The Future of Humankind: Gender, Bio/Technologies and Planetary Politics
Course Description
This course aims to reflect upon the future of humankind from three related fields of reflection based on gender: the human in relation to biology, technology and planet Earth. The first part of the course will provide students the historical and analytical tools to understand the field of Bioethics by reflecting upon the notion of embodiment in relation to Human Enhancement, Reproductive Technologies and Surrogate Motherhood. The second part of the course will focus on feminist perspectives on Science and Technology, specifically, the Standpoint Theory, Cyborg Feminism and the reflection on AI Takeover from a critical gendered perspective. Students will be granted an appropriate platform to discuss epistemological questions such as: what is technology; how is science constructed; why gender still matters. The third part of the course will focus on environmental feminism, the reflection on the Anthropocene and the notion of Earth Democracy. In tune with posthuman feminism, this course will highlight the subject as a transversal entity encompassing humans, non human beings and the Earth. Students' voices will be given high consideration, not only as committed global citizens interested in making a change in this world, but also as part of the human race, whose evolution is becoming a pressing topic for discussion on political rights and global justice.
Methodological Introduction
In this section, we will investigate the formation of human identity and reflect upon different types of discriminations using a feminist intersectional approach.
Reading Samples Crenshaw, Kimberlé (1989) "Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex"
SECTION 1 Contemporary Bioethics This section includes, among other topics: Embodiments and Reproductive Technologies; a reflection on different political perspectives (i.e. Bio-Conservatives versus Bio-Liberals); different social and cultural perspectives on bioethics (i.e. Cultural Pluralism versus Cultural Imperialism).
Example - Topic: The Politics of Surrogacy Traditional Surrogacy (that is, the egg donor is also the actual surrogate for the embryo) and Gestational Surrogacy, in their "altruistic" and "commercial" forms, offer an interesting debate for the intersection of class, gender and race politics in the 21st Century.
Further reference: Cooper, Melinda (2008) Life as Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era
Ethical Discussions This section includes, among other topics:
Are designer babies ethical? A reflection about human genetic engineering and its potentials for the future of humankind will be accompanied by a discussion on its limits from an economic, gendered and racial standpoint.
Reading Sample De Baets, A. (2011) Enhancement for All? A Feminist Ethical Analysis of the Discourses and Practices of Democratic Transhumanism
SECTION 2 Who is afraid of AI?
In this section, focussed on Humans in relation to Technology, Robots and Artificial Intelligence, we will reflect upon focal topics such as: Digital Privacy, Robo-Ethics, Gendered and Sex Robots. This section will highlight how technology may help to shape a more just future, but also what are the risks related to the development of the robotic era, including the reiteration of sexist biases and discriminations.
Reading Sample Haraway, Donna (1989) "A Manifesto for Cyborgs"
Ethical Discussions This section includes, among other topics:
Are Sex Robots ethical? Kathleen Richardson (2017), The Campaign Against Sex Robots.
SECTION 3: Us, the Planet
In the third part of the course, we will analyze humans in relations to non-human animals, Earth and Space. In this section, we will investigate notions such as: the Anthropocene, Earth Democracy, GMOs, Multispecies Justice. This section will focus on discrimination based on patriarchal anthropocentric views, from the treatment of non-human others, to the Anthropocene and the environmental degradation. For instance, Braidotti's call for ‘becoming-earth’ is related to the awareness of being part of the age in which the consequences of anthropocentric habits have lead the planet to a global environmental crisis.
Reading Samples Braidotti, Rosi (2013) The Posthuman
Ethical Discussions This section includes, among other topics: Are GMOs and GMO Patents ethical?