Lehrende/r: Torsten Kathke
Veranstaltungsart: Seminar/Proseminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan: 05.866.210
Semesterwochenstunden: 2
Credits: 8,0
Unterrichtssprache: Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 45
Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches: In this seminar we will look at the project of futurology (or future studies) from a historical perspective. We will focus on the period from World War II until the 1990s during which scientists, journalists, and other experts from different fields promoted a "science of the future". Futurologists used methods and ideas from science as much as from science fiction. Cooperating in transnational networks, they tried to establish futurology in the mind of the public as well as in universities and think tanks around the world. They worked to be taken seriously as experts on how the world would look in the future. Futurologists claimed that an ever more complex society needed to look at possible future developments in technology, science, politics, and everyday life in a systematic way. We will read as primary sources book chapters, manifestos, letters, films, advertising materials, op-eds and other communications. Mandatory secondary literature examining the age will be uploaded to an online repository. Suggested introductory reading: Jenny Andersson, The Future of the World: Futurology, Futurists, and the Struggle for the Post Cold War Imagination (Oxford UP, 2018) – available as an ebook from the JGU library. This class is part of the cluster 'Fictions of Science—Science Fiction' with the Seminar AS 313 "Science and Fiction from the Enlightenment to Romanticism" taught by Dr. Nele Sawallisch and the Seminar AS 410 "Video Games, Game Studies, and Science Fiction" taught by Dr. Damien Schlarb. Students in one of these classes will work with students in both other classes either through online platforms or in person. The cluster's courses deal with science and the history of science by examining texts, movies, video games and other media. Depending on the focus of the class you are in, we will look at fictional and non-fictional texts as literature, cultural objects, or historical sources. We will tackle Enlightenment notions such as rationalism and progress, as well as topics like ethics in science, skeptical views of science, issues of privacy and data collection (as in social media), or automatization and its effects. Participants in all three courses will work off a shared list of core theoretical readings. Due to the high number of public holidays in the summer term, students are expected to engage in several blended learning activities throughout the semester. A separate day-long workshop in which all classes join may be substituted for several sessions at the end of the semester.
