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Academic Year 2003/2004

Sophomore Seminar: Science in American Life
HIST 152 SP
Crosslistings:
SISP 252
Clusters:

Urban Studies

This course will focus closely on a series of problems in the history and political culture of science in America from 1750 to the present. Some of these problems are the representation of natural phenomena in defining the new nation; the racial and cultural politics of scientific discovery in the American West; gender and technology in Victorian America; issues raised by government, military, university-funded and corporate-based science; American scientists as political activists; the historical struggles of women, immigrants and African Americans in science; the public culture of scientific controversies; and historical and comparative perspectives on the "science wars." Readings will be drawn mainly from primary sources, including documents, newspapers, photographs, and novels.

MAJOR READINGS

Biagoli, THE SCIENCE STUDIES READER
Neil Harris, HUMBUG! THE ART OF P.T. BARNUM.
Nathan Reingold, ed., SCIENCE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY.
Nathan Reingold, ed., SCIENCE IN AMERICA: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY, 1900-1930.
Ruth Schwarz Cowan, MORE WORK FOR MOTHER: THE IRONIES OF HOUSEHOLD TECHNOLOGY.
Dorothy Nelkin and M. Susan Lindee, THE DNA MYSTIQUE: THE GENE AS A CULTURAL ICON

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Midterm; final; written work; oral reports; research project.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004

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