Ruxandra Teodorescu
Ruxandra Teodorescu
Dissertation Project: “The Moral Posthuman: An Examination of Human and Artificial Co-Existence in North American SF Discourse”
The dissertation project is located at the intersection of literary and cultural studies, critical posthumanism, artificial intelligence ethics, the philosophy of mind, and media studies and examines how literary, public, and scientific discourses map differentiated understandings of AI. She investigates how human and artificial co-existence is depicted in literature and film and how these depictions challenge moral standards, thus pursuing a more posthumanist approach to morality. This research looks at SF narratives about different forms of AI that interrogate terminologies such as sentience, consciousness, intelligence, and communication in order to show how literature can be a medium of debate and a form of exploration when it comes to different posthuman approaches to defining life.
Research Interests
- US-American literature (20th – 21st cent.)
- Posthumanism
- Philosophy of Mind
- Science Fiction
- Morality and Ethics
CV
- 04.2024 – today: Visiting Researcher, Science and Technology Studies Department, University of California, Davis, USA
- 02.2024 – today: Lecturer, North American Literary and Cultural Studies Department (AIII), University of Mannheim
- 10.2022 – today: Research associate in the research training group “Literature and the Public Sphere in Differentiated Contemporary Cultures” (GRK2806), FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
- Since 10.2022: Dissertation Project “The Moral Posthuman: An Examination of Human and Artificial Co-Existence in North American SF Discourse” (Prof. Dr. Kley, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
- 09.2021 – 10.2022: Academic Staff – Postgraduate Researcher, North American Literary and Cultural Studies Department (AIII), University of Mannheim
- 09.2018 – 08.2021: Master of Arts, Literature, Media and Culture in the Modern Era, University of Mannheim and King’s College London (sehr gut)
- 02.2020 – 09.2021: Graduate Student Research Assistant, British Literary and Cultural Studies Department (AII), University of Mannheim
- 10.2020 – 07.2021: Tutor in International Cultural Studies (Graduate Teaching Assistant), School of Humanities – Dean’s Office, University of Mannheim
- 09.2015 – 08.2018: Bachelor of Arts, Major: English and American Studies & Minor: Media and Communication Studies, University of Mannheim and the University of Exeter (sehr gut)
- 08.2017 – 01.2018: Student Research Assistant, North American Literary and Cultural Studies Department (AIII), University of Mannheim
- 01.2017 – 01.2018: Student Research Assistant, British Literary and Cultural Studies Department (AII), University of Mannheim
Conference Presentations
- “Ann Leckie’s AI: The Posthuman Mind and Morality in Ancillary Justice” at the “Northeast Modern Language Association Fifty-fifth annual convention”, Boston, USA, March 7th-10th, 2024.
- “Learning from the Nonhuman: The Limits of Anthropocentric Knowledge and Posthuman Revisions of Knowledge Formation in Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea” invited talk at the Research Colloquium of the American Studies Department, University of Mannheim, November 15th, 2023
- “Rethinking Morality in the Era of Apocalyptic AI: Exploring Moral Agency and Patiency in Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse” at the “AAAA! – AI, Algorithms, Automata, the Virtual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (VICFA) on Art”, Online, November 5th-11th, 2023
- “Posthuman Perspectives: Post-anthropocentric Minds in SF Narratives” at the “Posthuman Narration and Narratology Workshop”, University of Cologne, September 28th-30th, 2023.
- “Imagining the Inner Spaceship: Ann Leckie’s AI and Post-Anthropocentric Cognition” at the conference “Disruptive Imaginations Joint Annual Conference of the SFRA & GFF”, TU Dresden, August 15th-19th, 2023.
- “Beyond Binary – AI, SF, and the Moral Imagination” at the conference “Models, Metaphors and Simulations. Epistemic Transformations in Literature, Science and the Arts”, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, May 18th- 21st, 2023
- “Ancillary Agency: AI Moral Participation in Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice” at the conference “Recent Approaches to the Posthuman: Cultural Reflections on the (Post-)Human Condition”, University of Zaragoza, Spain, May 15th-17th, 2023.
- “AI in Mind and Body: Ancillary Justice and Spaceship Cognitive Ecologies” at the conference “Posthuman Bodies and Embodied Posthumanisms”, University of Warwick, UK and Online, October 12th-14th, 2022
Teaching Experience
Seminars
- “Coexistence: Multispecies Storytelling in Literature and Film” (University of Mannheim, Spring 2024)
- “Non-Human Perspectives in Contemporary US-American Literature and Film” (Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Autumn 2023)
- “Surviving the Apocalypse” (University of Mannheim, Spring 2022)
- “Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination” (University of Mannheim, Spring 2022)
- “The Posthuman Future” (University of Mannheim, Autumn 2021)
Tutorials
- “International Cultural Studies” (University of Mannheim, Spring 2021 & Autumn 2020)
Memberships and Networks
- Member of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS/DGfA)
- Member of the Society for Literature, Science & the Arts (SLSA)
- Researchgate
- LinkedIn