ENG 295-01 - Special Topic: Studies in Neuro-humanities: Science, Subjectivity, Critique

4 credits Spring Term 1)

Cross-listed as: PHI 295-01 Supported by an Innovation Fund grant, this course seeks to expose Grinnell students to a range of developments in the emergent, multidisciplinary field we call neurohumanities. What can cognitive science tell us about literary and philosophical issues? What can the later tell us about the brain? Unlike typical courses at Grinnell, this one will be team-taught, and that team will extend beyond Professors Neisser and Savarese. We will have regular, prominent guests who Zoom in to talk about their own research. These guests include a MacArthur winner, a college president, a college dean, a leading feminist critic-all of them deeply committed to a rapprochement between the sciences and humanities. We will read these scholars’ work, ask questions, and pursue projects related to the subjects they explore. The course, in short, will be built around these lucky visits. Meeting at least three times a week for seven weeks, it will bring a liberal arts perspective to what one scholar has deemed the “Era of the Brain.”

Prerequisite: Third-year standing and consent of the instructor.
Instructor: Savarese, Neisser