Department of English

This course is a study of film and (in some cases) the stage plays from which they are adapted. We will consider both screen and stage as ways to ask questions about the world, as sites for experimentation, as paths to learning about science, and as modes of critical cultural and ethical inquiry into scientific ideas and practices. We will explore films that engage with our relationship to technology, the implications of evolution, the relationship of science to religion, the effects of science on culture and vice versa, the nature of genius, and the ways we understand ourselves as human. Spanning comedy, drama, thriller, sci fi and the biopic, works studied may include such films as Metropolis, Modern Times, Dr. Strangelove, A Beautiful Mind, Hidden Figures, and Arrival, as well as stage-to-screen adaptations such as Inherit the Wind, Breaking the Code/The Imitation Game, Proof, Galileo, and Copenhagen. This course welcomes students of all levels and disciplines. Scientists and engineers, film, literary, and historical scholars and all others will be encouraged to bring their distinctive perspectives to further our shared understanding of the representation of science on stage and screen. First years welcome.