Ruxandra Teodorescu

Ruxandra Teodorescu

Department of English and American Studies
Lehrstuhl für Amerikanistik, insbesondere Literaturwissenschaft (Prof. Dr. Kley)

Universitätsstraße 40
91054 Erlangen

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 in 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

  • 10.2022 – 09.2025: 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 Presentation

  • “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

Proseminare

  • “Surviving the Apocalypse” (University of Mannheim, FSS 2022)
    “Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination” (University of Mannheim, FSS 2022) “The Posthuman Future” (University of Mannheim, HWS 2021)

Tutorien

  • “International Cultural Studies” (University of Mannheim, FSS 2021 & HWS 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