequisites: LALW-200

Fall Only