Gender Studies 204CY - Simians, Cyborgs, and Women

This course offers an introduction to the work of feminist science scholar Donna Haraway, particularly as it relates to the cultural politics of primatology and cybernetics. We will focus on the social construction of "nature" as a system of production and reproduction in which women, apes, and cyborgs are bound together through fantasies of transcendence that mask the political, economic, and social underpinnings of scientific and technical knowledge. In addition to reading criticism by Haraway and others, we will examine twentieth-century literary, artistic, theatrical, and cinematic representations that engage with these three figures as they shape our notions of gender and species.

Prereq: GNDST-101.