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ASS330 - Cyborg Anthropology

Year:

2021 unit information

Important Update:

Unit delivery will continue to be provided in line with the most current COVIDSafe health guidelines. This may include a mix of on-campus and online activities. To find out how you are impacted, please check your unit sites for announcements and updates. Unit sites open one week prior to the start of each Trimester/Semester.

Thank you for your flexibility and commitment to studying with Deakin in 2021.

Last updated: 4 June 2021

Enrolment modes:

Trimester 2: Burwood (Melbourne), Waurn Ponds (Geelong), Cloud (online), CBD*

Credit point(s):1
EFTSL value:0.125
Unit Chair:Trimester 2: Roland Kapferer
Previously:

Human Possibilities in the Age of Digital Communication

Prerequisite:

Nil

Corequisite:

Nil

Incompatible with:

Nil

Typical study commitment:

Students will on average spend 150 hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit.

Scheduled learning activities - campus:

 1 x 1-hour class per week, 1 x 1-hour seminar per week

Scheduled learning activities - cloud:

1 x 1-hour class per week (recordings provided), 1 x 1-hour online seminar per week

Note:

*CBD refers to the National Indigenous Knowledges, Education, Research and Innovation (NIKERI) Institute; Community Based Delivery

 

Content

The contemporary revolution in digital information and communication technologies has transformed the worlds of human experience and interaction. Recent social movements and popular uprisings are also increasingly mediated through digital technologies and this has led to ongoing debates concerning the regulation and governance of the Internet.

In this unit, students will be introduced to anthropological perspectives that engage these issues. What do new technological discoveries and the interaction of embedded technologies tell us about human beings of today? How are human beings imagined and how is human potential being reconceived in the digital age? What will human beings look like and how will they behave in the future? This course will open up new and exciting ways of thinking about the nature of human being in the context of rapid technological and cultural change, as well asking how human experiences of love, death, culture, gender, identity, community, the body, mind, work and leisure are being transformed in the context of new technologies.

Cyborg anthropology is about the world-transforming event of modern technological development - it is about the new beings that human beings are becoming.

ULO These are the Learning Outcomes (ULO) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can: Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes
ULO1

Describe and analyse an emerging field of new theoretical approaches to technology, from a historic setting to modern digital technologies

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

ULO2

Evaluate the role of cybernetic systems and cyborgs in terms of their implications for the re-engineering of human beings

GLO4: Critical thinking

ULO3

Question taken-for-granted assumptions about modern technology use, biotechnology and robotics in order to engage anthropological thinking to the digital environment

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO5: Problem Solving

ULO4

Evaluate personal digital technology practices and reflect on embedded knowledge of modern technology

GLO2: Communication

GLO3: Digital literacy

These Unit Learning Outcomes are applicable for all teaching periods throughout the year

Assessment

Assessment Description Student output Grading and weighting
(% total mark for unit)
Indicative due week
Assessment 1 - Seminar/
Online exercises
800 words or equivalent 20% Information not yet available
Assessment 2 - Presentation 800 words or equivalent 20% Information not yet available
Assessment 3 - Essay 2400 words or equivalent 60% Week 10

The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.

Learning Resource

The texts and reading list for the unit can be found on the University Library via the link below: ASS330 Note: Select the relevant trimester reading list. Please note that a future teaching period's reading list may not be available until a month prior to the start of that teaching period so you may wish to use the relevant trimester's prior year reading list as a guide only.

Unit Fee Information

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