Research

I'm interested in how theories of vital materialism, assemblage, and posthumanism can be employed to address the global ecological crisis we are just now beginning to grapple with. Such an approach requires a sustained critique of humanist assumptions that have governed our discussions about sustainability and "green' technology. It also requires a difficult but necessary re-evaluation of traditional humanities disciplines within which, ironically enough, my research and teaching efforts are located.

I'm also engaged in critiques of some aspects of transhumanist ideology, which I distinguish (following Cary Wolfe) from posthumanism. I'm specifically concerned with the potential erasure of the human-computer interface in wearable robotic technologies such as exoskeleton suits.

I'm curious as well about recent developments in online education, specifically the move by some educators to multi-user virtual environments like Second Life and specifically how educators describe their experiences there.

One last area of inquiry (which I am no longer actively pursuing) revolves around the hypothesis that the scientific and technical discourse promoted by the Royal Society and specifically John Locke would have been very different without their engagement with traditional optical theories about how light travels through space and how, in Western culture, it enables sight and hence produces knowledge (the epistemological shorthand: light + sight = knowledge). I'm also looking at how the technology of lighting has shaped cultural practices and helped to privilege some knowledges over others.