Ruxandra Teodorescu

Research Interests

• US-American literature (20th – 21st cent.)
• Posthumanism
• Science and Technology Studies
• Philosophy of Mind
• Science Fiction
• Morality and Ethics

Research Projects

Dissertation: The AI Perspective: An Examination of Human and Artificial Co- Existence North American SF Discourse

Education & Employment

• 10.2022 – today: Research associate in the research training group “Literature and the Public Sphere in Differentiated Contemporary Cultures” (GRK2806), FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
• 02.2024 – 08.2024: Lecturer, North American Literary and Cultural Studies Department (AIII), University of Mannheim
• 01.04.2024 – 16.06.2024: Visiting Researcher, Science and Technology Studies Department, University of California, Davis, USA
• 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 Chair of Contemporary History and 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

Workshops, Lectures, and Papers

• “Artificial Friend or Foe? Exploring Moral AI in Cargill’s Day Zero and Wilson’s Robopocalypse” at the “121st Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Conference”, Palm Springs, USA, November 7th-10th, 2024.
• “Technological Bonds: Exploring Human-AI Interaction in Louisa Hall’s Speak”, invited talk for the Inaugural Seminar for the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Experimental Futures, University of California, Davis, USA, November 4th, 2024.
• “Ann Leckie’s AI: The Posthuman Mind and Morality in Ancillary Justice” at the “Northeast Modern Language Association Fifty-fifth annual convention”, Boston, USA, March 7th-10th, 2024.
• “Learning from the Nonhuman: The Limits of Anthropocentric Knowledge and Posthuman Revisions of Knowledge Formation in Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea” invited talk at the Research Colloquium of the American Studies Department, University of Mannheim, Germany, November 15th, 2023
• “Rethinking Morality in the Era of Apocalyptic AI: Exploring Moral Agency and Patiency in Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse” at the “AAAA! – AI, Algorithms, Automata, the Virtual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (VICFA) on Art”, Online, November 5th-11th, 2023
• “Posthuman Perspectives: Post-anthropocentric Minds in SF Narratives” at the “Posthuman Narration and Narratology Workshop”, University of Cologne, Germany, September 28th-30th, 2023. 
• “Imagining the Inner Spaceship: Ann Leckie’s AI and Post-Anthropocentric Cognition” at the conference “Disruptive Imaginations Joint Annual Conference of the SFRA & GFF”, TU Dresden, Germany, August 15th-19th, 2023. 
• “Beyond Binary – AI, SF, and the Moral Imagination” at the conference “Models, Metaphors and Simulations. Epistemic Transformations in Literature, Science and the Arts”, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, May 18th- 21st, 2023
• “Ancillary Agency: AI Moral Participation in Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice” at the conference “Recent Approaches to the Posthuman: Cultural Reflections on the (Post-)Human Condition”, University of Zaragoza, Spain, May 15th-17th, 2023.
• “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