Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of Fall 2019 Cultivating a Pedagogy of Empathy: Teaching Science Fiction in a Changing Biotechnological World Kathy L. Avery Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Disability and Equity in Education Commons, Elementary Education Commons, Higher Education Commons, and the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons Recommended Citation Avery, Kathy, "CULTIVATING A PEDAGOGY OF EMPATHY: Teaching Science Fiction in a Changing Biotechnological World" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. This dissertation (open access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CULTIVATING A PEDAGOGY OF EMPATHY: TEACHING SCIENCE FICTION IN A CHANGING BIOTECHNOLOGICAL WORLD by KATHY L. AVERY (Under the Direction of John Weaver) ABSTRACT I argue that science fiction affords us the ability to think past our anthropocentrism opening up a space for us to consider our relationship to burgeoning biotechnologies and the other. I provide critical interpretations of science fiction film and literature which I believe stimulate the power of the narrative imagination to envision the “netherworld experience of the other.” I believe science fiction provides a site of speculation, a means to better understand and consider the role and position of the post/human as well as the vital issues of human equity and social justice as new technologies challenge the immutability of normatively human boundaries.