Crossroads Unconscious Memory Graduate Course
ENG 236/CS 594/INT 200
Winter 2019
SH 2714 2-5 Friday

Course Summary

This course brings the intensively researched area of human memory in neuroscience (and, within this, the field of unconscious memory) together with the rich elaborations of the unconscious in the world literary archive and with new cognitive models emerging from the accelerating field of artificial intelligence. By situating key neuroscientific findings on ‘unconscious memory’ within cross-cultural representations of memory in the world literary archive, it will introduce students to the dynamical relations between brain, body and culture.

Faculty

Professor Ken Kosik (Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology)
Professor Sowon S. Park (English)
Professor Matthew Turk (Computer Science)

A. Foundation seminars (weeks 1-4, for ENG236, CS 594 and INT 200)

The aim of Part A is to set the foundation of the course.  How is literary studies different from scientific research? What is literature? Science? Technology? What are the relations between science and technology? What kind of evidence does literature provide?  What are the main methodological pitfalls when undertaking interdisciplinary research? Students will be introduced to the different ways these questions appear from the standpoint of the three disciplines as well as to a range of research resources necessary for undertaking interdisciplinary research.

Week 1 (11th Jan) What is Science? (KOSIK)
Week 2 (18th Jan) What is Literature? (PARK)
Week 3 (25th Jan) What is Technology? (TURK)
Week 4 (1st Feb) ‘Mapping the Knowledge’ workshop (Creative facilitator Mary ROBSON)

B. Unconscious Memory (For ENG 236/CS594 only)
Week 5 (8th Feb) History of the Unconscious (PARK)
Week 6 (15th Feb) Neuroanatomy of Memory (KOSIK)
Week 7 (22nd Feb) Unconscious Memory in the Literary Archive (PARK)
Week 8 (1 March) Neurogenetics and Epigenetics of memory (KOSIK)
Week 9 (8 March) Beckett and Memory (KOSIK)
Week 10 (15 March) Memory across the Two Cultures (PARK)