CS 133: African American Cognitive Science Fiction

Instructors: Jaime Davila & Amy Jordan.
Required Books:
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction. Edited by Sheree Thomas.
Dawn, by Octavia Butler.
Midnight Robber, by Nalo Hopkinson.
Babel 17, by Samuel Delany.
Futureland, by Walter Mosley.
Evaluations:
Your end-of-semester evaluation will be based on class participation, 4-5 short papers, and a longer end-of-semester paper.
The following schedule should help you in preparing for class. We will all enjoy and get more out of the course if you prepare for class.
In addition, as homeworks are assigned, you'll be able to retrieve their text from here.
We encourage you to take advantage of the syllabus shown below in order to remain on schedule. If the schedule needs to change, this will be reflected here.
Week Dates Topics Readings Assignments
1 Jan 27 Introduction.    
2 Feb 1, 3 Language. Handouts, Dark Matter, edited by Sheree Thomas.
Mosley's "Whispers in the Dark"
Pinker's "How Language Works."		  
3 Feb 8, 10 Human/computer interphases.
Post Colonization.		 Mosley's "Doctor Kismet,"
"Wood," "Gullah Speech: The Roots of Black English," in Black Mayority		 3/8: Short response paper due, on "Whispers in the Dark" and articles from Dark Matter.
4 Feb 15, 17 Language & thought. Delany's Babel 17
Mosley's "Voices"		  
5 Feb 22 Language as Battleground/Double Consciousness. Butler's Dawn 2/22: Paper on Language due.
6 Mar 1, 3 Genetics & behavior. Butler's Dawn  
7 Mar 8, 10 Genetics & behavior. Mosley's "The Greatest," "Angel's Island"  
8 Mar. 22, 24 Slavery & labor. Mosley's "En Masse" and "The Nig in Me"
Oshinsky, excerpts, Worse than Slavery		 3/22: Paper on Genetics due.
9 Mar. 29, 31 History/Fiction of Colonization/Post-Colonial Movements. Derrick Bell, "Space Traders" in Dark Matter
Mosley's "The Electric Eye"		  
10 Apr. 5, 7 The idea of "Africa" & Haiti in Black Science Fiction. Joseph, African Origins of UFO's
Hopkinson, Midnight Robber 		 
11 Apr. 12, 14 Artificial Intelligence Mosley's "Little Brother" 4/12: Paper on Colonization/Post-colonial movements due.
12 Apr. 19, 21 Artificial Intelligence. Frank Tipler, "Can A Machine be Intelligent," "The Physical Mechanism of Individual Ressurection"  
13 April 26, 28 Science Fiction & Musicians. Film: "Last Angel in History" 4/26: Paper on Artificial Intelligence due.
14 May 3, 5 Presentations