Courses: Spring 2009
History of Science 201: The Origins of Scientific Thought
(meets with ILS 201)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), E (Elementary); 9:30-10:45 TR, 5208 Social Science, 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: Michael Shank
This course is the first in a sequence of three 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 myths, philosophy, and medicine of the ancient Near East and 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 to Isaac Newton. Throughout our investigation of what science has been in the past, the main threads will be astronomy and cosmology, with some attention to other aspects of nature. We will pay particular attention to issues which still have relevance today, such as the interaction between science and religion and the importance of different institutional settings for science.
Grading will include frequent quizzes in discussion sections and essay exams.
History of Science 202: The Making of Modern Science
(meets with ILS 202)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), E (Elementary); 1:20 MW; 5208 Social Science, 2 lectures and 1 discussion section per week. Prerequisites: Open to freshmen.
Instructor: Richard Staley
This course offers an introduction to the history of the sciences between the work of Isaac Newton in the late seventeenth century and Albert Einstein in the early twentieth, with the aim of understanding how science came to be so important in modern culture. Investigating the historical significance of such fundamental scientific concepts as gravity, energy, and evolution, and the complex interrelations between theory and experiment, we study the changing ways that scientific and social values have been interwoven in Western culture. Setting the work of individual scientists in social context the course traces links between ideas, instruments and institutions across both disciplinary and national boundaries. Our studies deliver insight into the changing relations among science and technology, science and religion and science and the state, as we explore the rise of laboratory-based sciences, the changing cultural status of the scientist, and the professionalization of the scientific disciplines.
History of Science 212: The Physician in History
(crosslisted with Med Hist)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), E (Elementary); 2:25 MW, 1520 Microbial Sciences, 2 lectures plus 1 discussion section. Prerequisites: None; open to freshmen; for honors credit concurrent registration in Hist Sci/Med Hist 284 or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Thomas Broman
This course presents an introductory survey of the history of medicine from Antiquity to the 20th Century, and is aimed primarily at students interested in careers in the health professions. It explains how the understanding of health and illness has evolved in Western culture, showing why particular ideas of illness came into dominance at different moments in history. Most importantly, by providing the "long perspective" on the history of medicine, the course attempts to challenge some widely held assumptions about the advancement of science has contributed to modern medicine.
The historical survey is divided into four units, each of which is based in a different view of the body. The first unit, called "The Humoral Body" explains the exceptionally flexible ideas of illness and its causes that were first developed in the ancient world and persisted for many centuries until well past 1700. Some of the ideas first developed in humoral medicine, such as the intimate interactions between the body and its environment, are still with us today. The second unit, "The Anatomical-Morphological Body," examines the body as a collection of discrete parts, each of which performs a particular function in the body's overall economy. This anatomical view of the body also first took form in the ancient world, although anatomically based approaches to the study of illness really only became influential in the 1700s and 1800s.
The third unit, "The Infected Body," looks at how illness first came to be seen not merely as something affecting individuals, but also as something having important consequences for society as a whole. This kind of thinking first emerged in the wake of the Black Death in 14th-century Europe, and it was important in the development of the Germ Theory of Disease in the latter part of the 19th century. Finally, the fourth unit of the course will look at "the body obsessively observed," an appropriate label for medicine in the 20th century, when physicians developed the idea that seemingly no one's health could be maintained without incessant medical attention and supervision. Needless to say, this is the view of health and illness that persists in our own time. In this unit we also consider how health has become something that can be purchased like any other consumer product, as for example in the case of plastic surgery to correct minor flaws in one's appearance.
Requirements: Aside from attendance in discussion sections, the basic requirement for the course consists of a mixture of four take-home essays, ranging from one page to seven pages, which are based in the readings and meant to illustrate the major issues in each unit. Discussion sections may also feature some shorter and more informal writing assignments.
Texts: Packet of photocopied readings.
History of Science 222: Technology and Social Change in History
3 cr.; H (Humanities), I (Intermediate); 11:00 MWF; 4308 Social Science. Prerequisites: Open to freshmen.
Instructor: Eric Schatzberg
Why has technology become such a powerful idea at the beginning the 21st century? Why do people invest so many hopes and fears in this strange concept? Why do inventions seem like an unstoppable force, when they are human creations? Why are some people thrilled by the latest digital devices yet repelled by genetically-modified foods?
This course attempts to demystify technology, using historical examples to cut through the common misperceptions that surround this concept. The course focuses on a series of episodes from the past that illuminate the nature of technological change and the relationship between technology and other human endeavors.
There are three major parts to the course. The first part focuses on the factors that shape technological change. The second part examines the social effects of technology in relation to gender, work, the military, and international politics. The third part deals with ethical issues, using the Challenger disaster and enthusiasm for computers as case studies.
ILS 271: Pre-Copernican Astronomy and Cosmology in Cross-cultural Perspective
3 cr.; P (Physical Science), I (Intermediate); 2 lec., 1 disc./lab, 9:55 MWF, 6116 Social Science; HONORS COURSE; Writing intensive; Prerequisites: ILS 201 or 202 or 251 or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Michael H. Shank
The dominance of European science since the seventeenth century makes it difficult to think about recent science in multicultural terms. From the point of view of the history of civilizations, however, this dominance is a recent and perhaps temporary phenomenon. Before the Copernican era, approaches to astronomy and cosmology differed markedly from culture to culture. In this course, we will seek to understand and appreciate the diversity of these enterprises as practiced from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, India, China, Mesoamerica, through the Arabic and Latin Middle Ages to Copernicus. We will compare and contrast the methods, purposes, and organizing metaphors that these cultures used to make sense of the changes in the heavens. Wherever possible, we will try to understand what role astronomy and cosmology played within each culture, and consider the evidence for crosscultural interaction among them, notably in the transmission and appropriation of ideals, techniques, and data.
In addition to the two lectures, the third hour will alternate (as needed) between 1) discussions of the readings, and 2) labs, workshops, and observational projects that illustrate the basic mathematical and technical skills that underlie the results.
History of Science 280: Honors Seminar: Studies in Science, Technology, and Medicine. Topic: Science, Medicine, and Technology in the Age of European Exploration
(crosslisted with Med Hist)
3 cr.; I (Intermediate), H (Humanities), satisfies Communications Requirement Part B; 1:20-3:15 PM W; 6116 Social Science. Prerequisites: Communications Requirement Part A must be satisfied. Open to non-honors students with consent of instructor; open to freshmen.
Instructor: Florence Hsia
From the Columbian voyages to lunar voyages, from the literature of discovery to literature about discovery, early modern European explorations of various 'new worlds' served as an important arena for revisiting existing concepts of both the natural and the moral spheres. This honors course focuses on how European concepts of nature colored - and were themselves colored by - early modern European exploration of the globe during the two centuries or so following Christopher Columbus' 'discovery' of the New World. Readings may include European encounters with Brazilian cannibals or Chinese mandarins; debates over the curative powers of tobacco, tea, and coffee; navigational and cartographical techniques; and the impact of European exploration on natural histories, cabinets of curiosity, and other scientific enterprises in the period. Assignments will include weekly exercises in analyzing a variety of historical sources, in-class presentations, and a 10-15 page research paper.
History of Science 284: The Physician in History - Honors
(crosslisted with Med Hist)
1 cr.; H (Humanities), E (Elementary); 3:30 W, 399 Van Hise. Prerequisites: concurrent registration for honors in Hist Sci/Med Hist 212 or consent of instructor; open to freshmen.
Instructor: Thomas Broman
This course is a one-credit honors option that accompanies HS/MH 212. By signing up for this course and registering simultaneously for honors in 212, you will receive 4 credits of honors course work. Because we meet in a seminar-type discussion format, enrollment is limited to 12.
The theme for 284 this time will be "Heroic Narratives of Medicine and Doctors." During the early part of the 20th century, the idea that doctors were the "conquerors of disease," an idea that still dominates media images of medicine today, began to be very widespread. I want to explore this idea as it was presented in movies from the period, such as The Story of Louis Pasteur (1931), Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940) and other films, and through novels such as Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith (1925).
Requirements: Students will be required to attend scheduled discussions and movie screenings or find times to watch required movies on their own. At the beginning of the semester, students will produce a short (2-3 page) essay describing their understanding of medicine as a career and what they would expect to do as a physician. Later on, each student will write a 2-3 page review of a movie or book for circulation to the class for discussion during regular meetings.
History of Science 323: The Scientific Revolution: from Copernicus to Newton
(crosslisted with History)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), D (Intermediate or Advanced); 2:30-3:45 TR; 224 Ingraham. Essay exams and in-class exercises. Prerequisites: junior standing or consent of instructor; graduate students must enroll concurrently in History of Science 623.
Instructor: Florence Hsia
An investigation of the renaissance and revolution in European science that began in 1543 with the heliocentric astronomy of Nicolaus Copernicus and ended with Isaac Newton's death in 1727. Throughout the course, we will pay particular attention to issues of tradition and novelty, institutional settings for scientific activity, and the relationship between science and religion. Topics covered will include the Copernican cosmology and the trial of Galileo, the mechanical philosophy, Newton's theory of gravitation, the appearance of new scientific organizations such as the Royal Society of London and the Paris Academy of Sciences, the role of science in European exploration and expansion, and 17th-century perceptions of the scientist's place in society.
History of Science 325: History of Physics: The Classical Period
3 cr.; H (Humanities), I (Intermediate); 11-12:15 TR; 6102 Social Science. Prerequisites: junior standing.
Instructor: Richard Staley
This course surveys the history of physics and related sciences from the seventeenth to the end of the nineteenth century, setting the development of the ideas and methods of "classical" science in social and cultural context. Topics include the emergence of an experimental methodology, mechanics and the Newtonian world view, the history of optics, electricity and magnetism, and thermodynamics. We will trace the interplay of idea and experiment, image and machine across the library, laboratory, exhibition-hall and factory in exploring the changing relations between science and technology, science and religion, and science and the state. Our aim will be to explain the role of the physical sciences in the emergence of the modern industrial world, and to build an understanding of key factors in the vibrant - and troubled - ferment of human knowledge and society circa 1900.
History of Science 339: Technology and Its Critics Since World War II
3 cr.; Z (Humanities or Social Science), A (Advanced); 1:00-2:15 TR; 6102 Social Science. Prerequisites: junior standing or consent of instructor; graduate students must enroll concurrently in History of Science 639.
Instructor: Eric Schatzberg
This course examines intellectuals and activists who questioned the dominant faith in technology in the United States from World War II until roughly 1980. The course begins by examining the tremendous enthusiasm for science and technology that emerged after World War II, inspired by the new military technologies created by scientists and engineers. These technologies include the atomic bomb, radar, digital computers, and ballistic missiles.
Some people challenged this faith in the inevitable benefits of technological change. At first this challenge was limited to a few intellectuals who criticized the consumer society of the 1950s, with its bland suburbs, conformist white-collar bureaucracies, and mind-numbing advertising. In the late 1950s, this critique was taken up by new social movements that attacked the most dramatic technological achievement of World War II, the atomic bomb. In the early 1960s, critics shifted ground to new technologies, most importantly synthetic pesticides and the automobile, and made connections with the new environmental movement. Critics of technology drew strength from the counterculture of the 1960s, which encouraged political and social activism against large-scale technologies like nuclear power. The counterculture also strengthened groups seeking to create counter-technologies, such as solar energy.
Even in the midst of today's enthusiasm for everything digital, technology's critics continue to expose the dark side of technological change.
History of Science 401: History of Pharmacy
(crosslisted with S&A Pharmacy)
2 cr.; H (Humanities), I (Intermediate); 11:00 TR, 2006 Rennebohm; Prerequisites: Junior standing or consent of instructor.
Instructor: staff
Pharmaceutical field, from antiquity to modern medical care; professional; structuring in principle countries of the West.
History of Science 431: Childbirth in the United States
(crosslisted with Med Hist and Women's Studies)
3 cr.; S (Social Science), D (Intermediate or Advanced); 1:00-2:15 TR; 1010 Medical Sciences Center. Prerequisites: Women's Studies 103 or 430 or equiv.; or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Judith Leavitt
The course examines women's childbirth experiences in the United States from the colonial period to today. It addresses throughout questions of authority and decision-making issues that remain central in women's health policy debates today. Basic physiology of childbirth, interactions between birthing women and their attendants, changes in experiences over time, and evolving ideas about "choices" in childbirth are major themes addressed during the semester.
The class is conducted as a seminar-discussion.
History of Science 508: Health, Disease and Healing II
(crosslisted with History and Med Hist)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), D (Intermediate), 2:30-3:45 TR, 1170 Grainger. Prerequisites: junior standing.
Instructor: Richard Keller
The course examines medical developments between about 1700 and the present, concentrating on Europe. It takes a look at the developments in such subjects as disease and demography; public health and hygiene; the medical professions; the law, the state, and medicine; public attitudes to medicine and medical practitioners; and medical ideas (both "regular" and "irregular").
History of Science 517: Monsters and Science: A History of Vertebrate Paleontology
(crosslisted with Geology)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), I (Intermediate). Prerequisites: junior standing. Internet course only.
Instructor: J. Skulan
A History of Vertebrate Paleontology describes the origin and development of vertebrate paleontology, with particular emphasis on how paleontologists have struggled to parlay the popular appeal of their science into power, if not respectability, in academic and scientific communities.
History of Science 555: Undergraduate Seminar
Topic: Science in America
3 cr.; A (Advanced);. 1:20-3:15 M; 1406 Medical Sciences. Prerequisites: open to History of Science majors only; initial preference to seniors.
Instructor: Ronald Numbers
This capstone seminar for majors in the history of science focuses on writing history, not just reading what others have written about it. The primary requirement will be writing a 15-20-page research paper using primary sources. The topic for this semester is "Science in America," which includes the historical relationships between science and related fields such as medicine, technology, and religion.
History of Science 562: Byzantine Medicine and Pharmacy
(crosslisted with S&A Pharmacy, History, Med Hist, and Medieval)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), D (Intermediate or Advanced); 2:30-3:45 TR, 101 Agr Engr. Prerequisites: junior or senior standing or consent of instructor.
Instructor: staff
Byzantine and Islamic medicine and drug lore from Oribasius to the beginnings of the Italian Renaissance (c. 350-c. 1400 A.D.).
History of Science 623: Studies in Early Modern Science
(crosslisted with History)
1 cr.; A (Advanced); 3:30 W, 6304 Social Science. Prerequisites: graduate standing; concurrent registration in History of Science 323 or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Florence Hsia
Advanced readings in the primary and secondary literature of the history of 16th and 17th-century 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 323. One 60-minute meeting per week.
History of Science 639: Studies in Technology and Its Critics Since World War II
1 cr.; 2:25 W; 6304 Social Science. Prerequisites: graduate standing; concurrent registration in History of Science 339.
Instructor: Eric Schatzberg
This one-credit graduate discussion seminar is required for graduate students taking History of Science 339, and cannot be taken without concurrent enrollment in that course. The seminar will provide graduate students with advanced discussion and additional readings supplementing the themes in HS 339, as well as additional written work.
History of Science 668-001: Topics in History of Medicine. Topic: A History of Western Disability
(crosslisted with Med Hist)
3 cr.; A (Advanced); 2:30-3:45 MW, 224 Ingraham. Prerequisites: junior standing.
Instructor: Walton Schalick
Disability is a word which surrounds us. From debates about end-of-life issues to Social Security from test-taking 'allowances' to Not-Dead-Yet, from Medicaid cutbacks to Terry Schiavo, disability is in the media, on our lips and in our ears. What is disability? How has disability changed over time and in different cultures? Where does such an idea come from? What social, cultural, and political assumptions is it based upon? Examining a wide range of historical arguments about the nature and purpose of disability, from pre-history to Plato, to medieval theologians, to more contemporary works, we will approach the history of disability in Western thought and social practice in terms of its relation to arguments about the role of human development and the formulation of personhood, citizenship, and social well being.
The readings will include a thick mixture of primary sources in translation and secondary sources, both classic and newly published. We will encounter a variety of techniques and tools used by historians and other scholars as we course through the sessions. The emphasis of our discussions will be the characteristics of disability in a variety of centuries and cultures as well as lacunae in our understanding and debates in the literature.
History of Science 668-002: Topics in History of Medicine. Topic: American Public Health and the Law
(crosslisted with Med Hist)
3 cr.; A (Advanced); Time, Room: TBA. Prerequisites: junior standing.
Instructor: staff
This course explores the historical context of various United States Supreme Court cases important to the development of American public health and medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries. This is not a public health law course, but rather one that uses a legal perspective to understand the history of public health and medicine in America. It will cover cases that feature conflicts over civil liberties and public health. Taught in a lecture/discussion format, students will read a selection of both primary and secondary sources to study the historical and constitutional issues raised by each case.
History of Science 909: History of Biology and Medicine
Topic: History of Biogeography 1750-1950
3 cr.; 9-11:30 W, 7130 Social Science. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Lynn Nyhart
This seminar focuses on the following questions: How did European and American scientists and social theorists make meaning of the distribution of living things-plants, animals, and people-across the face of the earth from about 1750 to the aftermath of World War II? And how do we situate their scientific theorizing in relation to imperial ambition and conquest, human migration, and the human-driven redistribution of organisms across the globe? Topics will range from debates over geographical determinism in the Enlightenment to twentieth-century debates over the roles of isolation and migration in evolution, and from analyses of bird distribution to ideas about human migration and the rise of civilization. Our task will be to understand the intellectual history involved here in relation to the political, social, and environmental histories in which it was embedded.
While the seminar covers two centuries, emphasis will be laid on time periods and topics of most interest to seminar participants, who will be expected to write a research paper.
History of Science 919: Seminar. Topic: Diet & Nutrition: History Science Politics of Food
(crosslisted with Med Hist)
3 cr.; 9:55-11:55 M, 1406 Medical Sciences. Prerequisites: graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Instructor: Susan Lederer
This graduate seminar focuses on the recent and renewed interest in food, its production, distribution, marketing and consumption. From farm to fork, from meat to mung bean, paleoagriculture to genetically modified foods, the foods people have eaten and continue to eat reflect assumptions about culture, morality, nutrition and health. From the vantage point of history of medicine and history of science, this seminar considers issues of food safety, the development of nutritional guidelines, and the ways science and medicine have influenced food and diet.
History of Science 925: Seminar: Research & Thesis
1-3 cr.; 12:05 W, 7130 Social Science; Prerequisite: History of Science major; graduate standing.
Instructor: Lynn Nyhart
Preparation of Masters paper for second year History of Science graduate students.
History of Science 950: History of Science Colloquium
0-1 cr.; A (Advanced); 4:00-5:30 T, 5231 Social Science; Prerequisite: 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.