Critical Outer Space Studies
AT A GLANCE
Teaching language(s):
- English
Contact:
- universeh@univ-tlse2.fr
Universities involved:
- Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès
- Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Profile and prerequisites:
- Master’s level (Toulouse)
- Bachelor advanced students (HHU)
- English level B2 (HHU and Toulouse)
- Students from other universities can be either master or bachelor students
Teaching modalities: Online synchronous sessions via Zoom are scheduled Wednesdays 12:30-14:00
Student mobility:
- One-week mobility Krakau in December (14.-18.) to attend collective workshops and present group results
Assessment modalities:
- End examination
- Continuous assessment
The course is open to students from these universities:
- Open to students who can participate in the weekly online sessions and one-week mobility in December, English level of B2 or above
Credits:
- 3 ECTS
Date:
- October 14 - December 18
Students apply at their home universities.
For Uni.lu students: link
Description:
This course offers a critical, interdisciplinary introduction to the cultural, political, and ideological dimensions of space exploration, taking as its point of departure the claim that outer space is not a neutral void, but a social construct shaped by terrestrial histories and power structures. Centered on the conceptualization of a Second Space Age, characterized by the rise of commercial space ventures such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, the course examines how contemporary narratives of space colonization are entangled with extractive capitalism, settler colonial logics, authoritarian ideologies, and gendered and racialized structures of power, while also addressing questions related to disability and eugenics.
Students will engage with a wide range of texts drawing on recent scholarship in critical space studies, science and technology studies, and cultural theory. Topics include:
- Colonial legacies and the settler logics of space exploration
- Space capitalism and planetary extraction
- Issues of disability and eugenics in space exploration
- The ethics of planetary protection and Indigenous critiques of space science
No prior knowledge of astroculture is required—only a critical curiosity about the ways space exploration intersects with histories of colonialism, fascism, capitalism, territoriality and gender.
The course is part of an international collaboration between Heinrich Heine University (HHU) and Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (UT2J), meaning that the course will be taught online. Students will have the opportunity to work in transnational teams. This class includes a study trip to the AGH University of Kraków (Poland) from the 14th to 18th of December, which will be financed by the Erasmus+ program. In order to pass this class, students need to participate in the study trip.
Collaborative activities and class discussions will be held in English. The language level requirement for this class in B2 in English.
Objectives:
This course will pay particular attention to how, in recent years, the exploration of outer space has been invigorated via its role as a potential remedy for the challenges of the Anthropocene (via resource extractivism, resettlement, off-world heavy industry, observation of impacts of climate change on a global scale).
Course Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the historical, literary, cultural, legal discourses and ethics surrounding the exploration and settlement of outer space.
- Apply interdisciplinary approach.
- Analyze the historical, literary, cultural, legal discourses and ethics surrounding the exploration and settlement of outer space.
- Evaluate and reflect on own disciplinary background through the lens of a critical studies approach.
- Create and/or contribute to the establishment of continuous class format for critical introduction to space studies.
- Create and/or contribute to the establishment of a guidebook/introductory manuscript for critical space studies, for further implementation in UNIVERSEH project.
- Continue to refer to the critical lens during disciplinary training.
- Acquire and hone a variety of project management skills: science communication, writing skills, text analysis, critical debate, self-reflection, group work/management skills, negotiating different interdisciplinary perspectives, language skills.
Lecturers:
- Etienne Février
- Laura Cwalina
