STHS

Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response. Technology has powerfully shaped and altered human experience. In this course, students examine what is technology, how is our relationship with technology changing, how does technology shape our modern culture and, in turn, how does our culture shape our technology. Topics covered may include: the industrial revolution, the airplane, Julia Child's kitchen, the Chernobyl disaster, and the development of the internet.

This is a 'Special Topics' course designed by students with the support of faculty to promote project-based learning for topics that do not fit within the rubric of an independent study or an existing full-unit course. The course broadly addresses themes related to STEM and social justice in a range of ways. Examples include designing a syllabus and seminar series on diversity in STEM or composing supplementary material for science courses on issues that relate to society and justice.

This course is an activity credit where students write for and participate in STHS in the News, a student-run STHS blog. Students become familiar with the approach and style of academic blog writing, producing essays with novel content that both engage with current events related to science and technology and synthesize ideas from STHS scholarship. Weekly meetings are required to select topics, discuss STHS, promote the development of writing skills, and manage STHS in the News.

This course is a 0.25-unit activity credit where students produce content for and participate in the student-run science magazine Elements. Students become familiar with approaches to popular science writing and communication. They produce novel essays and other forms of content that both engage with current events and synthesize ideas from scholarship on science and technology.

This course examines the historical relationship between science and religion in the United States with particular attention to debates over human origins and climate change. The course is guided by the following questions: How have beliefs regarding God and Nature diverged in the U.S. and why? What roles have changing answers to the questions (addressed by both scientists and theologians) about the origin of human beings and human nature played in this history? Who, historically, got to determine the terms of debate, why, and to what end?

This course examines the history of both scientific ecology and recent movements to interrogate, question, and revise the West's understanding of nature, including Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). In doing so the course places both defenses and critiques of Western science in historical context, with particular emphasis on potential implications for environmental policy.

What does it mean to live a scientific life? Historically, people have studied nature for many different reasons--to better understand humanity's place in the universe, to assist in the production of food and medicine, to satisfy curiosity, etc.--and this knowledge and understanding of the natural world has evolved over time. Science reflects not only nature's inner workings, but also social and cultural values and is shaped powerfully by what people want to see and know.

Students in this course analyze the history of the physical and biological sciences since 1800, paying special attention to the reciprocal relationship between scientific knowledge and social context. Beginning with the social and intellectual upheaval of the French and Haitian Revolutions, this course highlights how an historical approach can inform our understanding of the triumphs and tragedies of scientific and technological development.

Benjamin Disraeli described the question placed before society by Charles Darwin's work as follows: "Is man an ape or an angel?" This course examines the development of evolutionary thinking during the nineteenth century and the resulting debates over the "Descent of Man." It explores the relationship between Darwin's theory of evolution and the social, political and religious history of Britain and the British Empire in the nineteenth century.

This course focuses on the history of science, technology, and society from Antiquity to 1700 C.E. It emphasizes both the theoretical understanding of nature and the practical mastery of the technologies of settled existence. Topics include: astronomy in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece; ancient Greek and early Chinese medicine; Islamic science in the Middle Ages; Renaissance anatomy, physiology, and natural history; and the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century.