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Greg Wise | 1 May 2008 01:05
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Readings on Robots

Hi folks,
I'm running a class this summer on the figure of robots and the living
machine on film. It's a class I've been teaching on and off for years,
but I'm always looking for new resources. The key theme of the class is
the relation of machines to humans, introducing undergraduate students
to some aspects of cultural theory approaches to technology. The main
text is JP Telotte's Replications: A Robotic History of the Science
Fiction film, which I've supplemented with additional readings on key
(more recent) films (like Susan Napier's work on Ghost in the Shell,
which someone on this list recommended a couple of years ago).

My question is this: are they are suggestions for article or chapter
length readings for undergrads that you would suggest on the following
films

The Matrix (the question here is, which of the hundreds of articles out
there best fits the questions of this class?)

AI

I, Robot

Cheers, and thanks in advance!

greg

Dr. J. Macgregor Wise
Associate Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Arizona State University
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Kathleen O'Riordan | 1 May 2008 08:43
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Re: Readings on Robots

These are mostly books with one or more chapters relevant to the films you 
mention:

Wood, Aylish 2002. Technoscience in American Film: Beyond Science Fiction. 
Manchester UP.

Gillis, Stacy. 2005.The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded. Wallflower.

re both AI and I Robot - lots of things by Lucy Suchman around agency at 
the interface AI and robots but esp:
2007 Feminist STS and the Sciences of the Artificial. In Hacket, Edward, 
Amsterdamska, Olga, Lynch, Michael and Wajcman, Judy (eds.) The Handbook of 
Science and Technology Studies, Third Edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 
pp. 139-163.

and forthcoming in autumn - Bennett, Furstenau and Mackenzie 2008 (eds) 
Cinema and Technology  Theories and Practices. Palgrave.

hope these are of some use

all the best
Kate

--On Wednesday, April 30, 2008 16:05 -0700 Greg Wise <Greg.Wise <at> asu.edu> 
wrote:

> Hi folks,
> I'm running a class this summer on the figure of robots and the living
> machine on film. It's a class I've been teaching on and off for years,
> but I'm always looking for new resources. The key theme of the class is
(Continue reading)

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SHANNON BLAKE SKELTON | 1 May 2008 08:13
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Re: Readings on Robots

Dear Grerg,

  Try M. Keith Booker's Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture (2006). I believe
that it has some excellent chapters geared toward for undergrads.

Shannon Blake Skelton
The University of Wisconsin-Madison

----- Original Message -----
From: Greg Wise <Greg.Wise <at> asu.edu>
Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 6:18 pm
Subject: [cultstud-l] Readings on Robots
To: Cultural Studies <cultstud-l <at> lists.comm.umn.edu>

> Hi folks,
>  I'm running a class this summer on the figure of robots and the living
>  machine on film. It's a class I've been teaching on and off for years,
>  but I'm always looking for new resources. The key theme of the class 
> is
>  the relation of machines to humans, introducing undergraduate students
>  to some aspects of cultural theory approaches to technology. The main
>  text is JP Telotte's Replications: A Robotic History of the Science
>  Fiction film, which I've supplemented with additional readings on key
>  (more recent) films (like Susan Napier's work on Ghost in the Shell,
>  which someone on this list recommended a couple of years ago).
>  
>  My question is this: are they are suggestions for article or chapter
>  length readings for undergrads that you would suggest on the following
>  films
>
(Continue reading)

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Biressi | 1 May 2008 14:26
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New Appointment: Lecturer in Cultural Studies, Roehampton University UK

Lecturer in Cultural Studies,
The School of Arts,
Roehampton  University, UK

Category: Full-time
Pay: £33,106 to £35,889 p.a.  inc

The Media and Cultural Studies area run successful undergraduate  and 
postgraduate programmes supported by an energetic team committed to  quality 
teaching, research success and student satisfaction.  We are  seeking to 
appoint an enthusiastic new lecturer to contribute to  undergraduate and 
postgraduate teaching, research and administration.   You will have evident 
research potential, with a relevant PhD, as well as  excellent skills in 
teaching.  We welcome suitably qualified applicants  and particularly seek 
applicants specialising in any of the following areas:  cultural and media 
theory, popular culture, politics of representation, new  media. 

For further information about the post and our application  procedure please 
go  to:

http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/about/jobopportunities/hr4708lecturerinculturals
tudies.html

Closing  date: Thursday 15th May 2008
Interview date: Week commencing Monday 9th June  2008  

_______________________________________________
CULTSTUD-L mailing list: CULTSTUD-L <at> lists.comm.umn.edu
http://lists.comm.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/cultstud-l
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Davin Heckman | 1 May 2008 15:44
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RE: Readings on Robots


Not to sound like a shameless self-promoter...  but my book A Small World: Smart Houses and the Dream of the
Perfect Day (Duke UP, 2008) has a short self-contained section on robots (65-65) nested away in a larger
chapter on information and the home.  Much of the material came out of a course I taught for undergrads on robots.

Davin

_________________________________________________________________
In a rush? Get real-time answers with Windows Live Messenger.
http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_realtime_042008
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Sarah L. Rasmusson | 1 May 2008 19:08
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Re: Readings on Robots

HI Greg: 

I realize you are looking for scholarly sources, but I
just couldn't resist pasing on the experience that Ira
Levin's _Stepford Wives_ went over really, really well
in my WGS 250 Gender Technocultures class with a
section on robots. (Spoiler: husbands turn wives into
robots.)

The 2 movies are goofy, but the novel is more like a
novella -- so short to read, so jam packed with
cutlural criticism (industry, neoliberalism, domestic
space/the home, suburbanization, heteronormative
marriage and the nation-state, etc.!!!!)

Might be worth a consideration! All the best, Sarah

--- Kathleen O'Riordan <K.ORiordan <at> sussex.ac.uk>
wrote:

> These are mostly books with one or more chapters
> relevant to the films you 
> mention:
> 
> Wood, Aylish 2002. Technoscience in American Film:
> Beyond Science Fiction. 
> Manchester UP.
> 
> Gillis, Stacy. 2005.The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk
> Reloaded. Wallflower.
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Aimee Bahng | 2 May 2008 01:23
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Re: Readings on Robots

I would recommend the following: 

1.  Liquid Metal: The Science Fiction Film Reader, ed. Sean Redmond
esp. the section titled "Liquid Metal: The Cyborg in Science Fiction"

2. Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction, Scott Bukatman
includes sections on TRON, Robocop, and the Terminator films. 

I was also recently given Cylons in America: Critical Studies in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, which I haven't
read yet, but it might be fun for undergrads. I have a hunch there's some exciting new work coming out that
will do a critical analysis of race/robots/reproduction and Grace Park's cylon character
Sharon/Boomer. Though it's television, a film is surely in the works. 

Best,
Aimee

Aimee Bahng
Ph.D. Candidate
Literature Department, Cultural Studies
University of California, San Diego

----- Original Message ----
From: Greg Wise <Greg.Wise <at> asu.edu>
To: Cultural Studies <cultstud-l <at> lists.comm.umn.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 7:05:25 PM
Subject: [cultstud-l] Readings on Robots

Hi folks,
I'm running a class this summer on the figure of robots and the living
machine on film. It's a class I've been teaching on and off for years,
(Continue reading)

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steen21 | 2 May 2008 02:01
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Re: Readings on Robots

Hi Al,

It's not a film, but the play R.U.R. by Czech playwright Karel Capek 
is the source of the word "robot." (R.U.R. stands for Rossum's 
Universal Robots).  It's from the 30s, and is actually kind of a fun 
little play.  It would be great in conjunction with Metropolis or 
something else from that period.

good luck,
Shannon Steen

--

-- 
**************************

Shannon Steen
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
101 Dwinelle Annex #2560
UC Berkeley
Berkeley, CA
94720-2560

steen21 <at> uclink.berkeley.edu
510.643.4626

http://www.theater.berkeley.edu

_______________________________________________
CULTSTUD-L mailing list: CULTSTUD-L <at> lists.comm.umn.edu
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Aimee Bahng | 2 May 2008 04:03
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Re: Readings on Robots

P.S. In addition to all the work done over the past 20 years on cyborg feminism, I think it would be important
and useful for students to consider Mary Ann Doane's now widely anthologized essay "Technophilia:
Technology, Representation, and the Feminine," which uses examples from both Metropolis and The
Stepford Wives. 

----- Original Message ----
From: Aimee Bahng <bahngerama <at> yahoo.com>
To: Cultural Studies <cultstud-l <at> lists.comm.umn.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 1, 2008 7:23:45 PM
Subject: Re: [cultstud-l] Readings on Robots

I would recommend the following: 

1.  Liquid Metal: The Science Fiction Film Reader, ed. Sean Redmond
esp. the section titled "Liquid Metal: The Cyborg in Science Fiction"

2. Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction, Scott Bukatman
includes sections on TRON, Robocop, and the Terminator films. 

I was also recently given Cylons in America: Critical Studies in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, which I haven't
read yet, but it might be fun for undergrads. I have a hunch there's some exciting new work coming out that
will do a critical analysis of race/robots/reproduction and Grace Park's cylon character
Sharon/Boomer. Though it's television, a film is surely in the works. 

Best,
Aimee

Aimee Bahng
Ph.D. Candidate
Literature Department, Cultural Studies
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Gary Hall | 2 May 2008 09:50
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Lecturer in Cultural Studies, University of Kent, UK

Lecturer in Cultural Studies, University of Kent, UK

UCEA Scale 7/8 Salary £29,138 - £41,545

Applications are invited for this post based at the University of Kent’s 
Canterbury campus.

The School is a large, dynamic and diverse department with 54 
HEFC-funded academic staff. It has 6* RAE status, strong student 
recruitment and offers favourable conditions to staff.

You should have or be developing a strong research record, and be able 
to contribute to the School’s teaching programmes in the Social 
Sciences. We are interested in candidates who can teach in any area of 
Sociology or Cultural Studies.

The post is full-time and permanent and will be available from 1st 
September
2008, or later by arrangement.

CULTURAL STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENT

Cultural Studies undergraduate single and joint honours programmes at 
the University of Kent are organised an interfaculty basis and run from 
within the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. At 
undergraduate level, Cultural Studies may be taken as a single honours 
degree or as part of a joint honours programme with a wide range of 
other subjects – including with History and Philosophy of Art, with 
Social Anthropology or with Comparative Literary Studies. New Joint 
programmes with Film Studies and with Criminology are about to come on
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