Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC3096: Cyborg Studies

This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.

How this Module is Assessed

In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.

Formative Assessment

A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.

Form of assessmentSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Participation in seminar discussions; presentations of reading summariesWeekly1-8Verbal feedback

Summative Assessment

A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.

CourseworkWritten examsPractical exams
10000

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Form of assessment% of creditSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Essay 1402,000 words1-8Written feedback
Essay 2603,000 words1-8Written feedback
0
0
0
0

Re-assessment

Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.

Original form of assessmentForm of re-assessmentILOs re-assessedTimescale for re-assessment
Essay 1Essay 1 (2000 words)1-8August/September assessment period
Essay 2Essay 2 (3000 words)1-8August/September assessment period

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Sample reading:

Hables Gray, C. (1995) The Cyborg Handbook (New York: Routledge)

Haraway, D. (1991[1985]) ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ in Haraway, D. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge) pp.149-181

Haraway, D. (2003) The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness (Chicago: Prickly

Paradigm Press).

Hayles, N. K. (1999) How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics (Chicago:the University of Chicago Press)

Pickering, A. (2010) Sketches of Another Future: Cybernetics in Britain, 1940-2000 (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press).

Suchman, L. (2007a) Human–Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions, revised edn. (New York: Cambridge University Press).

Suchman, L. (2007b) ‘Feminist STS and the Sciences of the Artificial’, in E. Hackett, O. Amsterdamska, M. Lynch and J.Wajcman (eds) The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, 3rd edn, pp. 139–63. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Wiener, N. (1961 [1948]) Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

ELE pages