Professor: Angela Rovak

4.00 credits

• CRN 32275: Tuesday & Thursday, 12:00-1:50 PM @ CHA 202

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, and graphic novels. Featured authors and artists include Bettina Judd, Octavia Butler, and Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Victor LaValle, and Danielle Evans. We will contextualize our readings 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. All assignments will be submitted in drafts with opportunities to edit and revise your work. Written work includes a close reading, a comparator paper, and a final project where each student will have the chance to investigate a question of reproductive justice within their area of study or future career field.

Graduation Requirement:  This class will fulfill an Arts and Letters Colloquium and the US: Difference, Inequality, 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, Agency (US)  cultural literacy requirement.