STS 101
Science, Technology and colonialism:A Critical global introduction to Science and Technology Studies Fall 2020 (also offered Spring 2021)
Division II
Cross-listed HSCI 101
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

The protests that followed the murder of George Floyd have brought to the fore the realities of racism and violence that Black, Indigenous and People of Color experience daily. They also motivated a long overdue reckoning in various fields and institutions with the legacy of structural racism, and of colonial history. The history of modern science and technology is intractably connected to colonial expansion, decolonization and neo-colonialism. From genocide of Indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Africans, to colonial medicine, eugenics and the atomic bomb, to the out-sourcing of expensive and environmentally hazardous technologies to the Global South, modern science and technology cannot be fully understood without serious reckoning with the history of colonialism, race, gender and sexuality. In this course, we will investigate the history of modern science and technology at a global level from the sixteenth century to today. We will look at how scientific knowledge and institutions influenced and were influenced by colonial expansion and decolonization, by racism and antiracist struggles, by questions of gender and sexuality and by feminist and LGBTQ+ activism. The course will move through different episodes using objects and case studies to understand the history of science and technology, and discuss the methods of science and technology studies. This course is an introduction to Science and Technology Studies. It will be accompanied by an advanced seminar (201) for more advanced students interested in these questions.
The Class: Format: seminar; Remote
Limit: 15
Expected: 15
Class#: 2780
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: two or three short exercises, two papers (3-5 pages and 5-7 pages), and two hour exams
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: first-years and sophomores
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
STS 101 Division II HSCI 101 Division II
DPE Notes: The course addresses how epidemics, and the way medical and political institutions dealt with them, were shaped by issues of race, gender, sexuality and human difference, and how epidemics in turn impacted perception of race, gender and sexuality.

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