*History of Science 97a. Tutorial — Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 4719
Stephanie H. Kenen, Carl William Pearson and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Sophomore tutorial introduces students to basic problems and methods in the history of science. Students are expected to develop skills in analyzing original sources and in oral and written presentation. Organized into small sections with occasional lectures to the entire class. The first term examines the period from ancient Greece to the Scientific Revolution. Specific topics vary from year to year. Several short papers assigned.
Note: Required for undergraduate concentration in History and Science.
*History of Science 97b. Tutorial — Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 5235
Stephanie H. Kenen, Eric D. Kupferberg and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
The second term of sophomore tutorial examines the period from the Scientific Revolution to the mid- 20th century. Specific topics vary from year to year. Course culminates in a closely supervised research paper.
Note: Required for undergraduate concentration in History and Science.
*History of Science 98r. Tutorial — Junior Year
Catalog Number: 1120
David Barnes, Barrington Edwards, and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
One half year of the junior tutorial is a seminar organized around a special topic. The other half year is a research-oriented tutorial taken in small groups. A substantial amount of writing is required in both terms.
Note: Ordinarily taken by juniors in both terms.
*History of Science 99. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 6619
Stephanie H. Kenen and members of the Department
Full course. Hours to be arranged.
Note: Ordinarily taken by seniors as a full course. Either half year may be taken as a half course, if special permission is obtained. Students are expected to complete a thesis or submit a research paper or other approved project in order to receive course credit.
History of Science 106. History of Ancient Science
Catalog Number: 3958
John E. Murdoch
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
Examination of selected key aspects and issues in the development of ancient science together with an investigation of the treatment of these issues from various historiographic points of view. Emphasis upon the kinds of problems historians of ancient, especially Greek, thought have deemed most relevant for treatment and the types of approaches made to these problems. (DF:E1)
[History of Science 107. History of Medieval Science]
Catalog Number: 5071
John E. Murdoch
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
A study of the scope and nature of scientific thought in the Latin Middle Ages, with emphasis upon the relation of that thought to other aspects of medieval culture, in particular, religion, philosophy, and the universities. (DF:E2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 112. Medicine and Society in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
Catalog Number: 8576
Katharine Park
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
A survey of medical theory, organization and practice in the context of other forms of contemporary healing, notably religious and magical. Topics include changing conceptions of health and illness, the evolution of medical explanation, the gendering of healing and the body, the professionalization of medicine, the rise of hospitals and related institutions, and responses to “new” diseases such as syphilis and plague. (DF: E2)
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2002–03.
[History of Science 113. Imaging Techniques in Early Modern Science: Conference Course]
Catalog Number: 2253 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Mario Biagioli
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
In recent years, historians and sociologists have examined the role of visual representations and imaging techniques in modern science. Course looks at the emergence of these practices during the Scientific Revolution. By looking at the development of instruments such as the telescope and the microscope and at the printed representation of visual evidence in astronomy, anatomy, and natural history, we analyze the scientific and cultural dimensions of the debates about the epistemological status of visual evidence and of its mechanical reproductions. (DF:E3)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
*History of Science 121. History and Philosophy of Experimentation
Catalog Number: 5851 Enrollment: Limited to 25.
Maria J. Trumpler
Half course (spring term). W., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 9
Combines historical, sociological and philosophical approaches to examining the role of experimentation in the production of scientific knowledge, with an emphasis on examples from the life sciences. Topics will include: historical development of structures of experimentation, the relationship between experiment and theory, representations of experimental results, social aspects of group experimentation, and the pedagogical use of experiments. (DF:M3)
History of Science 123v. Histories and Philosophies of the Energy Principle
Catalog Number: 4273
Olivier Darrigol
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
History and philosophy of the energy principle as approached by its founders, by late 19th-century philosopher-historian-physicists and by historians of science. Topics include long-term roots of the principle, scientific contexts (metaphysics, molecular physics, machines, physiology, theology....), multiple discovery, controversy, social construction and the epistemological status of the energy principle. (DF:M3)
Note: Part of class time will be devoted to discussion of selected readings.
[History of Science 130. Modern Biology]
Catalog Number: 0179
Everett I. Mendelsohn
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Covering the period 1750 to the present; movement from natural history to experimental biology; relations between the field and the laboratory; role of observations, representations, experimental practices, instruments and theories; relationship between biology and the physical-chemical sciences, between organisms, machines and molecules; scientific practices and social implications of the new biology. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 138. Conservation, Ecology, and Environment: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 2390
Everett I. Mendelsohn
Half course (fall term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
An examination of the science and politics of conservation, ecology, and environment, and their cultural location, using some comparative materials from Europe, Russia and Africa. Particular attention to public organizations, government policy, and scientific knowledge and practice. (DF:M2)
*History of Science 140. Disease and Society
Catalog Number: 4471
Charles E. Rosenberg
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
A consideration of changing conceptions of disease during the past two centuries. We will discuss general intellectual trends as well as relevant cultural and institutional variables by focusing in good measure on case studies of particular ills, ranging from cholera to sickle cell anemia to anorexia and alcoholism. (DF:M2)
[History of Science 141. On Drugs: The History of the International Trade in Drugs and Materia Medica: Conference Course ]
Catalog Number: 0252
Bridie Andrews and Peter Buck
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
This course will explore the effects of the drugs trade on international relations from pepper in the Middle Ages to cocaine in the recent past. Emphasis is on the specifics of particular historical cases, with examples to be covered varying according to the interests of participants in the course. Possible topics include: the history of uses of cloves, and its importance in the early European imperialism; discovery of American ginseng and its relevance to US-China relations; the history of the trade in mercury; rhubarb, purgative from the East; Coffee and the European Enlightenment. (DF:M1,M2).
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 143. History of Germs
Catalog Number: 4541
Eric D. Kupferberg
Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
The scientific and cultural history of pathogenic and productive microbes, from the 17th century through the Bacteriological Revolution to the present day. Emphasis on responses to epidemic and endemic diseases of humans and animals; the role of microbial life in the production of wine, cheese, soil fertility, and industrial fermentations; the growing prestige of biomedical science and biotechnology in the 19th and 20th centuries; and the role of social conflict and cultural norms in shaping fears of contagion. (DF:M1,M2)
[History of Science 144. Medicine, Degeneration, and Eugenics]
Catalog Number: 3148
Stephanie H. Kenen
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
In the later 19th and early 20th centuries, eugenic thinking paralleled fears of degeneration in the widespread preoccupation with the decline of civilization. This course will look at the role of scientific and especially medical “experts” in promoting both the problem of and the remedy for this perceived decline. Emphasis will be on changing ideas of “otherness” as symbol and cause of degeneration, and on proposed programs for regeneration (sports, war, selective breeding). Primary focus on the United States and Europe. (DF: M1)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
*History of Science 147. Sex, Gender, and Modern Medicine: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 4221 Enrollment: Limited to 18.
Stephanie H. Kenen
Half course (fall term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
This course will examine historical issues concerning the relationships among sex, gender, and modern medicine. We will look at sex as a subject of scientific study, as well as gender as an analytic category. We will ask questions of how modern western medical traditions have viewed male and female bodies and defined their health and illnesses accordingly, and how western medicine has defined and policed the erotic relationships between the sexes. Emphasis on 19th- and 20th- century US. (DF:M1,M2)
*History of Science 151. Cultural History of Medicine
Catalog Number: 3189 Enrollment: Limited to 18.
Stephanie H. Kenen
Half course (spring term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
This course will examine recent approaches to the history of medicine and the body. Topics will include: the use of visual representations in medicine (Illustrations, x-rays, MRIs); the literary genre of the case study (“doctors’ stories”); the so-called “social construction” of illness (especially psychiatric illnesses and diseases of women); the intersection between medical expertise and sexual culture (sexology and social control); medicine and human experimentation (from Tuskegee to clinical trials); commodification of the body (organ transplants, cosmetic surgery). (DF:M2)
[History of Science 152. Filming Science]
Catalog Number: 1658
Peter L. Galison and Robb Moss
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Examination of the theory and practice of capturing scientific practice on film. Topics will include fictional, documentary, informational, and instructional films and raise problems emerging from film theory, visual anthropology and science studies. Each student will make and edit short film(s) about laboratory, field or theoretical scientific work (DF:M1,M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03. Seminar opened to graduate and undergraduate students with permission of instructors.
History of Science 153. Science and Race
Catalog Number: 3681
Charis Thompson
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
This class will explore sciences *of* race, or the way that science has been used to designate, as well as deny the reality of, racial categories. It will also consider science *and* race, looking at Tuskegee, Nazi science, genetic studies of radiation exposure in Japan, AIDS in Africa, indigenous people and genetics, and DECODE in Iceland. The final section will look at the patterns of and reasons for the racial distribution of scientists over time. (DF:M1)
[History of Science 154 (formerly History of Science 154v). Gender and Science]
Catalog Number: 4957
Charis Thompson
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
This course covers: (1) Women in Science (recovering in the historical record and promoting women and minorities in science). (2) Feminist Epistemology and Science (the gendering of science itself, and the special roles of experience, identity, connectivity, and embodiment in feminist epistemology). (3) The Body, Sexuality, Queer Theory and Science (the sciences of gendered, especially female, bodies and psychologies, masculinity studies; the sciences of sexuality). (4) Gender and Science in Transnational Perspective (science as providing a transnational language for, and hierarchy of, gendered, bodies). (5) Feminist Science and Technology Studies (science and technologies “for”, or of special interest to, women). (DF:M1)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 155v. Scientists and the Nuclear Age: Lecture
Catalog Number: 3592
Naomi Oreskes (University of California, San Diego)
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Traces the historical development of the scientific knowledge and scientists who forged the nuclear age. Topics include the discovery of nuclear fission, the Manhattan Project, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the H-bomb and nuclear proliferation in the Cold war, and the environmental legacy of radioactive waste. No prerequisites. (DF:M3)
History of Science 157v. Sociological Topics in the History of Science
Catalog Number: 2434
Steven Shapin (University of California, San Diego)
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
An introduction to a series of sociological topics concerning the scientific role, the scientific community, and scientific knowledge that are of special interest to historians. What are the social conditions for the institutionalization of science and for the support of the scientific role? What are the possibilities for a historical sociology of scientific knowledge? What social pressures have historically been exerted on our overall understanding of science and its relations with society?
History of Science 159. Probability in Science and Society
Catalog Number: 0807
Sarah Jansen
Half course (spring term). Th., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Explores the history of probability, one of the key concepts of modern science, from the Enlightenment to the present. Topics include reconceptualizations of the individual and the social as well as changing notions of truth and objectivity associated with the rise of probability thinking and practices. Examples from astronomy, anthropometry, eugenics, demography, taxonomy, criminology, ecology, genetics, epidemiology, modern physics, environmental and medical risk assessment, actuarial theory, and the detection of scientific frauds. (DF:M1, M2)
*History of Science 161v (formerly *History of Science 161). The Scientific Revolution: Lecture Course
Catalog Number: 4946
Steven Fontijn Harris
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Examines 16th- and 17th-century transformations in astronomy (in the works of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton), medicine (Vesalius, Harvey), cosmography (Mercator, Ortelius, Varenius), and natural philosophy (Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Kant), as well as in scientific practices (observation, experiment, mathematization) and modes of organization and communication (academies, journals, graphical representations). Placing these developments in their cultural contexts (religious, political, commercial) affords a critical perspective on received historiographical assumptions regarding the Scientific Revolution as the dramatic episode in the origin of modern science. (DF:E3)
History of Science 162v. Images of Nature: Graphical Representations and Scientific Practices in the Renaissance: Undergraduate Seminar
Catalog Number: 6261
Steven Fontijn Harris
Half course (spring term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
The Renaissance produced not only naturalistic images of the highest artistic quality but also of unprecedented scientific content. Seminar situates novel scientific representations of nature in specific forms of practice: illustrations ‘drawn from nature’ (botanical illustrations, anatomical dissections, telescopic and microscopic images); cumulative representations resulting from cycles of systematic observation over time and space (portolans, terrestrial maps, celestial atlases); and images designed to enhance the credibility of reports of distant natural phenomena (virtual witnessing) (DF:E3)
Note: Graduate students are welcome to enroll.
History of Science 170v. The New Science of the Person: Experimental Psychology in the 20th Century: Lecture
Catalog Number: 9967
Jill Morawski (Wesleyan University)
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 10. EXAM GROUP: 3
This course surveys the development of experimental psychology in America including the formation of the specialties of developmental, personality, clinical and social psychology. The survey is guided by three themes: the innovations and refinements in experimental techniques, the underlying assumptions about human nature, and the political and cultural context of the experimental work. (Df:M2)
History of Science 175. Madness and Medicine: Themes in the History of Psychiatry
Catalog Number: 6245
Anne Harrington
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 10. EXAM GROUP: 3
An attempt to integrate the history of medical thought on the nature of madness and the madman with recent historiography on the social history of psychiatry and its institutions. Topics include the birth of the asylum, the challenge of “moral therapy,” madness and the brain, madness from the patient’s point of view, the “discovery of the unconscious,” schizophrenia, and the antipsychiatry movement. (DF:M2)
History of Science 176. Evolution and the Mind: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 6736 Enrollment: Limited to 15. Preference given to juniors and seniors.
Anne Harrington
Half course (fall term). Th., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Explores tensions and themes in the historical attempt to reconcile the problem of mind and consciousness with evolutionary models of life since Darwin. Examples include the human mind as the Achilles heel of the naturalistic (post-Darwinian) world view, the case for the “emergence” of mind out of matter, the evolutionary argument for mind as epiphenomenon, cosmic Mind as the driving force behind evolution, the problem of the “savage mind,” madness as evolutionary regression. Particular attention to the social and ethical implications of all these debates. (DF:M2)
[History of Science 177. Stories Under the Skin: The Mind-Body Connection in Modern Medicine]
Catalog Number: 4338
Anne Harrington
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
An historical probe into the logics and stakes of modern (19th-20th century) thinking and practices concerned with “mind–body” interactions. Topics include: hypnosis; hysteria; the rise of psychosomatic medicine; medical investigations of non-Western phenomena such as “chi” and meditative practices; concerns with human connection and disconnection as sources of healing and illness; the recent rise of psychoneuroimmunology. Analytic emphasis is on integrating questions about the nature of embodied experience over time with questions about the logic of our institutionalized efforts to “domesticate” that experience within the changing explanatory frames of Western medical science. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 178v. Minding of America: The Popularization of Psychology
Catalog Number: 3561
Jill Morawski (Wesleyan University)
Half course (fall term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
This course examines how the science of psychology captured the imagination of Americans and eventually became indispensable to cultural understandings of human actions as well as to social policy. Considered are the formations and dissemination of psychological notions of behavior control, intelligence, the unconscious, gender differences, psycho-pathological types, and biologically-based behaviors. Analytic attention is given to models of the popularization of science and the cultural consequences of popularizing psychology. (DF:M2)
[History of Science 180. Science, Medicine and Imperialism]
Catalog Number: 3578
Bridie Andrews
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
It is a truism that science and medicine were crucial to the development of colonialism and, in particular, to the formal imperialism of the 19th century. Scientific and technological innovations facilitated the expansion of the small maritime trading nations of Europe into every continent, and created a world-wide flow of goods, capital and human labor on an unprecedented scale. This course will examine the history of science in its imperial contexts through a thematic approach: individual topics will include the book and the printing press; exploration and the academy; cartography; tropical medicine; the diseases of empire; economic botany; trains and steamships, information flow and telegraphy; imperial womanhood; and anthropology and race. (DF: M1,M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 181. Science, Technology, and Modernity
Catalog Number: 6978
Robert M. Brain
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 10.
Examination of the role of science and technology in the experience of modernity from 1800 to 1918. Themes include the myths of Faust and Frankenstein and the ideals of personal economic development, steam engines and railways, technological utopias and dystopias, telegraphy and the growth of empire, standardization and commodity culture, electric power systems, urban planning, the mechanization of the body, technology and the arts, and technological warfare. (DF:M1)
[History of Science 182. Gender in East Asia: Lecture]
Catalog Number: 1762
Bridie Andrews
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
This course looks at gendered technologies of East Asian history in such fields as agriculture, textile production, domestic labor, and family and cultural production and reproduction. The course will examine the tensions between cultural ideals of female chastity and seclusion and the realities of men’s and women’s lives through the technologies they used and created. (DF:M1)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
[*History of Science 183. Social and Political Implications of Technology: Conference Course ]
Catalog Number: 8588 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Peter Buck
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Historical studies of how technology shapes society and politics. Interactions between social engineering and the management of technological change; specific technologies vs. expectations about technology in general as limiting the possibilities for social and political change. Examples drawn from war, transportation, communication, and production. (DF:M1)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
*History of Science 184. Technology in America: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 1617 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Peter Buck
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Examines American society, politics, and culture as shaping and shaped by the technologies of war, work, transportation, and health. Emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. (DF:M1)
History of Science 185. Romanticism and the Sciences
Catalog Number: 3225
Robert M. Brain
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Examines the emergence of a Romantic tradition in the natural sciences out of the promises and anxieties of revolution at the end of the 18th century. Topics include the place of reflection, self-experiment, introspection, historicism, and aesthetic values in science. Considers the philosophical and empirical legacy of romantic science in national and international contexts. (DF:M1)
History of Science 186. The History of Technology
Catalog Number: 2147 Enrollment: Limited to 18.
Charis Thompson
Half course (fall term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
This course surveys theories of technology and sociotechnical systems. Technologies of production, destruction, reproduction, and information in different eras are considered, and compared as to the ways they entrain humans, machines, politics, and the market. (DF:M3)
History of Science 191. Skepticism, Subjectivity, and Doubt
Catalog Number: 3638
Carl William Pearson
Half course (spring term). M., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 9
Historians of science and others have appealed recently to skepticism and relativism to counter the hegemony of science. However, skepticism (as well as relativism, subjectivity, etc.) has played an important role in western intellectual history, both as a response to science but also as integral to some scientific methodologies. This course examines how different historical contexts give rise to different skeptical modes and attempts to determine which are most useful to contemporary historians of science.
*History of Science 206r. Ancient Science: Seminar
Catalog Number: 2410
John E. Murdoch
Half course (spring term). Th., 2–4.
Topic for 2001-2002: Aristotle’s theory of science as found in his Posterior Analytics, its relation to the mathematics of the day, and other aspects of Aristotle’s philosophy of mathematics, notably in the final books of the Metaphysics. (DF:E1)
*History of Science 207r. Medieval Science: Seminar
Catalog Number: 8468
John E. Murdoch
Half course (fall term). Th., 2–4.
Topic for 2001-2002: The problem of the possible eternity of the world in late antiquity and the Middle Ages, the confrontation with an Aristotelian natural philosophy which maintained the eternity of the world, and the eventual medieval resolution of this conflict.(DF:E2)
Note: Reading knowledge of Latin is not required.
History of Science 215. Science and Culture in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe: Seminar
Catalog Number: 4568
Katharine Park
Half course (fall term). M., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 9
Topic for 2001-02: Sources for the study of medieval and Renaissance medicine, with particular attention to genre and cultural context. Intensive reading in texts relating to healing and medicine in Western Europe between about 1100 and 1500, with an emphasis on the learned tradition. Sources will include mnemonic poems, commentaries, practicae, consilia, questiones, recipe collections, plague tractates, administrative and judicial records, private letters, and treatises for aristocratic patrons. (DF: E2)
Note: Basic reading knowledge of Latin and one European vernacular required.
[History of Science 222. Research in the History and Philosophy of Physical Sciences]
Catalog Number: 4178
Peter L. Galison
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Graduate Seminar: Students will work on advancing their research topics with the aim of producing a publishable paper. Open to students working in the broad area of 19th- through early 21st- century physics, technology, chemistry as well as the relation between the science and architecture (DF:M3)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 229v. Historical Perspectives on the Geosciences: Seminar
Catalog Number: 3042
Naomi Oreskes (University of California, San Diego)
Half course (fall term). W., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 9
History and historiography of the earth sciences, with an emphasis on how models of scientific knowledge are altered by considering knowledge generated “in the field.” Open to graduate students, and to advanced undergraduates with permission. (DF: M3)
History of Science 235. Topics in 19th Century Science: Energy and Evolution: Seminar
Catalog Number: 2520
Robert M. Brain
Half course (fall term). M., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 9
(DF:M3)
History of Science 240. The Body in Sickness and in Health: Seminar
Catalog Number: 6821
Charles E. Rosenberg
Half course (fall term). Th., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
“Sickness” and “health,” notions of inappropriate and appropriate behavior, are determined by conceptions of the body and its proper management. Discussion will focus first upon secondary studies and subsequently upon students’ research. (DF:M2)
[*History of Science 244. Research in the History of Medical Ethics: Seminar ]
Catalog Number: 6301
Allan M. Brandt
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Course provides a framework for the historical examination of debates concerning medical ethics, and seeks to identify social, cultural, political, and economic forces that have shaped value conflicts in clinical medicine and health policy. Students are expected to write a research paper utilizing primary and archival source materials. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 250. Sociologies of Science
Catalog Number: 6211
Everett I. Mendelsohn
Half course (spring term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Twentieth century sociologies of science: traditions of Weber, Mannheim; studies of J. D. Bernal, Robert Merton, Edgar Zilsel, their disciples and critics; influence of European traditions, Elias, Marcuse, Habermas, Bourdieu; emergence of sociology of scientific knowledge, the Edinburgh School and historical sociology of science; themes include institutions, power and politics of knowledge, modes of knowledge production, pure vs. applied sciences, neutrality. (DF:M1)
History of Science 257v. Who is a Scientist? Biography and Authority: Seminar
Catalog Number: 3499
Half course (fall term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
An exploration of a range of relationships between the personal identity of scientific intellectuals and the authority of their knowledge. (DF:M1)
[History of Science 261. Fraud, Intellectual Property, Authorship and Responsibility in Science]
Catalog Number: 3446
Mario Biagioli
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Examines the debates on authorship, responsibility, and credit in science in the wake of recent cases of fraud and misconduct. By bringing together perspectives from law, sociology of science, and literary theory, the seminar analyzes the similarities and differences between intellectual property and authorship in science and in other disciplines. (DF:E3)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 262v. Constructing Quantum Mechanics
Catalog Number: 8733
Olivier Darrigol
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
History of quantum mechanics emphasizing the procedures that permitted its construction: physical and psychological analogy, spectral numerology, regionalization of classical concepts, reinterpretation, symbolic translation&. The upsetting of ordinary intuitions and the interpretation of quantum mechanics. (DF:M3)
Note: Part of class time will be devoted to discussion of selected readings. Requires some knowledge in physics, especially in classical mechanics and electrodynamics.
Prerequisite: Requires some knowledge in physics, especially in classical mechanics and electrodynamics.
[History of Science 263. Science and/as Literature]
Catalog Number: 2704
Mario Biagioli
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
This course considers relationships between science and literature: the literary structure of scientific arguments; the history of scientific genres (the experimental report, the scientific article, reports of fieldwork, and travel, etc); science fiction and representations of science in popular literature; and the relationship between literary plots and scientific arguments. (DF:M1)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 270v. Making the "Social" Psychological: The History of Social Psychology: Seminar
Catalog Number: 8666
Jill Morawski (Wesleyan University)
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Examines the 20th century project to explain social phenomena in psychological terms, beginning with William James. Topics include conceptions of the social self and social problems, experimental techniques, ethical and political matters, and reflexivity. (DF:M1)
History of Science 271v. History of Masculinity: Seminar
Catalog Number: 8379
Jill Morawski (Wesleyan University)
Half course (fall term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Explores the 20th century emergence of the masculine as a human kind. Topics include scientific models of masculinity and gender “difference,” gender metaphor and analogy, science and masculinity, men’s studies movement, and reproductive science. (DF:M1)
[History of Science 275. “The Minded Body”: Theoretical and Empirical Explorations]
Catalog Number: 8536
Anne Harrington
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Attempts, via a case study approach, to explore “embodiment”—human bodily experience—as part of the proper world of historical and cultural intellectual analysis. Can historical work be done “under the skin”? Theoretical readings will be drawn here from “body history”, anthropology, phenomenological psychology and medicine. A significant independent research project will be expected. (DF: M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
[*History of Science 278. In Search of Mind: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 0304
Anne Harrington
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
A series of “expeditions” through the four “territories” of the mind: language, emotion, meaning-making, and memory. Reading broadly across disciplines and over a century of shifting focuses, we will aim in this seminar to construct new, less linear, ways of imagining the history of the mind sciences in our time. (DF:M2).
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
*History of Science 290r. Selected Topics in History and Philosophy of Biology
Catalog Number: 8108
Everett I. Mendelsohn
Half course (spring term). W., 2–4.
(DF:M2)
Prerequisite: Ordinarily one half course at the advanced level in history or philosophy of biology.
[*History of Science 295r. Critical History: Writing Between Humans and Non-Humans]
Catalog Number: 8360 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Peter L. Galison and Mario Biagioli
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Theoretical issues in the construction of the history, philosophy and sociology of science. Graduate Seminar. (DF:M3)
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
History of Science 297r. Topics in the History of Medieval Latin Science
Catalog Number: 5050
John E. Murdoch
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged. First Meeting Thurs., 01/30/02 at 4:00.
(DF:E2)
Prerequisite: Reading knowledge of Latin.
*History of Science 298r. The Establishment of Medieval Latin Scientific and Philosophical Texts: Seminar
Catalog Number: 4893
John E. Murdoch
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged. First Meeting on Thurs. 01/30/02 at 5:00.
The problems and methods involved in preparing critical editions of texts from manuscript materials: principles of establishing the “accepted text,” manuscript tradition, and appropriate apparatus criticus when several manuscripts are employed, as well as the resolution of palaeographic problems. (DF:E2)
Note: First Meeting Time Th., Jan 30 @ 5pm.
Prerequisite: Knowledge of Latin, but no previous experience with palaeography required.
*History of Science 301. Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 5641
Bridie Andrews 1409 (on leave 2001-02), David S. Barnes 1701 (on leave spring term) (spring term only), Mario Biagioli 1756 (on leave 2001-02), Robert M. Brain 2676 (on leave 2002-03), Allan M. Brandt 3031, Peter Buck 1894, I. Bernard Cohen 1185, Olivier Darrigol 3974 (spring term only) (spring term only), Donald Fleming 1831 (fall term only), Peter L. Galison 3239 (on leave 2001-02), Owen Gingerich 1159, Stephen J. Gould 1707, Anne Harrington 1895 (on leave spring term), Steven Fontijn Harris 4081 (spring term only) (spring term only), Erwin N. Hiebert 1187, Gerald Holton 1883, Stephanie H. Kenen 1535 (fall term only), Everett I. Mendelsohn 2700, Jill Morawski (Wesleyan University) 4086, John E. Murdoch 1877, Naomi Oreskes (University of California, San Diego) 3983 (fall term only) (fall term only), Katharine Park 2974, Charles E. Rosenberg 3784 (on leave 2002-03) (spring term only), Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz 3651, A. I. Sabra 2702, and Charis Thompson 3751 (on leave 2002-03)
Individual work in preparation for the General Examination for the PhD degree.
*History of Science 302. Guided Research
Catalog Number: 5282
Bridie Andrews 1409 (on leave 2001-02), David S. Barnes 1701 (on leave spring term), Mario Biagioli 1756 (on leave 2001-02), Robert M. Brain 2676 (on leave 2002-03), Allan M. Brandt 3031, Peter Buck 1894, I. Bernard Cohen 1185, Olivier Darrigol 3974 (spring term only) (spring term only), Peter L. Galison 3239 (on leave 2001-02), Owen Gingerich 1159, Stephen J. Gould 1707, Anne Harrington 1895 (on leave spring term), Steven Fontijn Harris 4081 (spring term only) (spring term only), Erwin N. Hiebert 1187, Gerald Holton 1883, Stephanie H. Kenen 1535 (fall term only), Everett I. Mendelsohn 2700, Jill Morawski (Wesleyan University) 4086, John E. Murdoch 1877, Naomi Oreskes (University of California, San Diego) 3983 (fall term only) (fall term only), Katharine Park 2974, Charles E. Rosenberg 3784 (on leave 2002-03), Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz 3651, A. I. Sabra 2702, and Charis Thompson 3751 (on leave 2002-03)
Through regular meetings with faculty advisor, this course will focus on research and writing with the purpose of developing a publishable research paper.