Frankenstein@200

The year 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the publishing of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. The novel is eerily relevant today as we face ethical dilemmas around appropriate use of stem cells, questions about organ donation and organ harvesting, as well as animal to human transplants. Additionally, the rise of artificial intelligence portends an uncertain future of the boundaries between machines and humans. Frankenstein@200, was a year-long series of academic courses and programs including a film festival, a play, a lecture series and an international Health Humanities Conference that will examine the numerous moral, scientific, sociological, ethical and spiritual dimensions of the work, and why Dr. Frankenstein and his monster still capture the moral imagination today. This project was sponsored by the Stanford Medicine & the Muse Program in partnership with the Stanford Humanities Center, the Stanford Arts Institute, the Office of Religious Life, the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, Stanford Continuing Studies, the Cantor Arts Center, the Department of Art & Art History, and the Center for Biomedical Ethics.


Artist statement by logo creator Ryan Brewster:

I am a first year MD candidate at the Stanford University School of Medicine moonlighting as a graphic designer and medical illustrator. Frankenstein@200 lies at the intersection of medicine, science and the humanities. In developing the brand for the event, I wanted to capture this interdisciplinary focus. The result is a playful interpretation of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, with a pencil replacing his neck bolts and an abstracted stethoscope and molecule surrounding him. 

 

News of the Post Human


CBC Radio - White Coat, Black Art w/ host Dr. Brian Goldman
-- Frankenstein 101: What the monster teaches medical students w/ Audrey Shafer


10/16/2018, Stanford Live
-- Beethoven, Meet Frankenstein




Stanford Medicine
-- Why Frankenstein matters (By: Audrey Shafer)



06/08/2018, Stanford SCOPE Blog
-- Laser art installation commemorates Frankenstein



05/15/2018, Stanford News
-- How artificial intelligence is changing science


04/25/2018, Palo Alto Online
-- In sickness and in health




04/04/2018, Stanford Scope Blog
-- It’s when, not if, computers come for medicine





03/21/2018, The Paris Review
-- Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Own Hand




02/13/2018, Claymen Institute for Gender Research
-- What Do Robots Have To Do With Gender?


02/12/2018 and 02/19/2018, The New Yorker
-- The Strange and Twisted Life of "Frankenstein"




01/17/2018, The Conversation
-- STEAM not STEM: Why scientists need arts training





01/01/2018, BBC News
-- Frankenstein: Behind the Monster Mash


12/29/2017, Wall Street Jourmal
--‘Frankenstein’ Has Become a True Monster












10/17/2017, Wired 
-- Love in the Time of Robots


10/16/2017, New Yorker
-- R. Kikuo Johnson's "Tech Supoprt"


10/15/2017, BBC News
--Can We Teach Robots Ethics?


10/13/2017, New York Times
--How Frankenstein's Monster Haunts Queer Art



10/07/2017, New York Times
--Co-parenting With Alexa


10/06/2017, The Guardian
--Our Minds Can Be Hacked


09/21/2017, New York Times
--Facebook's Frankenstein Moment









8/7/2017, MIT Technology Review
--A New Way to Reproduce


08/05/207, Washington Post
--Rise of The Machines








Call for chapter proposals: Edited Collection - Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Modifying the Black (Self) Body through Science and Technology, a Historical and Social Context

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Modifying the Black (Self) Body through Science and Technology, a Historical and Social Context is historically grounded and socially charged as it seeks to provide careful analysis and engaging interpretation of the importance of post- and transhumanism by drawing on specifically African American visions, imagination, and critical perspectives.

Interested authors should send a 300-word abstract and 200-word biography to mhill33@utm.edu by September 1, 2017. Contributors will be contacted by October 1, 2017, with anticipation for completed chapter drafts by March 1, 2018.

Click HERE for more information.


03/26/17, Stark Insider
--Review: Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ re-imagined for stage in dynamic, high-tech adaptation
The perfect marriage of art and technology for an empathy-deprived world.


02/15/17, New York Times
--Teaching ‘Frankenstein’ With The New York Times
To mark the 200th birthday of “Frankenstein,” the NY Times updated their older Learning Network lessons with recent Times resources to pair with the text.  




01/25/17, IEEE Spectrum
--What Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Can Teach Engineers
Designing technology with the best intentions can still lead to disaster


Stanford Bookstore Meet the Author: Henry T. Greely
January 24 2017, 6:00pm
Stanford Bookstore

Join us for a book event with Stanford Professor Henry (Hank) T. Greely, celebrating his book, "The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction."



01/03/17, Slate
--Frankenstein Futurography series
Slate publishes a series Frankenstein Futurography throughout January 2017 in conjunction with New America and Arizona State University


Frankenstein: 200 Years of Scientific Dread
Podcast by Robert Lamb and Christian Sager

Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” has terrified the world for nearly two centuries, thanks to countless adaptations and the timeless nature of the 1816 text. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Christian discuss the modern world that this science-fiction horror classic emerged from and the dark shadow it continues to cast over scientific endeavor.




09/01/16, Stanford News
--Stanford-hosted study examines how AI might affect urban life in 2030
In the first of what will be a century-long series of periodic studies on artificial intelligence, top scientists say, “It is not too soon for social debate on how the fruits of an AI-dominated economy should be shared.”


08/25/16, The Washington Post
--Frankenstein lives, 200 years later



07/26/16, New York Times
--Building a Better Human With Science? The Public Says, No Thanks
A new survey shows distrust of scientists, a suspicion about claims of progress and discomfort with the idea of meddling with human abilities.


Lester D. Friedman, Ph.D. (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) and Allison Kavey , Ph.D. (CUNY John Jay College and the CUNY Graduate Center) published Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives (Rutgers University Press)


06/29/16, "Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)"
--Inga Pierson on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
A conversation with Dr. Inga Pierson about Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein.


06/23/16, Scope
--2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit panel to explore the future of artificial intelligence
As part of the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which kicked off on campus yesterday, Stanford and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy are presenting a panel discussion tonight (The Future of Artificial Intelligence) to explore the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. Russ Altman, the Kenneth Fong Professor and professor of bioengineering, of genetics and of medicine, is one of the featured experts.


One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100)

The One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, or AI100, is a 100-year effort to study and anticipate how the effects of artificial intelligence will ripple through every aspect of how people work, live and play.


05/19/16, artdaily.org
--The origin of Frankenstein exhibit taps into angst over science

To mark the 200 years since England's Mary Shelley first imagined the ultimate horror story during a visit to a frigid, rain-drenched Switzerland, an exhibit opens in Geneva Friday called "Frankenstein, Creation of Darkness"


Post-Anthropocentrism at Stanford: The State of the Question

Thursday, May 12, 2016 (All Day)

Stanford Humanities Center

Click HERE for more information


04/18/16, Stanford News

--Comics like Hellboy produce a heightened adventure of reading, Stanford scholar says

Using the Hellboy series as a touchstone, film and media studies Professor Scott Bukatman has discovered new ways to talk about comics while offering a heightened "adventure of reading."


U.S. National Library of Medicine Frankenstein Exhibition
Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature explores the enduring power of the Frankenstein story to expose hidden fears of science and technology—both in the original novel and shaped into new forms, such as plays, films, and comics. Captivating audiences for 200 years, as scientists have gained new knowledge, the Frankenstein story remains like a warning beacon, throwing its unsettling beam upon human efforts to penetrate the secrets of nature.


11/23/15, The New Yorker
--The Doomsday Invention

Will artificial intelligence bring us utopia or destruction? 


08/24/15, New York Times
--A Volcanic Eruption That Reverberates 200 Years Later

Investigators are still struggling to understand the most powerful eruption in recorded history, which gave rise to icy weather and pandemics, but also to great literature and art.