ANTHRO 191: Cyborg Anthropology: Rethinking User Experience (UX)

Course Description

What does it mean to claim we are all cyborgs ¿ hybrids of human and machine? While popular culture often imagines cyborgs as futuristic figures in film, literature, and video games, this course approaches the cyborg as a framework for understanding human existence and user experience today. Drawing on anthropology, cybernetics, and cognitive science, we will explore how bodies, minds, and technologies co-construct each other, blurring the boundaries between natural and artificial, human and machine. Case studies include smartphones, wearables, biohacking, prostheses, virtual/augmented reality, and AI. Students will gain hands-on experience in methodologies shared by anthropology and UX research - including interviews, participant observation, and surveys - and will apply these techniques to critically rethink how technologies are designed and experienced in everyday life.