This seminar considers productive collaborations and exchanges between literature and the sciences since the middle of the 20th century. Through readings in science fiction (broadly conceived), popular science writing, and the history and philosophy of science, we explore strategies and theories for thinking and writing across the “two cultures.” Topics include the science of writing and the writing of science; the mediating narratives of Enlightenment science; scientific biography; the narrative science of probability; feminist biology; Afrofuturism; and quantification. Scientists, writers, historians, engineers, literary scholars, and others are all welcome.
Co-taught with R. John Williams