Science Fiction Film

Description from DukeHub

This class will study science fiction film from 1950 to the present. Discussions will be organized around the relationship between scientific and technological innovation and social and geopolitical transformation: how, for example, the threats of nuclear war and the exhaustion of environmental resources, discoveries in virology and genetics, and the innovations in cybernetics and artificial intelligence all intersect with decolonization and global development, race relations, and new social and geopolitical configurations. We will explore how science fiction film registers and responds to the uncertainties of a changing world: to changing conceptions of the human and of life.

Skills

• writingtitle: "fiction"
• policy and lawdescription: "geopolitical" and 1 more

AI-resilient: 2 of 5 2/5

• No: Physical, lab or field work
• No: Live work with people
• ✓Yes: Judgment someone is accountable for · "ethical"
• No: A craft you practice with your hands or body
• ✓Yes: Small, in-person format · seminar, 15 seats per section

The checks lean on Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025), which found generative AI applies least to physical work and hands-on work with people. A signal, not a promise. How the score works

More in ARTHIST

• Conquering the Cosmos: The Art and Visual Culture of the Space Race ARTHIST 106CNS
• The Archaeology of Death: Ritual and Social Structure in the Ancient World ARTHIST 143S
• Museum Theory and Practice ARTHIST 220
• Arts Policy, Leadership, and Engagement ARTHIST 228
• Japanese Architecture ARTHIST 234
• Seven Wonders: Monuments and Cultures of the Ancient Mediterranean ARTHIST 257

All ARTHIST courses · All of Undergraduate