<p>The boundaries of science fiction, as with any genre, are relational rather than fixed, and critical engagements with Western/Northern technoscientific knowledge and practice and modern human identity and being may be found not just in science fiction “proper,” or in the scholarly field of science and technology studies, but also in the related genres of fantasy and paranormal romance. This thesis offers an interdisciplinary examination – a science-fictional and posthumanist reframing – of the lines of affinity and relationality between these discursive and imaginative domains. Bringing together genre theory and critical posthumanism – itself informed by postmodern and poststructuralist feminism, postcolonialism, science and technology studies, and critical animal studies – with readings of several series in print (Christine Feehan’s Ghostwalkers, Kim Harrison’s The Hollows, and Justina Robson’s Quantum Gravity) and on television (Fringe, True Blood, and Sanctuary), I argue that such narratives’ powerful abiding interest in the domains of knowledge, experience and imagination that lie within, along and outside the margins of scientific orthodoxy, registers a broader cultural apprehension of the conditions and critical perspectives by which Western/Northern humanism, anthropocentrism, modernity, and technoscientific authority have been and can be seen to be destabilized.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study investigates the possibilities of human life in outer space and the implications ofremoving the numinous dimension from creation, using Olga Ravn's novel The Employees.The main question is: How is human life portrayed in Olga Ravn's novel The Employees?What happens when the numinous is removed from creation, and what can this, throughliterature's defamiliarizing potential, reveal about human life? Using Ravn's novel,Stevensson's theory of human nature and Rudolf Otto's concept of the numinous, three keythemes are detected: relationships and emotional life, the dissolution of boundaries, andseparation. The theme of relationships and emotional life presents a technocratic societyvaluing efficiency over emotions, where contact with artifacts from the planet “NewDiscovery” transforms and increases humanity both born (humans) and unborn (cyborgs). Thedissolution of boundaries blurs lines between beings, suggesting human identity and life-deathdistinctions are fluid and interconnected. Separation highlights the loss of belonging, usingthe allegory of mother-child separation to emphasize attachment needs between human andearth. The study concludes that human life requires a society valuing emotions, relationships,and a sense of belonging to a greater whole, challenging the idea of human supremacy

Informed by post-humanism, my research examines the entanglement of more-than-human forces at the Bread Loaf School of English. The oldest professional development institution of its kind, the Bread Loaf School of English has invited teachers to spend six-weeks each summer studying at its mountain campus since the summer of 1920. When the physical campus was forced to close indefinitely on the eve of its one-hundredth anniversary at the start of the pandemic, the loss of this physical space prompted meditations on over a century of institutional tradition as teachers shared their stories of the mountain campus. Bread Loaf’s landscape is teeming with narrative—stories that blossom like wildflowers each summer before fading with the coming winter. Within those narratives, like the Deleuzoguattarian “orchid and wasp,” the human and non-human transform one another in an intra-active entanglement of bodies. What happens when we pause and attempt to follow the threads of these entangled narratives in order to better understand how more-than-human bodies meet, collide, and contaminate one another over time to constitute the assemblage of the Bread Loaf School of English? The rich tapestry that begins to unfold offers a model for more-than-human storytelling well beyond the mountain, spanning the manifold landscapes teachers return to at the end of the summer.

Technology-based music educators are uniquely situated within the shifting landscape of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) education. This dissertation investigates the lived experiences, perceptions, and teaching practices of secondary music teachers who teach through technology, exploring how they navigate the interdisciplinary connections between music, science, and technology. By employing a phenomenological methodology, the research reveals a transformation from an initially structured inquiry into a rhizomatic exploration, uncovering STEAM’s potential to challenge and transcend traditional educational paradigms. Drawing on metaphors of the tree and skunk, this dissertation contrasts hierarchical, binary models of knowledge with the rhizomatic thinking advanced by Deleuze and Guattari. Music technology educators thrive in these fluid, interdisciplinary spaces, which resist categorization and require constant adaptation. Situated in the epistemological ecotone between music and STEM fields, these educators embody a philosophical challenge to modernist, arborescent models of learning, embracing a post-humanist perspective that recognizes the interconnectedness and relationality of knowledge. The findings highlight how STEAM education, particularly within music, dissolves rigid disciplinary boundaries, offering students new ways to engage with music beyond traditional frameworks of performance and composition. Technology-based music educators serve as agents of change, creating opportunities for innovative teaching and learning that reflect the complexity of the contemporary world. Ultimately, this dissertation argues for a re-envisioning of music education as a liberal art through the lens of STEAM, one that acknowledges the philosophical and post-humanist implications of our rapidly evolving, interconnected world. In doing so, it positions music technology educators as vital contributors to a new renaissance in education, leading the way with their rhizomatic, transdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning. .

The objective of the present study is to produce knowledge about how children, things, documents, computers, teachers, templates and other entities take part in and produce documentation in preschool systematic quality development work. The thesis asks questions about how and what is produced as quality in preschool documentation. Through a posthumanist agential realist approach, the study engages empirically in video recordings of preschool documentation practices from one Swedish preschool, and in documentation from four other Swedish preschools. The results, presented in four articles, show that documentation practice is complex and entangled with a variety of entities, human and non-human, and spaces and time. The study shows how children’s participation in production of documentation does not depend on which documentation method is used. In the study, objects such as computers, images and coloured labels, together with teachers’ attitudes and agendas, have an impact on the way that children are involved in producing documentation. The results also show that the products of documentation, intra-acting with a local template, with past and present preschool traditions and policies, produce rather than represent certain elements of quality such as teachers’ actions, children’s interests and thematic work. The thesis produces knowledge about how the focus of preschool documentation shifts away from individual children and towards teachers’ activities, and creates possibilities for what preschool practices and quality may become. / Syftet med föreliggande studie är att producera kunskap om hur barn, ting, dokument, datorer, lärare, mallar och andra entiteter deltar i och producerar dokumentation i förskolans systematiska kvalitetsarbete. I avhandlingen ställs frågor om hur och vad som produceras som kvalitet i dokumentation i förskolan. Utifrån det posthumanistiska perspektivet agentisk realism, skapas empiriskt material med hjälp av videoinspelningar från en svensk förskolas dokumentationspraktik och dokumentation från fyra andra svenska förskolor. Resultaten presenteras i fyra artiklar och visar att dokumentationspraktiken är komplex och sammanflätad med en mängd olika entiteter, mänskliga och icke-mänskliga, samt med plats och tid. Studien visar hur barns delaktighet i att producera dokumentation inte enbart styrs av den dokumentationsmetod som används. I studien har ting som datorer, bilder och färgade etiketter, tillsammans med lärarnas attityder och agendor, inverkan på det sätt som barn är delaktiga i att producera dokumentation. Resultaten visar också att dokumentationen, i intra-aktion med en lokal mall, med tidigare och rådande traditioner och styrdokument för förskolan, producerar snarare än representerar specifika aspekter av kvalitet, såsom förskollärares aktivitet, barns intressen och tematiskt arbete. Avhandlingen ger kunskap om hur fokus för dokumentation i förskolan förskjuts från enskilda barn mot förskollärares aktivitet, samtidigt som dokumentationen skapar nya möjligheter för vad förskolans verksamhet och kvalitet kan bli.

Abstract in English, Afrikaans and Zulu / The aim of the study was to develop a critical posthumanist and democratic theory that may be applied in the teaching and learning of Life Sciences in South Africa in order to achieve an expanded form of democracy that would not discriminate between human and nonhuman. Though both critical posthumanist and democratic theories have been used in pedagogical studies separately, this study focused on the development of a merged and broader theory that has elements of both of the theories. The term nonhuman, as used here, does not specifically refer to non-person individuals only. Rather, it also refers to people who are regarded by the dominant humans as nonhumans – inferiors and subalterns. The latter group of people include the poor, women, children, people of colour and the disabled. Owing to this binarisation characteristic of the Life Sciences as a subject – which it adopts from the nature of science, its curriculum, and pedagogical approaches – the impression is given that as the master of the universe, the human has unlimited power over all other entities. These other nonhuman entities are then regarded as resources for the use of humans. Yet, it is this attitude which has caused humans to abuse nonhumans to the extent that the earth is facing the catastrophe of the Anthropocene. The adoption of a critical education approach characterised by the development of a critical posthumanist and democratic theory that may be applied in the teaching and learning of Life Sciences is essential in dealing with the issue of the Anthropocene that is threatening the earth currently. This study thus seeks to adopt a critical education approach through the introduction of democracy into the teaching and learning of Life Sciences, specifically so that humans would get to a position where they would consider nonhumans as entities with which they co-exist, and entities with equal agency within the environment. The recognition of the need for democracy would allow the humans to treat the nonhumans (such as the environment and ‘subalterns’) with respect, as their compatriots; and by doing that, the harrowing issues leading to the catastrophe of the Anthropocene could be either avoided or averted. / Die doel van die studie was om ’n kritiese posthumanistiese en demokratiese teorie te ontwikkel wat op die onderrig en leer van Lewenswetenskappe in Suid-Afrika toegepas kan word om ’n uitgebreide vorm van demokrasie daar te stel wat nie tussen menslik en niemenslik sal diskrimineer nie. Hoewel kritiese posthumanistiese sowel as demokratiese teorieë apart in pedagogiese studies gebruik word, het hierdie studie op die ontwikkeling van ’n saamgesmelte en breër teorie wat elemente van beide teorieë bevat, gefokus. Die term niemenslik soos wat dit hier gebruik word, verwys nie spesifiek net na niepersoon-individue nie. Dit verwys eerder ook na mense wat deur die dominante mense as niemense – minderes en ondergeskiktes – beskou word. Die laasgenoemde groep mense sluit die armes, vroue, kinders, mense van kleur en gestremde mense in. Vanweë hierdie binêre eienskap van die Lewenswetenskappe as ’n vak – wat dit as gevolg van die aard van wetenskap, sy kurrikulum en pedagogiese benaderings aanvaar het – word die indruk geskep dat die mens as heerser van die heelal onbeperkte mag oor al die ander entiteite het. Hierdie ander niemenslike entiteite word dan as hulpbronne vir gebruik deur mense gesien. Dit is egter hierdie houding wat veroorsaak het dat mense niemense misbruik, in so ’n mate dat die aarde die katastrofe van die Antroposeen in die gesig staar. Die aanneem van ’n kritiese onderrigbenadering wat gekenmerk word deur die ontwikkeling van ’n kritiese posthumanistiese en demokratiese teorie wat by die onderrig en leer van Lewenswetenskappe gebruik kan word, is noodsaaklik om die kwessie van die Antroposeen wat die aarde tans bedreig, te hanteer. Hierdie studie wil dus ’n kritiese onderrigbenadering volg deur middel van die bekendstelling van demokrasie by die onderrig en leer van Lewenswetenskappe, in die besonder sodat mense in ’n posisie sal wees waar hulle niemense as entiteite saam met wie hulle ’n bestaan moet voer, en entiteite met gelyke verteenwoordiging in die omgewing, sal beskou. Om die behoefte aan demokrasie te erken, sal die mense toelaat om die niemense (soos die omgewing en “ondergeskiktes”) as hulle landgenote met respek te behandel; en deur dit te doen, kan die pynlike kwessies wat tot die katastrofe van die Antroposeen sal lei, moontlik vermy of afgeweer word. / Inhloso yalolu cwaningo kwakungukusungula umbono obucayi owenziwa ngemuva kokuphila komuntu nentando yeningi engasetshenziswa ekufundisweni nasekufundeni kwesayensi yezempilo eNingizimu Afrika ukuze kuzuzwe uhlobo olwandisiwe lwentando yeningi olungeke lubandlulule phakathi kwabantu kanye nokungebona abantu. Yize zombili izinkolelo ezibucayi ezenziwa ngemuva kokuphila komuntu nezentando yeningi zisetshenzisiwe ezifundweni zokufundisa ngokwehlukana, lolu cwaningo lugxile ekuthuthukiseni kombono ohlanganisiwe futhi obanzi onezici zombili zale mibono. Igama elithi okungebona abantu njengoba lisetshenziswa lapha, alibhekiseli ngqo kubantu abangebona abantu kuphela. Esikhundleni salokho, libhekise nakubantu ababhekwa ngabantu abaphezulu njengabantu abangebona abantu – abaphansi nabasezingeni eliphansi. Iqembu lokugcina labantu lifaka phakathi abampofu, abesifazane, izingane, abantu bebala nabakhubazekile. Ngenxa yalesi sici sokuhlukaniswa kwesayensi yezempilo njengesifundo – emukela emvelweni yesayensi, ikharikhulamu yayo, kanye nezindlela zokufundisa - kunikezwa umbono wokuthi njengomphathi wendawo yonke, umuntu unamandla angenamkhawulo kuzo zonke ezinye izinhlangano. Lezi ezinye izinto ezingezona abantu zithathwa njengezinsiza ukusetshenziswa abantu. Kodwa-ke, yilesi simo sengqondo esidale ukuthi abantu bahlukumeze abantu abangebona abantu kuze kufike lapho umhlaba ubhekene nenhlekelele yokwakhiwa nokuthuthukiswa komhlaba. Ukwamukelwa kwendlela ebucayi yezemfundo ebonakala ngokuthuthukiswa kombono obucayi owenziwa ngemuva kokuphila komuntu kanye nentando yeningi engasetshenziswa ekufundisweni nasekufundeni kwesayenzi yezempilo kubalulekile ekubhekaneni nodaba lokwakhiwa nokuthuthukiswa komhlaba olusongela umhlaba njengamanje. Lolu cwaningo-ke lufuna ukwamukela indlela yezemfundo ebucayi ngokwethulwa kwentando yeningi ekufundisweni nasekufundeni kwesayensi yezempilo, ikakhulukazi ukuze abantu bafike esikhundeni lapho bezobheka khona abantu abangebona abantu njengezinhlangano abaphila nazo, nezinhlangano ezinokumela ngokulinganayo ngaphakathi kwemvelo. Ukwamukelwa kwesidingo sentando yeningi kuzovumela abantu ukuthi baphathe abantu abangebona abantu (njengemvelo kanye nabasezingeni eliphansi) ngenhlonipho, njengabantu bakubo; futhi ngokwenza lokho, izingqinamba ezihlasimulisayo eziholela enhlekeleleni yokwakhiwa nokuthuthukiswa komhlaba zingagwenywa noma zivinjelwe. / Educational Foundations / Ph. D. (Philosophy of Education)

I den här vetenskapliga essän undersöker jag relationerna mellan olika former av materia, både mänsklig och icke mänsklig, i ett utbildningsrum. Syftet är en ökad förståelse för hur mening och tillblivelse möjliggörs och begränsas utifrån mitt agerande inom ramen för den materiellt-diskursiva praktik som utbildning utgör. Utgångspunkten är en gestaltande berättelse utifrån olika möten mellan mig, en matta och några kursdeltagare i ett utbildningsrum under en ledarskapsutbildning. Essäns teoretiska ramverk består av tankar från filosofen Martin Bubers dialogfilosofi och den posthumanistiska kvantfysikern, Karen Barads, agentiella realism. Utifrån den posthumanistiska analysmetoden, diffraktion, samläses teorier och insikter genom varandra för att söka fram emot ett tydligare artikulerande kring vad det innebär att agera utifrån mitt yrke och vad som är min praktiska kunskap. / In this scientific essay, I explore the relationships between different forms of matter, both human and non-human, in a training room. The purpose is to increase the understanding of how meaning and becoming are made possible and limited based on my actions within the material-discursive practice that education entails. The starting point is a narrative story based on different meetings between me, a carpet and some participants in a training room during a leadership training. The theoretical framework of the essay consists of thoughts from philosopher Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue and the posthumanist quantum physicist Karen Barad’s, agential realism. Based on the posthumanist method of analysis, diffraction, theories and insights are read through one another to seek a clearer articulation of what it means to act on the basis of my profession and what is my practical knowledge.

Den här uppsatsen undersöker experimenterande danspraktiker med ett- och tvååringar i förskolan, praktiskt och teoretiskt, vilket hittills endast studerats i ett fåtal studier och aldrig tidigare i ett empiriskt och praxisnära projekt med förskolans yngsta barn. Syftet är att undersöka hur danspraktiker kan göras möjliga och kommer till uttryck i experimenterande dans tillsammans med de allra yngsta barnen i förskolan när de görs till aktiva deltagare i danshändelsernas processer, utformning och innehåll i förskolan. I den tre månader långa praktiknära, empiriska studien experimenterar forskaren ihop med en grupp barn 1–2,5 år på en förskoleavdelning, vilket dokumenteras med film- och stillbildskameror av forskaren och barnen. Metodologiskt tar genomförandet stöd och inspiration i a/r/t-ografin som är en praxisnära och estetik-baserad forskningsmetod där forskaren använder den egna kroppen som forskningsverktyg. Analyserna av datamaterialet, vilket består av filmer, foton och processanteckningar, är genomförda med stöd av immanensfilosofisk teoribildning, främst med texter från Gille Deleuze och Felix Guattari samt Erin Manning och begreppet som metod, som analysmetod. Resultaten visar att när förskolans yngsta barn får möjlighet att experimentera i dans ihop med en initierad och deltagande forskare blir danspraktiken mycket varierad och dynamisk i sitt förlopp. Den tar även andra uttryck till innehåll, form och rörelse, gruppkonstellation, materialval och tidslängd än vad som vanligtvis beskrivs om dans i litteratur och forskning. Ett ytterligare kunskapsbidrag är att visa hur tillgången till immanensfilosofi kan producera nya sätt att göra och tänka om danspraktiken och den dansande kroppen och alternativa sätt att arrangera dans med förskolans yngsta barn. Studien erbjuder även förskoledidaktiska kunskaper om hur pedagoger i förskolan kan arrangera kreativa danspraktiker för de yngsta barnen i den dagliga verksamheten. / This essay examines experimental dance practices with one- and two-year-olds in preschool, both practically and theoretically, a topic which has up until now only been examined in a few studies and never before in an empirical and praxis-oriented project with the youngest children of preschool. The purpose of the study is to investigate how dance practices can be made possibleand what comes to expression in experimental dance practices with the youngest children in a preschool environment when they are made to be active participants in the content and execution of experimental dance in a preschool environment. During the three months long practice-based empirical study, the researcher experiments in participation with a group of 1-2,5-year-olds at their preschool department. This work is documented with still image and film camera by the researcher and the children. Methodologically, the study has been conducted through support and inspiration from a/r/t-ography, a practicebased and arts-based research method wherein the researcher uses her own body as an instrument of research. The analysis of the data material, which consists of films, photographs and process notes, is carried out using the concepts of immanence-philosophy, mainly through texts by Gille Deleuze and Felix Guattari and of Erin Manning, and the concept as method, as a method of analysis. The results show that when the youngest children are given the opportunity to experiment in dance together with an initiated and participating researcher, the dance practice becomes varied and dynamic during its course of events. The dance practice also shows novel expressions of form and movement, group constellations, and choices of material and duration than what is commonly described of dance when discussed in literature and research. Furthermore, this essay contributes additional knowledge to the field by showinghow the access to the philosophy of Gille Deleuze and Felix Guattari can produce new ways of doing and thinking about dance practice and the dancing body and alternative ways to arrange dance with the youngest children of the preschool. The study also offers didactical knowledge of how teachers in a preschool environment can arrange creative dance practices for the youngest children in everyday activities.

This study examines how organizations and companies with transparent sustainability profiles aim to establish a relationship between brand, sustainability, and audience based on a theoretical framing perspective. To examine this; the study will limit itself by focusing on the Swedish company Oatly, and their external communications through digital channels and platforms.  According to Van Gorp and Van du Goot (2011: 374), frames serve as a way of explaining complex issues. Through framing a problem area, cause and other conclusions are highlighted. Frames thus function rhetorically – by convincing public opinion and control an audience through the media. Framing occurs in several contexts such as political, via news and advertising (Fairhoust &amp; Sarr 1996).                                                        The study limits it’s analysis to the company Oatly’s official profile on the digital platform Mynewsdesk. The empirical material consists of press releases published within a defined time frame; 5/6/2015–6/3/2017. The study is based on motivated theoretical assumptions; discourse, critical and posthumanist theory, as well as previously established research on the field - framing in relation to sustainability.                                        The research method can be described as a qualitative content analysis based on main elements derived from discourse and semiotic framework. In addition, a framing analysis is applied to further present the result in the form of exemplified frames.                The results of the study suggest, for example, that actors construct importance through framing – which integrates into sustainability discourse through social practices – thereby establishing a relationship between brand, problem area, and audience through a convinced public opinion that further interacts with and reproduces the discourse in question.

Through an experimental theatre play, this thesis explores the development of human-like agency in contemporary “social robot” technology. The entrance point of this study is the gender gap and lack of diversity in contemporary AI/robot development, with an emerging need for interdisciplinary research across robot technology and social sciences. Using feminist technoscience and critical posthumanism as the theoretical framework, this research involves an analysis of a particular social robot case, currently being developed at Furhat Robotics in Stockholm. Inspired by Judy Wajcman (2004), I analyze how socially intelligent machines impact perceptions of human agency, body, gender, and identity within cultural contexts and through interaction. The first part of the empirical research is carried out in the robot-lab. The robot is then, in the second part, invited to perform as an actor in a theatre play. Entangled amidst the other players and audience members, a queered agency starts to reveal itself through human-machine “intra-action” and embodiment (Barad 2003). Human-like agency in machines is shown to be a complex matter, drawing the conclusion that human-beings are vulnerable to a myriad of entanglements and preconceptions that artificial intelligence potentially embodies.