Course Convenor: Dr. Dylan Mulvin

Beginning with the assumption that there is no single, stable understanding of “the normal human body,” this course introduces a wide range of interdisciplinary theories to interrogate human bodies and their relationships to technology. From the surveillance of bodies, to the micro-analysis of human faces, to the hopes of using technology to create empathy and compassion, to the representation and coding of race, gender, and sexuality, media and communication studies has long interrogated the technologization of human bodies. 

In addition to key readings from our field, this course also introduces students to the body–technology problem from the perspective of science and technology studies, disability studies, surveillance studies, feminist and queer theory, critical design studies, and the history of technology. Through these theories and debates, we will familiarise ourselves with approaches for documenting, describing, and analysing how notions of human bodily similarity and difference are encoded and hardwired in the technologies, media, and environments of everyday life.