Courses: Spring 2006
History of Science 202: The Making of Modern Science
3 cr.; H (Humanities), E (Elementary); 11:00 TR, 272 Bascom, 2 hrs lecture, 1 hr discussion; Open to freshmen. (See also the parallel course, Integrated Liberal Studies 202, which meets with Hist. Sci. 202 and carries Natural Science credit.)
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/History of Medicine 212: The Physician in History
3 cr.; H (Humanities), E (Elementary); 2:25 MW, 6203 Social Science, plus 1 hr discussion
Instructor: Karen Walloch
This course presents an introductory survey of the history of medicine during the past 2500 years, and it is aimed primarily at pre-medical students and others interested in careers in the health professions. It explains how the understanding of health and illness has evolved in Western culture, and describes how physicians have used those meanings as a source of status and authority in different ages. Most importantly, by providing the “long perspective” on the history of medicine, the course attempts to challenge some widely held assumptions about the ways that experimental science has contributed to modern medicine.
The historical survey is divided into 3 units, with each unit paying attention both to the social setting of medical practice and to ideas of health and disease. The first unit examines the origins of medical practice in the ancient world, and follows these healers up through the establishment of physicians as one of the learned professions in the universities of the Middle Ages. The lectures also devote attention to the connections between medicine and religious and magical beliefs.
The second unit of the course focuses on the growing role of physicians as both healers and supervisors of the health care system between the 17th and 19th centuries. Here, we explore how medical care begins to move into new institutions (hospitals) and to address new problems (public health). On the theoretical side, we examine the growing attachment of medical theory to experimental science, which culminated in the germ theory of disease.
Finally, the third unit follows the development of the medical profession in America from colonial times to the present. In this unit, we discuss the unsuccessful efforts of physicians to establish themselves as a legal profession in the 19th century, and explore the circumstances that made it possible for them to finally succeed in the 20th century. It also brings the story up to the present by discussing current debates over the reform of the American health care system.
Course Requirements:The basic requirement for the course consists of three 5-6 page papers, one assigned at the end of each unit, in which students respond to a question about the major themes of the unit. The essay requires that students use the readings assigned during the unit to provide evidence for their essay. The first two of the three papers also have a mandatory draft which gets critiqued by peers and rewritten for a grade. Discussion sections will also feature some shorter and more informal writing assignments.
Texts:Bynum, Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century, packet of photocopied readings.
History of Science/History of Medicine 284: The Physician in History - Honors
1 cr.; H (Humanities), E (Elementary); 7:30-8:30 pm R, 6105 Social Science. Prerequisites: Con reg for honors in Hist Sci/Hist Med 212 or cons inst. Open to freshmen.
Instructor: Karen Walloch
This course is a one-credit honors option that accompanies HOS/HOM 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.
In 284, we meet once a week for an hour to discuss a common reading that deals with one of the major themes in medical history. Among these themes are the experience of death, religious belief and the limits of human power, and science and the professional authority of physicians. The majority of readings are drawn from literature, such as Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, The Imaginary Invalid by the French dramatist Molière, The Death of Ivan Illyich by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, Doctor Zay (a 19th-century novel about a female physician in Maine) by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, and Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis. From time to time we have also read and discussed works by historians, such as Faith, Reason and the Plague in 17th-Century Tuscany by Carlo Cipolla, and A Midwive's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.
The aim of these discussions is to allow students an opportunity to think in depth about the place of medicine in the history of Western culture, and to discover how our ideas about illness and death have changed over time. Thus the aim is not so much use the readings to lay out a particular story of how ideas about health and illness have changed through history as it is to examine a set of issues that defines the place of medicine in our culture.
Requirements: Apart from doing assigned readings and attending weekly discussions, each student is asked to prepare one 2–3 page "think piece" as an introduction for one week's discussion, and to expand the think piece into a 5-page paper at the end of the semester.
History of Science 324: Science in the Enlightenment
3 cr.; H (Humanities), I (Intermediate); 9:30-10:45 TR, 976 Memorial Library (Special Collections seminar room); Prerequisites: junior standing or permission of instructor.
Instructor: Robin Rider
Writers of the 18th-century Enlightenment extolled reason as the path to knowledge, and saw in science both a model of reason and a promise of progress. And these ideas have helped to shape many modern notions of the authority and value of science. This course will examine important developments within scientific disciplines during the 18th century, as well as the significance of scientific knowledge for Enlightenment thought. We will pay attention to issues of cultural production, discourse and practice, authority and expertise, and biography. The reading list draws from history of science, cultural, and intellectual history; students will also have ample opportunity to examine original publications of the period.
History of Science 325: History of Physics: The Classical Period
3 cr.; H (Humanities), I (Intermediate); 11:00 MWF, 6116 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 333: History of Modern Biology
3 cr.; H (Humanities), D (Intermediate or Advanced); 9:55 MWF, 6112 Social Science; Prerequisites: Junior standing or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Lynn Nyhart
The word “biology” was coined in 1800, to describe a science of life that would be more than “mere” natural history–a science that would unite all the living world into a single scheme. From then to now, the desire to find a single “key” to life has been a powerful motivator. In this year’s course, we focus on a series of efforts to unify the study of life around a single theme or idea, including Lamarck and Treviranus’ “Biologie” of 1800; the cell theory; Darwinian evolution; the theory of the gene (“classical” genetics); the “modern” evolutionary synthesis of the 1940s; DNA and molecular biology; systems ecology; the “new synthesis” of sociobiology in the 1970s; recombinant DNA and genomics; and the newest evolutionary synthesis, evo-devo. Across these topics, we will grapple with biologists’ ideas about reductionism, holism, and levels of biological organization; analyze different modes of scientific practice (fieldwork, lab work, theorizing); and consider the institutional and broader politics of biology as it has developed over the last century or so. Finally, we will also consider how these various themes are reflected in the ways that the history of biology has been written, by critically examining and comparing scientists’ and historians’ accounts.
General requirements:Because this course revolves in good part around discussion, its success depends on its participants’ having read the material carefully and being willing to talk about it. We will read both ‘primary sources’ (scientific writings by participants) and ‘secondary sources’ (writings by historians and scientists reflecting on and analyzing what happened), with an emphasis on the latter. The reading load for any given week (2 sessions) will range from 100 pages to a (shortish) book. Sample readings from past years: Robert Kohler, Lords of the Fly; James Watson, The Double Helix; E.O. Wilson, Naturalist, Peter Bowler, The Non-Darwinian Revolution.
Undergraduate writing requirements: two take-home essay exams (4-5 pages) and a final paper (7-9 pages). For the final paper, students may choose between an exam-question style essay discussing a broad question provided by the professor or a research paper, the topic chosen in consultation with the professor. Students taking the course for Honors credit will write both a final essay and a research paper. Some class sessions may be devoted to workshopping take-home essays and/or presentations of research.
Graduate writing requirements: 20+ pages of scholarly prose (5 book reviews, a bibliographic or historiographical essay to prepare for prelims, a research paper, a dissertation proposal) as determined by your individual needs. Graduate students will meet separately from undergrads to discuss the readings and read a small number of additional books.
History of Science 350
Topic: Imagining Science-History of Science through Science Fiction
3 cr.; H (Humanities), D (Intermediate or Advanced); 6:30-7:45 TR;4308 Social Science; Prerequisites: Sophomore Honors or Junior standing.
Instructor: Erika Milam
Science fiction is far more than a simple diffusion of scientific ideas into popular discourse. It has served not only as a place to critique and worship science, but has also acted as an impetus to inspire the imagination of scientists. H.G. Wells, for example, introduced the idea of an "atomic bomb" in 1898, long before such a technology existed. As a genre, science fiction has provided a place for authors to express their concern with contemporary technological and social developments, to imagine possible futures different from their own reality, and to present scientific theories in a popular context.
Over the course of the semester, our historical sources will range from early modern Europe (a voyage to the moon in Kepler's Somnium) to the 20th-century U.S. (cyborgs and cyberspace in Gibson's Neuromancer), revealing the historical, sociological, and political contexts of science in these stories. We will read a combination of primary texts (science fiction novels, films, comics) as historical documents, and secondary historical articles written about science at the time the primary texts were produced. This combination of contemporary and historical perspectives will provide the basis for examining both the anxieties and awe produced by science and technology in these works of fiction.
History of Science 394: Science in America
3 cr.; H (Humanities), D (Intermediate or Advanced); 11:00-12:15 TR, 1010 Medical Sciences Center; Prerequisites: junior standing or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Ronald Numbers
From the colonial period to the present; emphasis on the development of scientific institutions and the influence of science on American life.
History of Science 401: History of Pharmacy
2 cr.; H (Humanities), I (Intermediate); 11:00 MW, 2006 Rennebohm. Perquisites: Junior standing or consent of instructor.
(crosslisted with S&A Pharmacy)
Instructor: John Scarborough
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
3 cr.; S (Social Science), D (Intermediate or Advanced); 1:00-2:15 TR; 224 Ingraham. Prerequisites: Women Studies 103 or 430 or equiv.; or consent of instructor.
(crosslisted with Medical History and Womens Studies)
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.
History of Science 512: Galileo Galilei: Life, Writings, and Interpretations
3 cr.; A (Advanced); 4:00-5:15 pm TR; 6116 Social Science. Prerequisites: Sophomore honors or Junior Standing. Open to undergraduates with at least junior standing and to graduate students.
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 will 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 517: Monsters and Science: A History of Vertebrate Paleontology
(crosslisted with Geology)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), I (Intermediate); junior standing; Internet course only.
Instructor: Joseph 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. View the website for information on this course. http://www.geology.wisc.edu/courses/g517
History of Science 531: Women and Health in American History
(crosslisted with Medical History and Womens Studies)
3 cr., B (Biological Science), I (Intermediate); 9:30-10:45 TR; 1407 Sterling; Prerequisites: junior standing AND consent of instructor.
Instructor: Srirupa Prasad
This course titled, Women and Health in American History will explore a number of issues in the history of women's health and medicine. We will not only look at how health and medicine came to influence women, but we will also look at how medicine and health were also 'gendered'. We will also be sensitive to issues of race, class, ethnicity, and religion as they played a part in the emergence and distribution of health care for women. Topics included will be women's relations to male medical authority and expertise, childbirth, maternity, women's roles as midwives, physicians, and nurses, their reproductive rights, and the gender dimensions of diseases like AIDS, breast cancer, and mental illnesses. The main question the course will seek to answer is how can we talk about women's varied relationship to health and medicine?
The geographical focus will be on the US but we will cover readings from South Asia as well.
History of Science 532: The History of the (American) Body
(crosslisted with Medical History and Womens Studies)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), A (Advanced); 4:30-7:00 pm M, 224 Ingraham. Prerequisites: Women’s Studies 103 or other women’s studies course required; previous history (including Med Hist or Hist Sci) course preferred.
Instructor: Judith Houck
Do bodies have a history? What do bodies mean? Are we our bodies? Who decides the value of a body? What are the consequences of having the wrong body?
Perhaps it all started with the nature-nurture debate. By dividing the living world into biology (flesh, blood, genes, hormones, germs) and culture (environment, politics, tradition, commerce, history), we have come to regard bodies as objects immune to historical forces. This course challenges this understanding of bodies. By focusing primarily on American bodies in the 19th and 20th centuries, this course demonstrates that human bodies have social and cultural histories. The lived experience and cultural meanings of human bodies are dependent on their social settings. Biology is surely not irrelevant to bodily experience. But the interpretation and valuation of biologyindeed what is considered biological change over time. Within a larger three-unit framework (outlined below), this course will highlight the social values placed on different bodies and the changing social expectations bodies create. This course will pay particular attention to the following questions: How have cultural and social changes in American history influenced the meaning and experience of bodies? How have attempts to establish social status and difference focused on bodies? How has the social and economic value of bodies differed according to race, class, sex, and "fitness?" How has a focus on bodies individualized social problems?
History of Science 555: Undergraduate Seminar
Topic: Technology, Medicine and Science in the 1960s-Enthusiasts and
Critics
3 cr.; A (Advanced); 1:20-3:15 T, 6109 Social Science. Prerequisites: Open to History of Science majors only; initial preference to seniors.
Instructor: Eric Schatzberg
This seminar introduces majors in History of Science to the process of doing history, not just reading it. The course will guide students through the steps involved in producing a 15 to 25-page paper based on original historical research using primary sources. These steps include topic selection, bibliographies, interpretation of sources, and techniques for writing and revising the paper.
The topic for this semester focuses on the culture of technology, medicine and science in the long 1960s, the period from the launch of Sputnik in 1957 to the oil crisis of 1974. This period witnessed a dramatic shift in the public response to science and technology, a shift from untempered enthusiasm to deep ambivalence. Readings for the seminar are intended to provide historical background and to introduce research methods. Most of the required work will consist of library research and writing.
Students will be able to choose from a wide range of topics, among them debates over nuclear fallout, critiques of automobile safety, enthusiasm for space flight, feminist critiques of medical practice, environmental concerns over pesticides, scientists' responses to the War in Vietnam, and critiques of technology in film and fiction.
History of Science 562: Byzantine Medicine and Pharmacy
(crosslisted with S&A Pharmacy, History, Medical History and Medieval Studies)
3 cr.; H (Humanities), D (Intermediate or Advanced); 2:30-3:45 TR, 2327 Sterling; junior or senior standing or consent of instructor.
Instructor: John Scarborough
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 903: Seminar
Topic: Scientific Biography
3 cr.; 2:30-5:00 T, 6117 Social Science. Prerequisites: Graduate student or consent of instructor.
Instructor: Florence Hsia
Despite historians’ efforts to move beyond the confines of the ‘Great Man’ approach to history, biographical accounts of great scientists are alive and well in both the popular and scholarly literature, as recent studies of Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, and John Harrison show. We will look at a wide variety of materials (personal diaries, anecdotal accounts, doxographical collections, and academic ééloges, to name a few) in order to explore how the genre of scientific biography was constructed in early modern Europe as part and parcel of the larger movement we call the Scientific Revolution. We will also consider the growing body of contemporary scholarship on biographical approaches to early modern European natural philosophers, ranging from autobiography, psychohistory and existential biography to prosopography, scientific personae, and other forms of collective biography. Requirements include presentations and a 15-20 page seminar paper.
History of Science 919 - Seminar
Topic: Medical Knowledges in Asia
(crosslisted with Medical History)
3cr.; 2:30-5:00 pm M, 1406 MSC; Prerequisites: Grad standing and consent of instructor.
Instructor: Srirupa Prasad
It will provide knowledge of the context and development of the important concepts, ideas, and practices in some of the medical traditions of Asia. It will also look at the interaction between these existing traditions and the medical and scientific ideas imported from Europe during the colonial period. It will further explore some of the recent transmission of medical ideas from India and China into the western world. The course will offer a broad historical understanding of some of these processes. It will focus on Indian, Chinese, and Tibetan medicine, with some case studies from Southeast Asia.
History of Science 950: History of Science Colloquium
0-1 cr.; A (Advanced) 3:30-5:30 W, 6203 Social Science; Prerequisites: History of Science major; Graduate Standing
Instructor: Eric Schatzberg
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.