2009 Course Handbook
CUL314: Somatechnics of Medicine and Bioscience
Soma (body) technics (technology) refers to the manner in which bodies are inextricably inscribed by technologies. This interdisciplinary unit examines the multiple ways in which bodies are mediated by a number of technologies, including medical, scientific and legal. By situating bodies within particular sociocultural contexts, we examine the range of medical, political, legal and ethical significations that are generated by technologically mediated bodies. A somatechnic analysis of the relation between bodies and technologies brings into focus the manner in which technological mediations work to enhance, modify, categorise, regulate and productively transform modes of embodiment. Topics of enquiry may include for example: lifestyle, fertility, and assisted reproductive technologies; cosmetic surgery and bodily modifications; post biology, transgenic and post humans; atypical embodiment and the ethics of intercoporeality; sports medicine and modifications of the athletic body; genital modification and cultural differences; the biopolitics of biometric technologies; obesity, medicine and morality; the bioethics of voluntary amputation; prenatal testing, disability and discourses of 'the perfect baby'; forensic pathology and the racialised body; biocultural anthropology and the plasticity of perception; bioscience ethics.
| Credit Points: | 4 |
| Contact Hours: | 3 |
| When Offered: | D2 - Day; Offered in the second half-year |
| Staff Contact: | Associate Professor Nikki Sullivan |
| Prerequisites: | 40cp including CUL100 or CUL101 |
| Corequisites: | |
| NCCWs: | |
| Unit Designations: | -- |
| Assessed As: | Graded |
| Offered By: |
Department of Media, Music and Cultural Studies |
Timetable Information
For unit timetable information please visit the Timetables@Macquarie Website.