Science Studies 101

Sharp, Patrick B. "Science Studies 101." Article in SFRA Review #283 (Winter 2008): pp. 4-7.[1]

Elegantly concise overview of "the interdisciplinary field known as science, technology, and medicine studies" (p. 4), most immediately relevant in the section "Cyborgs, Posthumanism, and Animal Studies."

Probably the hottest area of science studies/science fiction scholarship is the ongoing examination of the relationship between humans and the nonhuman. Cyborg discussions inspired by [Donna] Haraway’s work[2] address the evolutionary aspects of cyborg narrative, while also emphasizing how science and science fiction texts make human/nonhuman relationships seem natural and/or unnatural. Since Mary Shelley’s monster[3] and the invading Martians of H. G. Wells, science fiction has been engaged in a serious dialogue with science about the appropriate relationship between humans and technology that has centered on the body. More recently, the discourse of posthumanism had taken center stage in this cyborg body debate. In general, posthumanism is the exploration of how modern scientific and technological developments have changed life, consciousness, and identity so that we are no longer human. Cybernetics theory and cyberpunk fiction are common touchstones for posthumanist discussions. Katherine Hayles and others have criticized the limitations of many iterations of the posthuman that rely on a vilification of the human body and a glorification of a mind that transcends or escapes the body. This kind of posthumanism is problematic in that it accepts the outdated Cartesian separation of the mind and the body while rejecting the animality of embodied existence. Other versions of posthumanism take a different road, acknowledging the realities and possibilities of embodiment while rejecting the legacy of humanism and the boundaries that have been used to divide the human and nonhuman ([Kaye] Mitchell [SFS 33.1:] 115–27; [Sherryl] Vint [Bodies of Tomorrow:] 182–90). (p. 6)

Includes a highly useful bibliography.

See for a number of works covered in Clockworks2.[4]

RDE, finishing, 2Jan21

HEADS-UP: After the US Trump administration and various attacks on science, empiricism, and facts, some of the people in Science Studies may wish, not to withdraw, but to gentle, so to speak, their critique.