Why Gender?

Why is a focus on gender so important for interpreting the world in which we live? Sixteen world-famous scholars have been brought together to address this question from their respective fields: Political Theory, Philosophy, Medical Anthropology, Law, Geography, Islamic Studies, Cultural Studies, Philosophy of Science, Literature, Psychoanalysis, History of Art, Education and Economics. The resulting volume covers an extraordinary array of contexts, ranging from rethinking trans* bodies, to traumatized tribal communities, to sexualized violence, to assisted reproductive technologies, to the implications of epigenetics for understanding gender, and yet they are all connected by their focus on the importance of gender as a category of analysis. The publication of this volume celebrates the anniversary of the launch of the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge, and features contributions from past and future Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professors to the University.

The Anatomy of the Science Play

In the last three decades the English-speaking stage has witnessed an explosion of plays and performances that deal with scientific topics and issues. Along with the increasing popularity of this ‘science play’ phenomenon, theatre and literary scholars have begun to define, contextualize, and categorize these plays, based on the topics, means, and aims that they cover, via analysis of specific works. The result of these attempts are a number of taxonomies provided by Judith Kupferman, Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, Carl Djerassi, and Eva-Sabine Zehelein. In this essay Seyedeh Anahit Kazzazi provides a critical examination of these categorizations in order to demonstrate their assets and difficulties, and suggests a new taxonomy and analytical framework based on text-based drama, perform ance, and the specific function of science in the plays. The essay includes full listings of science plays written after 1990 in the United Kingdom and the USA, categorized according to the taxonomy suggested. Seyedeh Anahit Kazzazi received her doctorate from the University of Sussex in 2017, and is currently examining the intersection between science, literature, philosophy, and theatre.