Research Seminar May 27th: Kathrine Hayles - Three Species Challenges: Toward a General Ecology of Cognitive Assemblages
Research Seminar May 27th: Kathrine Hayles - Three Species Challenges: Toward a General Ecology of Cognitive Assemblages. The seminar will take place in Gilman 449 at 18:00.
Kathrine Hayles
Three Species Challenges: Toward a General Ecology of Cognitive Assemblages
Recently the STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) disciplines have begun organizing around “Grand Challenges,” characterized by planetary dimensions such as Global Energy, Global Health, Global Climate, and Global Thirst and Hunger. Each of these Grand Challenges involve significant cultural issues as well, so the STEM disciplines alone are unlikely to be adequate without input from the humanities and qualitative social sciences. This situation offers an opportunity for the humanities to turn from an emphasis on critique—useful as that has been in many cases—to active collaboration in the search for solutions. Building on the idea of cognitive assemblages (collections of human, nonhuman and technical cognizers through which information, interpretations, and meanings flow), this talk proposes three “species challenges” as a move toward creating a framework adequate to address our current planetary conditions.