233043 SE The Politics of Thing-Power (2022S)
New Materialism and the Ontological Turn in STS
Continuous assessment of course work
Labels
Registration/Deregistration
Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).
- Registration is open from Tu 01.02.2022 09:00 to Su 20.02.2022 23:59
- Deregistration possible until Su 20.03.2022 23:59
Details
max. 10 participants
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N
- Wednesday 02.03. 09:30 - 11:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien (Kickoff Class)
- Wednesday 09.03. 09:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
- Wednesday 16.03. 09:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
- Wednesday 30.03. 09:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
- Wednesday 06.04. 09:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
- Wednesday 27.04. 09:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
- Wednesday 04.05. 09:30 - 11:00 STS Bibliothek, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
- Wednesday 04.05. 11:15 - 13:15 Seminarraum STS, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
- Wednesday 11.05. 09:30 - 15:00 STS Bibliothek, NIG Universitätsstraße 7/Stg. II/6. Stock, 1010 Wien
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
Assessment and permitted materials
Through a close reading of selected literature participants learn to navigate through the neologisms and concepts of different new materialist approaches. Students are required to prepare reading cards for every class, participate in group assignments and plenary discussions, and explore an agreed upon research question in more detail in their final seminar paper.The grading of the course is based on the separate assessment of different tasks on a scale of 1-5.
Preparation of readings: 30 percent, assessed individually, feedback on request
Regular attendance and demonstrated grasp of the main arguments of each reading: 30 percent, assessed individually, feedback on request
Research paper: approx. 12 pages, to be handed in via Moodle by June 15, 2022: 40 percent, assessed individually, feedback by lecturer
Preparation of readings: 30 percent, assessed individually, feedback on request
Regular attendance and demonstrated grasp of the main arguments of each reading: 30 percent, assessed individually, feedback on request
Research paper: approx. 12 pages, to be handed in via Moodle by June 15, 2022: 40 percent, assessed individually, feedback by lecturer
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
Minimum requirements
To successfully complete the course, a weighted average of at least 4,5 is required. Failure to meet the attendance regulations, to deliver course assignments on time or to adhere to standards of academic work may also be considered in the course assessment.Attendance
Presence and participation is compulsory. Absences of four hours at maximum are tolerated, provided that the lecturer is informed about the absence. Absences of up to eight hours in total may be compensated by either a deduction of grading points or/and extra work agreed with the lecturer. Whether compensation is possible is decided by the lecturer.
Absences of more than eight hours in total cannot be compensated. In this case, or if the lecturer does not allow a student to compensate absences of more than four hours, the course cannot be completed and is graded as a ‘fail’ (5), unless there is a major and unpredictable reason for not being able to fulfil the attendance requirements on the student’s side (e.g. a longer illness). In such a case, the student may be de-registered from the course without grading. It is the student’s responsibility to communicate this in a timely manner, and to provide relevant evidence to their claims if necessary. Whether this exception applies is decided by the lecturer.Important Grading Information
If not explicitly noted otherwise, all requirements mentioned in the grading scheme and the attendance regulations must be met. If a required task is not fulfilled, e.g. a required assignment is not handed in or if the student does not meet the attendance requirements, this will be considered as a discontinuation of the course. In that case, the course will be graded as ‘fail’ (5), unless there is a major and unpredictable reason for not being able to fulfill the task on the student's side (e.g. a longer illness). In such a case, the student may be de-registered from the course without grading. It is the student’s responsibility to communicate this in a timely manner, and to provide relevant evidence to their claims if necessary. Whether this exception applies is decided by the lecturer.
If any requirement of the course has been fulfilled by fraudulent means, be it for example by cheating at an exam, plagiarizing parts of a written assignment or by faking signatures on an attendance sheet, the student's participation in the course will be discontinued, the entire course will be graded as ‘not assessed’ and will be entered into the electronic exam record as ‘fraudulently obtained’. Self-plagiarism, particularly re-using own work handed in for other courses, will be treated likewise.
To successfully complete the course, a weighted average of at least 4,5 is required. Failure to meet the attendance regulations, to deliver course assignments on time or to adhere to standards of academic work may also be considered in the course assessment.Attendance
Presence and participation is compulsory. Absences of four hours at maximum are tolerated, provided that the lecturer is informed about the absence. Absences of up to eight hours in total may be compensated by either a deduction of grading points or/and extra work agreed with the lecturer. Whether compensation is possible is decided by the lecturer.
Absences of more than eight hours in total cannot be compensated. In this case, or if the lecturer does not allow a student to compensate absences of more than four hours, the course cannot be completed and is graded as a ‘fail’ (5), unless there is a major and unpredictable reason for not being able to fulfil the attendance requirements on the student’s side (e.g. a longer illness). In such a case, the student may be de-registered from the course without grading. It is the student’s responsibility to communicate this in a timely manner, and to provide relevant evidence to their claims if necessary. Whether this exception applies is decided by the lecturer.Important Grading Information
If not explicitly noted otherwise, all requirements mentioned in the grading scheme and the attendance regulations must be met. If a required task is not fulfilled, e.g. a required assignment is not handed in or if the student does not meet the attendance requirements, this will be considered as a discontinuation of the course. In that case, the course will be graded as ‘fail’ (5), unless there is a major and unpredictable reason for not being able to fulfill the task on the student's side (e.g. a longer illness). In such a case, the student may be de-registered from the course without grading. It is the student’s responsibility to communicate this in a timely manner, and to provide relevant evidence to their claims if necessary. Whether this exception applies is decided by the lecturer.
If any requirement of the course has been fulfilled by fraudulent means, be it for example by cheating at an exam, plagiarizing parts of a written assignment or by faking signatures on an attendance sheet, the student's participation in the course will be discontinued, the entire course will be graded as ‘not assessed’ and will be entered into the electronic exam record as ‘fraudulently obtained’. Self-plagiarism, particularly re-using own work handed in for other courses, will be treated likewise.
Examination topics
Reading list
Association in the course directory
Last modified: Mo 02.05.2022 11:49
The study of materiality has been a central topic in STS since the founding of the field – from actor-network theory's account of how agency emerges from networks of human and nonhuman actors to Donna Haraway's material-semiotic approach to situated, embodied and localized knowledge. However, the recent 'material turn' emphasizes that the postmodern prioritization of culture over nature, of discourse over materiality and corporeality, still relies on the human subject and human agency and does not adequately address the question of 'how matter comes to matter' (Barad 2007).
New materialisms, thus, highlight the agentive capacities of matter. They analyze the doings of matter, of things, the environment, surroundings, algorithms and infrastructures and how agentive matter takes a stake in co-producing scientific knowledge practices, technological artifacts and human bodies. Creating new concepts and ways to think about how science, technology and society co-emerge in an ongoing process of entangled becoming, new-materialist scholars present their interventions as projects of renewal, even sometimes of radical rupture with epistemic foundations of modern Western thinking. Such renewal promises to better grasp the complex imbrications of the political with/in material conditions and to hold a key for re-envisioning (more-than-) human worlding practices (Allhutter et al. 2020).
In this class, we will explore the vibrancy of matter in different computing fields and the life sciences. Based on discussing how new materialisms reshape concepts of agency, discourse, materiality, practices and power, the seminar aims to raise questions on the theory-political interventions of the ontological turn in STS.Allhutter, D. Bargetz, B., Meißner, H., & Thiele, K. (Eds.) Materiality-Critique-Transformation: Challenging the Political in Feminist New Materialisms. Special Issue of Feminist Theory 21:4.
Barad, K. (2007) Meeting the Universe Halfway. Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning, Durham & London.
Coole, D. & Frost, S. (Eds.) (2010) New Materialisms. Ontology, Agency, and Politics, Durham & London.