Global Engagement > Partnerships > Programs for Partner Institutions > Science Fiction
Science Fiction
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Project Summary:
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This virtual exchange project linked DePaul Prof. John Shanahan’s “Science Fiction” course with Prof. Gisele Fernandes’s “American Literature III” course at Sao Paulo State University in Brazil. It incorporated a number of phone and laptop-based activities to bring students into conversation across continents and cultures over five weeks. Students in both classes read three novels over the course of the term: Don DeLillo’s classic interrogation of technology and violence White Noise, William Gibson’s cyberpunk classic Neuromancer, and Liu Cixin’s recent global Science Fiction phenomenon The Three-Body Problem. The students formed transnational teams to present on the novels live, synchronously, from their classrooms in Chicago and Rio Preto. As a final project, students created group presentations, one for each novel. The shared course content: global science fiction across novels and new media, had fully globalized audiences, which increased the international experiences for both students and faculty.
Project Length:
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Instagram
- Google Drive
- Zoom
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Skype
Communication Type/ Interaction Mode :
Learning Outcomes :
- Students learned to describe and analyze a range of literary works in English.
- Students focused attention on the impact of culture, race, gender, sexuality, and class on literature.
- Students analyzed science fiction as a genre with a distinct history and set of formal features.
- Students analyzed the cultural evolution of science fiction around the world.
Reflection Component :
- Students made reflection posts on D2L and 2 evaluation instruments.
Empathy Building Component :
- Students introduced themselves via a joint Instagram account.
John Shanahan
Institution: DePaul University
Discipline: English
Course name: Science Fiction
Gisele Manganelli Fernandes
Institution: Sao Paulo State University (UNESP)
Discipline: Literature
Course name: American Literature III