Kursinformation

Course description

This seminar offers an introduction to critical theory, both contemporary and otherwise, that deals with the relationships between technology, diversity and sexuality, gender and culture more broadly. How do technological developments affect the way gender, sexuality and materiality are conceptualized? What kind of technological imaginaries are presented by works stemming from feminist and queer perspectives? What kind of theoretical and methodological tools are needed to grasp the relations between contemporary subjects and their techno-environments? The theoretical perspectives discussed will specifically draw on the emerging new materialist and critical posthumanist perspectives.

On this semester’s course: reading Manuel DeLanda’s “Assemblage Theory”

Assemblage (in French: agencement) is a concept coined by philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and highlights the fluidity, intra-activity, connectivity and relationality of systems and their elements, including social systems. Since their introduction of the term in the 1980s, assemblage and assemblage theory has become a significant theoretical and methodological tool in philosophy, social sciences, humanities, media studies and political science. This course will engage assemblage from its Deleuzo-Guattarian origins through the work of philosopher of science Manuel DeLanda. In the course we will read together DeLanda's book Assemblage Theory (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), in which he takes up and expands on the original concept. Through a series of case studies, DeLanda shows how the concept can be applied to economic, linguistic, and military history as well as to metaphysics, science, and mathematics. DeLanda then presents the real power of assemblage theory by advancing it beyond its original formulation – allowing for the integration of communities, institutional organizations, cities and urban regions. In this course we will engage DeLanda's work and explore the use of assemblage as a theory and methodology in social sciences and science and technology studies.

Structure of the course and course requirements

The course will be in the format of a reading course, in which we will discuss each chapter we have read in bi-weekly sessions. In each session we will discuss one chapters of DeLanda’s “Assemblage Theory”, which students are required to have read beforehand. The course sessions will take place every two weeks. At the end of the course we will host a Research Day, during which the students will have an opportunity to reflect on the whole book and how assemblage theory connects to their discipline and interests.