(Re)Imagining the Body: What can a Body do?

Catalog description

How does the body perform itself? And what at all is a body? These are the underlying questions to the fundamental question profoundly binding philosophy and performance: ‘What can a body do?’. From philosophical questions about the nature of the body, to issues of gender, race, sexuality, trauma, disability, artificial intelligence, and death, we will see how bodies carry, produce, and perform meanings. With different visual and performance artworks, we will examine how bodies are being represented, discuss what is being expected from bodies, and speculate on the possibility for bodies to be thought of differently. This is a reading intensive and interdisciplinary course. Students from all backgrounds are welcome.