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Information about this site and the course
The Space Matters Web site emerged as a student-generated project for the course Space Matters II: It Keeps on Going... at Drake University. Vibs Petersen, director of women's studies and associate professor of German, taught the course as a senior seminar during the fall semester of 1999.Tom Cronin, Casey O'Donnell, Michael Schumacher, Ian Leckie, and Nick Medinger - students enrolled in the senior seminar - created Web sites for the seminar. This site was created by Tom Cronin. Additional Space Matters sites are listed below:
- Space Matters Two - Created by Casey O'Donnell
- Space Matters (The link to this site was no longer available as of Dec. 10, 2001) - Created by Michael Schumacher
- From Acid to the Internet (The link to this site was no longer available as of Dec. 10, 2001) - Created by Ian Leckie
- Alternate History (from the Internet Archive's cache) - Created by Nick Medinger
Course description:
This Senior Seminar is the result of a collaboration between five students who participated in the premiere of my 1996 FYS, entitled Space Matters: Readings in Science Fiction. Their keen interest in science fiction has led to a collaboration between those students and myself in order to develop a Senior Seminar where theoretical issues could be explored in depth and with more sophistication. What follows is the result of two years' work.The material for the course consists of visual and literary science fiction as well as theoretical texts. The purpose is an investigation into the representation of gendered, raced, sexed, and classed subjectives in an electronic age. We shall pursue the formation of such subjectives in the realm of cyber-punk, feminist/utopian - general/dystopian SF discourse and our examination will be guided by current questions about the interface of technology with the human subject, genetic engineering, ethics, new subjectives, and much more. The texts themselves pose questions among which are: whether the future is un/inhabitable and how, about manifestations of spirituality, and what are the new configurations of reality.
Space Matters II: It Keeps On Going... is a seminar. The production of various knowledges in our group will rely altogether on the active and voluntary participation of all of us. Therefore, every one of us must come to class prepared -- having read/viewed the assigned texts thoroughly -- and ready to discuss the issues raised by the assignment. Secondary readings, which are crucial for our theoretical understanding of the material, will be assigned for each class, and we are required to familiarize ourselves thoroughly with such readings. This means always taking notes when viewing or reading, bringing them to class, and using them as the basis for questions and/or discussions. There are no exceptions -- this is a senior seminar, folks.
The course description was written by Vibs Petersen, director of women's studies and associate professor of German at Drake University.
Novel list
Click here to view the list of novels read for the senior seminar. The covers of all the novels are available, and one can purchase the novels by clicking on the images of the novels' covers.Enroll in the course:
Space Matters II: It Keeps On Going... will be offered at Drake during the fall semester of the 2000-01 academic year. For the most recent information about course offerings at Drake, browse the "academics" section of Drake's Current Students Gateway.
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