► CANCELED: Literary Dimensions Seminar
Dabney Hall 110 (Treasure Room)
This seminar has been canceled.
Nicole A. Sütterlin,
Associate Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures,
Harvard University,
Title: Living Well with Germs: The Microbiome in the Literary Imagination
Description: In the past two decades, a fast-growing body of bioscientific research has shown that all larger organisms vitally depend on trillions of microscopic cohabitants, their microbiome. How can we rethink so-called germs as partners in human and planetary health? Nicole Sütterlin examines how the literary imagination envisages multispecies bodies, selves, and societies. She argues that depictions of the microbiome in speculative-fiction novels such as the Austrian author Elisabeth Klar's Es gibt uns ("We Exist," 2023) challenge traditional concepts of the microbial and the human, building valuable models of socio-ecological responsibility.
For more information, please contact Joanna Poon by phone at 626-395-1724 or by email at [email protected].
Event Series
Literary Dimensions Seminar Series