COML 4809

Global Networks

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2021-2022.

One of the main justifications for work in the humanities hinges upon the importance of representation: We claim that we are telling better stories about some of the complex issues that face us today and that such stories can and will impact the fate of our planet and of humanity—politically, ethically, epistemologically, materially. But how do we narrate, represent, or theorize such complex networks and constellations—global circulations of peoples, objects, and labor information networks, large-scale social, economic, and political crises, vectors of contagion, or climate change and environmental degradation? In this seminar, we will bring together different types of texts and media as well as a range of theoretical approaches in order to critically investigate the forms that represent global networks as well as the possibilities for forging connections across the planet (and beyond). Possible texts include: Galloway's and Thacker's The Exploit: A Theory of Networks, Chirbes's On the Edge, Mezzadra's and Neilson's Border as Method, Chen Qiufan's The Waste Tide, Morton's Hyperobjects, Cloud Atlas (film and novel), Lowe's Intimacies of Four Continents, Bellott's Sexual Dependency (film), Nancy's Globalization, Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars, Schätzing's The Swarm, Wu Mingyi's Man with Compound Eyes.

When Offered Spring.

Distribution Category (LA-AS, ALC-AS)

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