Courses: Fall 2008
History of Science 180: Freshman Honors Seminar
Topic: Technology from Sputnik to the Counterculture
3 cr.; H (Humanities), E (Elementary); 1:20-3:15 W, 6109 Social Science; Prerequisites: open to freshmen only or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Eric Schatzberg
This honors seminar examines the history of technology in the "long 1960s,"
from the launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik in 1957 to the resignation of president
Richard Nixon in 1974. The course will treat social, cultural, and political aspects of technology,
focusing especially on the tension between technological enthusiasm and critiques of technology.
The course begins with an overview of key developments in technology before the 1960s, with special
attention to nuclear weapons and post-WWII technological enthusiasm. The remainder of the course
consists of a series of topics spanning one or two weeks. Topics include, among others, Sputnik
and the space race, the controversy over the birth control pill, the rise of environmental and
consumer movements, radical critiques of technology, the role of technology in the counterculture,
and the beginning of the alternative technology movement.
Materials for this course come from a variety of sources, including historical accounts, original primary sources, science fiction and film. The course meets once weekly for a two-hour discussion. There will be a variety of short writing assignments during the semester, with a medium-length final project. Students will also conduct some library research in original sources, starting with reactions to the launch of Sputnik.
History of Science 201: The Origins of Scientific Thought
(meets with ILS 201)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), E (Elementary); 1:00-2:15 TR, B10 Ingraham; 2 lectures and 1 discussion section per week. See also the parallel course, Integrated Liberal Studies 201, which bestows natural science credit at the introductory level. Prerequisites: none; open to freshmen.
Instructor: Florence Hsia
This course is the first in a sequence of courses that examines the
development of science in cultural and intellectual context from antiquity to the twentieth
century. The class begins with an examination of perspectives towards the natural world in the
poetry, philosophy, and medicine of ancient Greece. It follows the movement of the classical
tradition into medieval Islam and Christendom, and concludes with the transformation of European
science during the 16th and 17th centuries. Throughout our investigation of what 'science' has
been in the past, we will pay particular attention to issues which still have relevance today,
such as the interaction between science and religion, the importance of different institutional
settings for science, and the relationship between science and government.
Grading will include frequent quizzes in discussion sections and essay exams.
History of Science 203: Science in the Twentieth Century: A Historical Overview
3 cr.; Z (Humanities or Social Science), E (Elementary); 1:20 MW, 5231 Social Science; 2 hrs. lecture and 1 hr. discussion. Prerequisites: none; open to freshmen.
Instructor: Richard Staley
This course surveys the history of science in the twentieth century,
from the discovery of x-rays and radioactivity in the 1890s through to the complex of
scientific and social questions raised by the human genome project and stem cell research in
the present day. This period saw spectacular transformations in the reach of modern science
and technology, accompanied by the increasing specialization and fragmentation of knowledge.
Here we explore the changing dimensions of science in an age of unprecedented promise and conflict.
Tracing the evolution of physics and biology and exploring the emergence of environmentalism
through the course of the century, we examine major conceptual developments, the interaction of
science and society, and the impact of war on science and technology. Course requirements
include three take-home essays and class participation, with some informal writing for discussion
sections.
History of Science 275: Science, Medicine, and Race: A History
(crosslisted with Afro Am and Med Hist)
3 cr.; Z (Humanities or Social Science), E (Elementary); 2:30-3:45 TR, 114 Van Hise; Prerequisites: none; open to freshmen.
Instructors: Judith Houck and Richard Keller
This course surveys the medical and scientific constructions of ideas
about race and ethnicity since the eighteenth century. We will place the development of racial
theories of sickness and health in a broad social and political context - and, in particular,
explain the medical salience of race in the setting of slavery and colonialism. Discussions will
focus primarily on North America and Europe, but will also explore the making of knowledge about
race in global settings.
History of Science 280: Honors Seminar: Studies in Science, Technology, and Medicine
Topic: The European Enlightenment: What Does it Mean to Be Human?
(meets with History 283)
3 cr.; I (Intermediate), H (Humanities), satisfies Communications Requirement Part B; Lecture: 9:30-11:30 T; 2115 Humanities; Discussion: 9:55 R; 2115 Humanities. Prerequisites: Communications Requirement Part A must be satisfied. Open to non-honors students with consent of instructor; open to freshmen.
Instructors: Thomas Broman and Suzanne Desan
This honors course will focus on the central question of the European
Enlightenment: What does it mean to be human? Enlightenment thinkers answered this question by
emphasizing four major themes that we will explore in turn: First, in their attempt to find
a “science of society,” eighteenth-century authors debated how social interactions shaped human
experience and human nature. Second, Enlightenment figures argued that each individual’s mind and
morality were deeply influenced by physiology and by sensory experiences of the outside world.
How did authors theorize this mind-body connection? And how did they imagine differences between
men and women according to these theories of sensibility and custom? Third, contact with
non-European parts of the world, from the Americas to the Pacific, influenced Enlightenment authors
as they debated “universal” human nature, probed cultural diversity, outlined European claims to
power, and defined themselves against the “Other”. Finally, the Enlightenment probed how politics
created human bonds and ordered both civil society and the family.
During each week there will be a one-hour lecture as background and one two-hour seminar so that we can dig deeply into the readings in group discussion. Participation in this discussion is crucial. Students will write two 500-word response papers and a 5-page paper based on the readings. In addition, students will write a 10-12 page paper based on outside research. These papers will offer the opportunity to delve more deeply into some aspect of the Enlightenment by analyzing eighteenth-century texts (chosen in individual meetings with the professors) that address themes from the course. Students will do peer reviews of each other’s drafts, and also receive comments from their professors. Grading: 45% in-class participation; 5% each response paper; 15% 5-page paper; 30% final paper.
History of Science 322: Ancient and Medieval Science
(crosslisted with Medieval Studies)
3 cr.; 2 lectures and 1 discussion per week. H (Humanities), D (Intermediate or Advanced); 8:50 MWF, 4308 Social Science; Prerequisites: junior standing or consent of instructor; grads must register concurrently in Hist Sci 622.
Instructor: Michael Shank
This course explores the inquiry into nature from the Ancient Near-East
to 1500 in its intellectual, social, institutional, and cultural contexts, and its relations to
various political and religious institutions. Chronologically and geographically, the course extends
from the civilizations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, through Greece and Rome, to the civilizations
of Islam and Latin Christendom. It will illustrate the transformation of knowledge as individuals,
texts, artifacts, and techniques travel. The course surveys the development and growing systematization
of the mathematical sciences (with a special focus on astronomy/astrology), medicine, and natural
philosophy with some attention to such related enterprises as philosophy, theology, and technology.
History of Science 337: History of Technology
3 cr.; (H) Humanities, A (Advanced); 1:00-2:15 TR, 360 Science; Prerequisites : junior standing or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Eric Schatzberg
This course seeks to understand the place of technology in the history of the West
over roughly 1000 years ending in 1950, from the medieval cathedral to the atomic bomb. The course does not
examine technology in isolation, but rather in connection with economics, politics, labor, and culture. The
course makes no attempt at comprehensive coverage, but rather examines technology through a series of topics,
including the nature of medieval technology, the technological basis for Western expansion, the causes and
consequences of the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of the United States as a technological power. Along
the way we will learn a bit about clocks and cannons, spinning wheels and steam engines, electric lights and
atomic bombs.
Two main themes run through the chronological narrative of the course. First is the role of organized violence in the rise of Western technology, mainly in the form of military power and coerced labor (i.e., slavery). The second theme concerns the relationship between symbolic and utilitarian motives in the development of technology, that is, the between technologies as expressions of cultural values (such as Gothic cathedrals) and technologies as means to practical ends (like farming).
The main requirements of this course are 3 short readings responses, two take-home midterms, a take-home final, and participation in discussion. Graduate students are required to register concurrently for Hist Sci 637.
History of Science 350: Victorian Literature, Science, and Print Culture
(meets with English 461)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), D (Intermediate or Advanced); 1:00-2:15 TR; 4281 Helen C. White. Prerequisites: sophomore Honors or junior standing.
Instructors: Lynn Nyhart and Susan Bernstein
This course investigates narratives of transformation and evolution from the
establishment of geological "deep time" in the early nineteenth century through Charles Darwin's Origin
of Species (1859), to Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), in the broader context of nineteenth-century British
culture. We will explore the interactions, similarities and differences among scientific, literary, and
popular renderings of change over time and space (including those in scientific texts, fiction, poems,
magazine essays, and cartoons). At the level of form, we will consider the similarities and differences
in scientific and literary genres with regard to openings, development, and modes of closure, and we will
explore these issues in evolutionary theory itself, expressed as concerns over transformation, progress,
materiality, and spirit. We will also examine various developments in print culture, including the steam
press, the serial novel, the periodicals boom, and visuality. This course interrogates the nature of
interdisciplinary work by asking what kind of evidence counts when drawing different discourses into
dialogue. At the deepest level, we wish students to arrive at a fundamental appreciation of Victorian
print culture, which offers a crucial common material context for literary and scientific writing. As part
of this attention to the larger context of nineteenth-century print culture, we’ll attend the September
12-13 conference sponsored by UW’s Center for the History of Print Culture.
History of Science 504: Society and Health Care in American History
(crosslisted with Med Hist and History)
3 cr.; B (Biological Science), I (Intermediate); 11:00-12:15 TR, 1010 Medical Science Center; Prerequisites: junior standing AND consent of instructor.
Instructor: Ronald Numbers
Lecture-Seminar. Health care in America since the colonial period; emphasis
on social developments.
History of Medicine 507: Health, Disease and Healing I
(crosslisted with History and Med Hist)
3 cr., H (Humanities), I (Intermediate); 2:30-3:45 MW, 114 Social Work; Prerequisites: junior standing
Instructor: Walton Schalick
This course presents an in-depth survey of medicine and public health
from its roots in Antiquity through approximately 1500. There are three principal themes. The first
focuses on the evolving concepts of illness, beginning with the ideas of the Hippocratics, who
lived during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. We will study how their ideas were taken up and
transformed by later scholars, with particular emphasis being paid to medicine in medieval Islam
and the reception of medical knowledge in western Europe after 500 A.D. through its transformation
in the newfangled universities. We will also pay close attention to the teaching and practice of
anatomy in those universities. The second theme studies the medical practitioners of this era,
focusing primarily on physicians but also paying significant attention to surgeons, apothecaries,
female healers and the various other health-providers who together comprised the practice of healing
in the ancient and medieval worlds. Within that theme, the notion of the medieval medical marketplace
will be an important one. The third theme centers on the evolution of health as a social and political
problem. It includes the emergence of hospitals in Constantinople and Baghdad, two large medieval cities
where caring for the sick poor became a matter of pressing concern and the evolution of public health
through the period of the Black Death in the later fourteenth century and beyond.
Each week there will be one 75-minute lecture on Monday to introduce the weeks subject, followed by a 75- minute seminar/lecture on Wednesday to flesh out the readings in depth. Depending on the complexity of the material, readings for the seminar meeting will be about 100 pages per week. Readings depend primarily on a digitized packet of material, but we will also have recourse to two textbooks: Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine by Nancy Siraisi, and Carole Rawcliffe's.
Written work will consist of 2-3 take-home essay assignments, ranging from of 5-15 pages in length.
History of Science 509: The Development of Public Health in America
(crosslisted with Med Hist)
3 cr.; B (Biological Science), I (Intermediate);1:00-2:15 TR; 1010 Med Sci Center. Prerequisites: junior standing AND consent of instructor.
Instructor: Judith Leavitt
This course surveys the history of public health in the United States from the
colonial period to the late twentieth century, emphasizing many issues in the development of public
responsibility for health that are relevant at the beginning of the 21st century, including responses
to epidemic diseases. The course is run as a seminar/discussion, and part of the student requirements
include regular and constructive class participation.
History of Science 512: Galileo Galilei: Life, Writings, and Interpretations
3 cr.; A (Advanced); 4:00-5:15 pm MW; 114 Van Hise. Prerequisites: sophomore Honors or junior standing.
Instructor: Michael Shank
In both the popular imagination and the history of science, Galileo Galilei
casts a shadow of almost mythic proportions in accounts of science and religion, as well as the
history of physics and astronomy. Interpretations of his achievement and its context thus span an
extraordinary range. The course offers an introduction to his writings with emphasis on his context
(Pisa, Padua, Florence, Rome), and to the many interpretations of both his scientific work and his
trial. The course format combines lecture and discussion.
Readings are likely to include much of Galileo’s Dialogue on the two Chief World Systems; Drake, ed., Opinions and Discoveries of Galileo; Finocchiaro, ed., The Galileo Affair; Blackwell, Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible; a course reader.
History of Science 513: Environment and Health in Global Perspective
(crosslisted with Med Hist and IES)
3 cr.: Z (Humanities or Social Science), A (Advanced); 9:30-10:45 TR, B129 Van Vleck. Prerequisites: junior standing.
Instructor: Gregg Mitman
Although Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring helped mobilize the environmental
movement in exposing the environmental and health hazards of chemicals like pesticides, she was not
the first to raise concerns about the relationships between environment and health. Rather, she tapped into
a long history of medical, scientific, and citizen involvement in combating pollution and other environmental
hazards found in places where people lived, worked, and played. This course explores the historical
relationships between environmental change and human health from the 17th through the 20th century.
How, for example, did microbes become biological agents of empire in historical patterns of settlement
and conquest? And, in what ways did colonial encounters with indigenous populations and new diseases alter
conceptions of health and the environment? How have issues of class, gender, ethnicity, and global relations
played a historical role in the disparities of exposure to environmental hazards? What commonalities and
differences have attended the rise of concerns and conflicts over worker illnesses such as black lung
over time and place? And how have particular places, from nuclear waste sites to hay fever resorts, been
altered by the health concerns of their habitants? These are some of the questions this course will illuminate
in its historical exploration of environment and health within a global perspective.
History of Science 524: The Medical History of Sex and Sexuality
(crosslisted with Women’s St and Med Hist)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), I (Intermediate); 11:00-12:15 TR, 224 Ingraham; Prerequisites: previous history (including Med Hist and Hist Sci) course preferred.
Instructor: Judith Houck
What causes homosexuality? Can frigidity in women best be cured by a pill,
an analyst’s couch, or sweeping social change? Are sexual psychopaths sick or criminal? What determines
a persons sex? Are there therapeutic uses for sex toys?
Over the course of the twentieth century, medicine and biomedical science have become increasingly influential in the social and cultural lives of Americans. This course looks at the changing place of medicine in our public and private sexual lives. We will be guided by five particular questions: How has medicine (and scientific authority) helped to define and control appropriate sexual behavior? How has medicine become involved in the definition and creation of sex? What do medical interventions reveal about social and cultural ideas of sex and sexuality? How do campaigns against sexual disease illuminate cultural judgments about social groups? How do boundaries defining appropriate sexual behavior also define appropriate sex/gender roles?
History of Science 561: Greek and Roman Medicine and Pharmacy
(crosslisted with Classics, Med Hist, History & S&A Phm)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), D ( Intermediate or Advanced); 2:30-3:45 TR; 1420 Msb. Prerequisites: junior or senior standing or consent of instructor.
Instructor: staff
Greek and Roman medicine and drug lore from the Pre-Socratics to Oribasius
(c. 600 B.C.-A.D. 350), including the backgrounds of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian medicine.
History of Science 615: The History of Evolutionary Thought
(meets with Philosophy 523)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), A (Advanced); 1:00-2:15 TR, B113 Van Vleck; Prerequisites: junior standing or consent of instructor.
Instructors: Ronald Numbers and Elliott Sober
Biological and geological foundations, preliminary speculations, the
Darwinian synthesis, and its substantiation.
History of Science 622: Studies in Ancient and Medieval Science
1 cr.; A (Advanced); 9:55 F, 6105 Social Science; Prerequisites: grad standing; concurrent registration in Hist Sci 322 or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Michael Shank
Discussion of advanced readings in the primary and secondary literature
on the history of ancient and medieval science, with emphasis on current historiographic issues.
Open only to graduate students. This course must be taken by graduate students concurrently
with History of Science 322. One meeting per week.
Requirements (for the 4 credits in HS 622 and the concurrent HS 322): active engagement with the material and participation in discussion and review report (25%); three reviews (ca. 5 pages each) of three additional books (not fewer than 600 pages total) that are new to the student and that go into depth on some aspect of the course (15% each); oral presentation of one review; one take-home, 8-10-page synthetic final essay (30%). The readings listed on the syllabus under "Grad supplement " are required of grad students.
History of Science 637: Studies in History of Technology
1 cr.; A (Advanced); 11:00 F, 6304 Social Science; Prerequisites: grad standing; concurrent registration in Hist Sci 337.
Instructor: Eric Schatzberg
This one-credit graduate course meets concurrently with History of Science
337, History of Technology, and provides a separate graduate discussion section. The course is
designed to deal with historiography and conceptual issues at a greater level of sophistication
than in the undergraduate course. Requirements include additional short readings for each week,
as well as modest (12 to 15-page) research paper.
History of Science 668: Fat and Thin: Making American Bodies
(crosslisted with Med Hist)
3 cr.; A (Advanced); 9:55 MWF; 115 Van Hise. Prerequisite: junior standing.
Instructor: Susan Lederer
This course surveys the search for the healthy body in American society
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics include the changing American food supply and
the rise of "fast foods," dietary regimens and dieting, medicine and nutrition science, bariatric
surgery (i.e. stomach stapling), and efforts to create "magic bullets" for weight loss. Course
format is lecture/discussion and requires active and engaged student participation.
History of Science 713: Studies in Environment and Health
(crosslisted with Med Hist and IES)
1 cr.; time-TBA. Prerequisites: graduate standing; concurrent registration in History of Science 513.
Instructor: Gregg Mitman
In addition to attending the scheduled 513 class, graduate students are
required to attend an additional one-hour weekly meeting to discuss advanced readings in the
primary and secondary literature on the history of environment and health with an emphasis on
current historiographic issues.
History of Science 720: Proseminar: Historiography and Methods
3 cr.; 2:30-5:00 W; 7130 Social Science. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Instructor: Richard Staley
This seminar is designed to orient first-year graduate students in the
Department of the History of Science to work in the field. It offers a sampling of classic and
current work in the historiography of science - broadly understood to include technology and
medicine. Graduate students in other departments who are interested in exploring the field, or
in completing a minor in either History of Science or Science and Technology Studies are also
welcome. Our readings will help students gain perspective on important features of the
historical development of the sciences, while exploring styles of historical writing, the use
of evidence, research methods, and ethical, legal and professional issues. The seminar will be
reading and discussion intensive, and assignments will include issue papers, leadership in
discussion, book reviews, and a historiographical paper.
History of Science 903: Scientific Genres
3 cr.; 9:30-11:25 R; 6304 Social Science; Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Florence Hsia
Textual evidence of scientific practice and thought comes in many
different forms. This seminar will look at a wide variety of scientific writing in the early
modern period in order to explore the continuity of medieval scientific genres as well as the
rise of new scientific genres as part of the historical movement we call the Scientific
Revolution. Readings will include primary sources, some genre theory, and recent secondary
literature on scientific genres. Genres explored will include the laboratory notebook,
medical casebook, commonplace book, scientific article, (lunar voyage), scientific
biography, and scientific correspondence.
History of Science 950: History of Science Colloquium
0-1 cr.; A (Advanced); 4:00 -5:30 T, 6102 Social Science; Prerequisites: History of Science major; graduate standing.
Instructor: Richard Staley
Intended for graduate majors in the history of science, this requires
regular attendance at History of Science colloquia, averaging 4 or 5 per semester. May be
taken for 1 credit or 0 credits. Required of first and second semester graduate students
in History of Science.