What is imagination? What different forms can it take? Can we measure it? Assess it? When and how do you use your imagination? Do different disciplines engage and treat imagination differently? Is imagination important in academic studies, the working world, or life? What would it be like to not have an imagination? How could you get others to manifest their imaginative and creative thinking?
This module is designed to enable you to make connections between the 'imaginative' thinking and practice deployed within your own and other disciplines and to autonomously explore and develop your own theory of applied imagination. By engaging in inter- and transdisciplinary learning, the module will:
- Support you in developing a theoretical understanding of imagination and imaginative thinking;
- Explore the relationship between imagination and creativity;
- Enable you to articulate and reflect upon your own imaginative practices and those of others;
- Consider what the role of the imagination is within learning and knowledge;
- Give you the chance to apply what you learn in a practical way and devise the form your assessment will take;
- Invite you to explore how what you have learned might be applied beyond the classroom and university life.
Description
This module draws together concepts of habitability from across the university, looking at habitable conditions both on and off the Earth, and exploring how we find and understand habitable planets in the wider galaxy using modern telescopes. We will look at life at the extremes, considering extremophiles on Earth, and what they might tell us about life elsewhere, before approaching the sustainability and long term habitability of our own planet.
Alongside this exploration of the realities of habitability, we will turn to our own reactions to it. Popular culture is replete with the idea of the other, within our normal environment and outside of it. A sense of precariousness underpins literature and film, from Jules Verne to Ridley Scott’s The Martian. In cinema, the development of special effects is closely linked to the presentation of alien life and other worlds. Finally, in the growing context of talk about colonisation and off-world activity, we can turn to the ideas of politics: how should we organise a growing settlement on another planet, where small mistakes can rapidly lead to failure and death?"
Course Structure
The overall module will consist of weekly 2 hour sessions, comprising a lecture and a more interactive seminar/discussion. During the lecture we will introduce new concepts from differing departmental perspectives. The seminars will reinforce these concepts, while allowing us the opportunity to synthesise these concepts into a complete understanding of ‘Habitability in the Universe’. These seminars will consist of guided discussions and group activities, as relevant to each topic covered. Each week will be led by academics from the appropriate departments. Reading material for each session will be made available here a week beforehand.
Assessment
Examination will take the form of an Essay/Report/Literature Review, due 19th March 2018, along with a 15 minute presentation given in the 10th session of the course (15th March 2018, 10:00-12:00). Part of the Week 5 session will be spent discussing possible essay and presentation topics.