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In May 1959, C.P. Snow, an English novelist and chemist, delivered a now-famous academic lecture on “The Two Cultures,” in which he declared that the “intellectual life of the whole of western society is increasingly being split into two polar groups.” These two groups, the “literary intellectuals” and the “scientists” are engulfed, according to Snow, by “mutual incomprehension,” “hostility and dislike” but “most of all lack of understanding.” Indeed, he tells us, the two cultures “have a curious distorted image of each other.” Modern-day headlines such as “Humanities aren't a science. Stop treating them like one” and “Why Science Will Never Replace the Humanities” attest to the enduring circulation of Snow’s view of a deep-seated antagonism between the humanities and sciences. Yet what factors led to these disciplinary distinctions? And are the sciences and humanities as rigidly polarized as Snow made them out to be? In this course, we will attempt to answer these questions by interrogating the relationship between science and literature, past and present. To focus our discussion and course readings, we will be primarily engaging key texts and developments in the history of biology alongside literary and (pop) cultural explorations of key biological theories/concepts (ex. theories of evolution, eugenics and genetics, the “modern synthesis,” genetic engineering, cloning, epigenetics, biomedicine and biotechnology, etc.). Through these interdisciplinary and multigeneric engagements, students will also assess how literary, medical, and scientific discourse have been implicated in the (mis)construction and reification of race, gender, sexuality, and other social phenomena.