Spring 2023 Course to Be Offered: Humanities in the Metaverse

The Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures will offer WLLC 398V/WLLC 575V: Humanities in the Metaverse as a Tuesday and Thursday course from 2-3:15 p.m. in spring 2023.

This course will explore the myriad intellectual, technological and aesthetic phenomena emerging from the intersection of the humanities and the Metaverse(s). Students will critically reflect on the ideas of the innovators who paved the way to the age of the Metaverse, from science fiction authors (Neal Stephenson and William Gibson) to media theorists (Ray Kurzweil and Kevin Kelly). Students will also review (digital) humanist responses to the Metaverse(s), from its birth to its current state, by discussing texts from an international range of thinkers, including André L. Brock, Gundolf S. Freyermuth, Benjamin Beil and Janet Murray.

Over the course of the semester, students will develop extensive experience with a VR collaboration forum, with which they will create their own space within the Metaverse(s) as a means to engage with the theoretical and cultural issues from the course readings and discussions.

In this way, the course will blend theoretical and practical means to approaching the questions: What is the metaverse? What is the place of the humanities in the metaverse? And how/should we engage with it?  

COURSE INFORMATION

WLLC 398V-002 / WLLC 575V-002 
Humanities in the Metaverse
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 2:00-3:15 p.m.

For more information or any questions about the course, please contact Curtis Maughan at cmaughan@uark.edu.