Jan 31, 2024 – 16.00-18.00 (s.t.) – Student Conference
“Human Enhancement: Ethics, Life Sciences, and the Human Body in Cultural Representations”
P6 (Philosophicum)
Human enhancement has become the topic of an increasingly controversial cultural, scholarly, and political discussion. Alberto Giubilini and Sagar Sanyal define human enhancement rather broadly as “any kind of genetic, biomedical or pharmaceutical intervention aimed at improving human dispositions, capacities, and well-being even when there is no pathology to be treated” (1). Using this definition as a point of departure, our student conference seeks to approach grey areas inherent in debates surrounding human enhancement through the lens of narrative ethics, using cultural representations as the focus of our discussion.
Our student panel includes the following talks:
- “Marry Shelly’s Frankenstein: A Cautionary Tale or an Overused Trope?”
(Norhan Mohamed) - “Ethical Discourse and Social Impact on Human Enhancement: A Conservative Perspective”
(Haerin Park) - “Human Enhancement in Superhero Movies: Why Is Captain America’s Origin Story Morally Acceptable and What Is Special about It?”
(Jill Reuter) - “The Implications of ‘Human Enhancement’ in the Discussion Surrounding Trans-Athletes”
(Ayishat Aluko)
Everyone is welcome!
This conference is part of Dr. Julia Velten’s course “Cultural Studies VI: Human Enhancement: Ethics, Life Sciences, and the Human Body in Film.” If you have further questions about the event, please contact Dr. Julia Velten: juvelten@uni-mainz.de
Giubilini, Alberto and Sagar Sanyal. “Challenging Human Enhancement.” The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate, edited by Steve Clarke, et al., OUP, 2016, pp. 1-24.
