Week Eight (Mon, 3/14): "Moored Metamorphoses"

today's notetakers: Oak and HilaryB

I. Welcome back! (any relevant stories....?)

II. Few web events (make sure you're here if you
meant to be; otherwise we didn't "get" your project) --
but increasingly "creative/critical" ones (for which thanks!)

Also, if you haven't yet done so,do the mid-course evaluation posting and make suggestions for texts and films for Mon, Apr. 11-Wed. Apr. 13- Mon, Apr. 18.

We'll discuss on Wednesday.

III. Where we left off: the pleasure of seeing
our imaginary selves

several different ways of "making sense"
of the information presented:

shin1068111: actual historical figures have tried to minimize the extreme gender stereotypes while imaginary characters show emphasis on gender stereotypes.

TiffanyE: gender played more of an important role in the personal practices of certain individuals ... gender shapes the lives of many individuals, especially the lives of women.

MSA 322: reflecting on the Top Secret Rosies documentary ...women have always been discriminated against

spreston: I do not necessarily personally dislike a lot of society’s conventions.

jlebouvier: the historical figures' practices seemed more theoretical.... most of the panelists were writers or thinkers. Wednesday, however, brought a group of mostly fictional characters... mainly "doers"... put into harms way.... More of the fictional characters fit into a masculine role, which would fit with our society's idea of people/characters in dangerous situations. I think the separation between fictional and historical figures made for interesting topics within the panels.

With that second panel, we concluded the second section of the course, highlighting THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF INFORMATION

IV. We turn our attention, now, to begin the third section of the course:
"MOORED METAMORPHOSES": THE INTRA-ACTION OF
GENDER, INFORMATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

In small groups, discuss:

What have we learned from Subramaniam's
retrospective on feminist science studies?

what is this field?
where was it?
where is it now?
where is it going?

Report out.

Jacob Lane's "Metamorphosis"

V. Wrap up: Metaphorizing....
"moored metamorphosis" is Subramaniam's metaphor for both the development of feminist science studies and her own intellectual transformation.

Write

What is your own intersection with/relation to/ science?
What metaphor might you use to describe your connection to science?

Share

Report your neighbor's

Reflect: What mental constructs and models for the purpose and practices of science are present in our class?

VI. Where we are going from here:
for Wednesday, read the Preface and Introduction ("The Science and Ethics of Mattering") from Karen Barad's 2007 book, Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (in the password-protected file)--this is the first of two sessions on Barad's work; next Monday we'll be reading chapter 7 from the same book