Professor: Angela Rovak
4.00 credits
CRN 35753: Monday & Wednesday, 2:00-3:50pm @ CHA 301
Graduation Requirement: This class will fulfill an Arts and Letters Colloquium and the HC 444H: US: Difference, Inequality, and Agency (US) cultural literacy requirement. If a student already has completed an Arts and Letters Colloquium, this course will fulfill both of the following requirements: an Elective Colloquium and the US: Difference, Inequality, and Agency (US) cultural literacy requirement.
Science and literature often seem at odds, one operating objectively while the other subjectively. Together we will push back on this assumption and see how Black authors respond to and create scientific theory steeped in Black history, culture, and experience. With a focus on reproductive science and medicine, we will consider how literature participates in and creates scientific discourse in different texts and genres, from poetry, novels, short stories, drama, and film. Featured authors and artists include Bettina Judd, Octavia Butler, and Suzan-Lori Parks, Victor LaValle, and Jordan Peele. We will contextualize our readings and screenings alongside the often racist histories of scientific disciplines, the unequal access to and treatment protocols of modern medicine, and aim to discover the ways that these Black writers hypothesize scientific advancements through their creative works.