STV Fall 2011 Course Offerings

Transcription

1 STV Courses Fall 2011 A few reminders in preparation for the Fall 2011 semester: 1. STV students are strongly encouraged to take the core course, STV 20556, as soon as possible to avoid potential time conflicts in the future. This class will be offered both semesters this academic year, Each of the Science, Technology, and Values courses listed has a cross-listing in one or another of the regular departments of the university. STV Minors may enroll in these as STV courses. 3. Students wishing to use STV courses to satisfy university requirements must register for them as departmental courses, not as STV courses. Students wishing to double-count a course for both a university requirement and for the STV minor should first consult with the STV Education Director, Edward Jurkowitz. Please keep in mind that courses may NOT be double-counted for the STV minor and a major or another minor. 4. As always, please check Inside.ND for the most current course information. Courses are listed according to cluster, then in numerical order. Please contact Edward Jurkowitz, the Director of the undergraduate Program for Science, Technology and Values, at ejurkowi@nd.edu if you have any questions. STV Fall 2011 Course Offerings The Core Course (Unless otherwise noted, all courses are 3 credit hours) This is the only required course for the STV minor. Students are recommended to take it as soon as possible. STV Science, Technology and Society MW 12:50 1:40 (Hamlin) 3 CRN: Crosslist: PHIL & HESB Students in STV must also register for a section of STV Science, Technology and Society Discussion. This course introduces the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies. Our concern will be with science and technology (including medicine) as social and historical, i.e., as human, phenomena. We shall examine the divergent roots of contemporary science and technology, and the similarities and (sometimes surprising) differences in their methods and goals. The central theme of the course will be the ways in which science and technology interact with other aspects of society, including the effects of

2 technical and theoretical innovation in bringing about social change, and the social shaping of science and technology themselves by cultural, economic and political forces. Because science/society interactions so frequently lead to public controversy and conflict, we shall also explore what resources are available to mediate such conflicts in an avowedly democratic society. STV Science, Technology and Society Discussion F 12:50 1:40 (TBA) CRN: This is the required discussion section for STV Science, Technology and Society. STV Science, Technology and Society Discussion F 1:55 2:45 (TBA) CRN: This is the required discussion section for STV Science, Technology and Society. Cluster 1: Human Dimensions of Science and Technology Any course number xx1xx is in cluster 1. STV Death and Dying TR 2:00-3:15 (Nieman) 3 CRN: Crosslist: PHIL This course examines metaphysical and ethical issues associated with bodily death. Metaphysical issues taken up in this course include the following: What is death? Is death a bad thing? Is there any hope for survival of death? Ethical issues to be discussed include suicide, euthanasia, and abortion. STV Science and Theology MWF 10:40-11:30 (Ashley) 3 CRN: Crosslist: THEO Both science and religion generate assertions that are held to provide true descriptions of the world and our place in it. Both science and theology subject these assertions to disciplined inquiry and testing within specific communities. In societies (like ours) in which both science and religion are vital forces, these processes of enquiry and testing overlap and interrelate in complicated ways, resulting sometimes in conflict and sometimes in mutual enrichment. This course will investigate these interrelations by means three case studies: the Galileo affair, the conflict of evolution and creationism, and the ethical issues that arise from new genetic biotechnologies.

3 STV Gender and Science MW 5:10-6:25 (Kourany) CRN: Crosslist: PHIL An exploration of the ways in which science is gendered, starting with the ways in which women have been excluded from science, and moving through such issues as the invisibility and shabby treatment of women with the products of scientific research, the contributions of women to science and whether these are different in kind from the contributions of men, and the differential effects of science on men s and women s lives. STV History of Television TR 2:00-3:15 (TBA) CRN: Crosslist: FTT Students registering for STV must also register for STV History of Television Lab. This course analyzes the history of television, spanning from its roots in radio broadcasting to the latest developments in digital television. In assessing the many changes across this span, the course will cover such topics as why the American television industry developed as a commercial medium in contrast to most other national television industries, how television programming has both reflected and influenced cultural ideologies through the decades, and how historical patterns of television consumption have shifted due to new technologies and social changes. Through studying the historical development of television programs and assessing the industrial, technological, political, aesthetic and cultural systems out of which they emerged, the course will piece together the catalysts responsible for shaping this highly influential medium. STV History of Television -Lab W 6:30-8:30 (TBA) CRN: Crosslist: FTT This is the required discussion section for STV History of Television. STV American Wilderness MW 11:45-1:00 (Coleman) CRN: Crosslist: AMST How is a national park different from a national wilderness area, a city park, the lakes at Notre Dame, or your back yard? Why are some considered more wild than others, and why is wilderness such an attractive idea? Writers, historians, painters, photographers, and politicians have described American landscapes as wild to great effect, in concert with identities of gender, class, race, and nation. This class will explore how the idea of wilderness-and the places associated with that idea- have developed during the 19th and 20th centuries. We will examine how wilderness has supported the growth of a national identity but largely failed to recognize the diversity of the American people. Course themes include: 1) developing the wilderness idea; 2) national parks and the problem on wilderness; 3) wilderness experience and politics; and 4) wilderness narratives. Readings will range from Henry David Thoreau and John Muir to Edward Abbey and Jon Krakauer, and there will be a strong visual culture component. For their final project, students will choose a wild place of their own to interpret.

4 STV Philosophy of Science TR 2:00-3:15 (Ramsey) CRN: Crosslist: PHIL A detailed consideration of the central methodological and epistemological questions bearing on science. STV Exploring Critical Topics in Science, Technology and Society TR 11:00-12:15 (Jurkowitz) CRN: This course explores important topics and methods in the history and philosophy of science (HPS), and in what has come to be called science and technology studies (STS). How do drawings, photographs, graphs, computer generated images, or more generally visual representations, display nature, present data, and express theoretical claims? What did it mean to be a scientist (or natural philosopher ) in the eighteenth century? How have the communities of scientists and of engineers changed over the past four centuries? How can we know what environmental changes will occur in the future, and, more generally, what role have models, mechanical, electrical, theoretical, as well as mechanical and computer simulations, played in scientific and technological investigations? How about today? Compared with the Science, Technology and Values survey (STV 20556), in this course we examine fewer topics in greater depth. STV Technology in History MWF 11:45 12:35 (Hamlin) CRN: Crosslist: HIST A thematic survey of the history of technology, from the Neolithic discovery of agriculture to the information age. Topics include the chemistry and metallurgy of antiquity (high-tech ca B.C.), technology in Christian theology; the power revolution of 1200; arms races from the 15th century onward; the marriage of art and science; the industrial, agricultural, transport and communications revolutions; the American system of manufactures; the evolution of the engineering profession; and modern efforts to plan the technological future. These topics form the basis for exploring the following themes: How does technology change? How did we get where we are - do we have the technology now that we must have, should have, or need to have? What guides technical creativity? How have social effects of technologies been assessed and dealt with? How have technologies fundamentally changed ordinary life and societal organization? STV Telling About Society: Media, Rep. and Soc of Knowledge TR 12:30 1:45 (McDonnell) CRN: Crosslist: SOC How do we see the world? How do these modes of representation determine our social reality? How can we use media to create social change? This rigorous seminar interrogates the lenses through which we see, and more importantly make, our world. We open with an interrogation of theories of media, representation, and the sociology of knowledge so as to develop a critical eye towards how these lenses shape our everyday

5 reality. From there we discuss particular modes of representation: photography, ethnography, statistics, journalism, maps, and more. We consider the inherent biases within these ways of seeing, and debate the appropriate uses of these technologies. From this starting point, the course turns its eye to particular historical periods and phenomena: the Great Depression, Vietnam War, the era of HIV/AIDS, and the growing surveillance society. We compare across different media representations of each event to evaluate how different media tell very different kinds of stories about that moment. Ultimately, this class presses students to consider the capacities of these media for encouraging mobilization and change to redesign the world. To work through these issues, students will engage in fieldwork on a local topic of their choosing. Their final project will consider how different media have shaped our knowledge of a local issue, and in response students will create a final multimedia campaign designed to alter people s ways of seeing that topic. In this project, students will persuade their audience using a variety of "lenses" to make their case: from ethnography to documentary film to radio journalism to new media and more. STV The Life and Works of Darwin TR 9:30 10:45 (David) CRN: Crosslist: PHIL Through Darwin s work and biographic material about Darwin, we examine his ideas as well as the social content in which these ideas were developed. Cluster 2: Science, Technology and Ethics Any course number xx2xx is in cluster 2. STV Medical Ethics MW 10:40 11:30 (Solomon) CRN: Crosslist: PHIL Students in STV must also register for discussion section STV An exploration from the point of view of ethical theory of a number of ethical problems in contemporary biomedicine. Topics discussed will include euthanasia, abortion, the allocation of scarce medical recourses, truth telling in the doctor-patient relationship, the right to medical care and informed consent and human experimentation. STV Medical Ethics-Discussion Section F 10:40 11:30 CRN: This is the required discussion section for STV Medical Ethics.

6 STV Bio-Medical Ethics, Scientific Evidence & Public Health Risk T 3:30 6:00 (Shrader-Frechette) CRN: Crosslist: PHIL An analysis of the ethical theories provided by contemporary philosophers to guide research and practice in biomedicine. The course will focus on analysis of contemporary public health problems created by environmental/technological pollution and will addresses classic cases of biomedical ethics problems. Students who are not pre-med, engineering, or science majors need the professor s permission to take this course. Cluster 3: Science, Technology and Public Policy Course numbers xx3xx are in cluster 3. STV Energy and Society TR 3:30 4:45 (Aprahamian) CRN: Crosslist: PHYS A course developing the basic ideas of energy and power and their applications from a quantitative and qualitative viewpoint. The fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) are studied together with their societal limitations (pollution, global warming, diminishing supply). Nuclear power is similarly studied in the context of the societal concerns that arise (radiation, reactor accidents, nuclear weapons proliferation, highlevel waste disposal). The opportunities as well as the risks presented by alternative energy resources, in particular solar energy, wind, geothermal and hydropower, together with various aspects of energy conservation are developed and discussed. This course is designed for the non-specialist. STV Environmental Chemistry TR 11:00 12:15 (Maurice) CRN: Crosslist: Crosslist: CE This course begins with a) an overview of the formation and general chemical characteristics of the Earth and b) an introduction to the natural global physical and chemical cycles. There will be major sections on the Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. The major chemical processes within each of these compartments and chemical aspects of associated modern-day environmental problems will be reviewed. Special sections on Energy and the Environment and the Chemistry of Global Climate will be included. STV Intro to the American Health Care System MW 12:45 1:40 (Navari) CRN: Crosslist: SCPP The course will begin with a short history of the American health care system and will be followed by a discussion of the major components of the system (patients, providers, payers) health insurance coverage,

7 managed care programs, the movement for quality health care, physicians in the changing medical marketplace, health care expenditures, and academic medical centers. STV Environmental Politics TR 3:30 4:45 (TBA) CRN: Crosslist: POLS The first half of the course provides an overview of major American environmental policies such as regulating land use and preservation, water, air, and endangered species. The second half of the course deals more directly with issues of policy formulation, implementation and enforcement. STV Self, Society and Environment TR 2:00 3:15 (Weigert) CRN: Crosslist: SOC This course introduces students to social psychological aspects of the natural environment. Issues considered include interacting with different environments, symbolic transformations of environments, competing accounts, and claims concerning environments. With an overview of basic information, these issues are discussed from the perspectives of individual self and sociocultural institutions. The course touches on alternative ways of envisioning, interacting, and valuing human-environment relations with an eye toward individual and collective change. Cluster 4: Electives Course numbers xx4xx can only be counted toward the elective portion of the STV minor. Students may takeany STV course to count towards this elective. STV Animal Welfare & Human-Animal Bond W 5:00 6:30 (Whaley) CRN: Crosslist: CSC Consider the fact that in six short years, one female dog and her offspring can give birth to 67,000 puppies. In seven years, one cat and her young can produce 420,000 kittens. Three to four million dogs and cats are euthanized each year. It is estimated that there are 60 million feral cats in the US. In a society that considers pets as part of their family, watches Animal Planet, and spends millions of dollars on pet products, it is imperative that we acknowledge and educate ourselves on the issues of over population of pet animals in our society. What is our responsibility to these animals, and how can we solve these pressing problems? The focus of this course will be on animal behavior from an evolutionary perspective. The students will learn to recognize bother desirable and undesirable behaviors in pet animals. They will learn how to use evolutionary behavior training methods to alter detrimental behaviors and reinforce those that are advantageous. This course will also cover animal welfare issues, and will intimately and meaningfully connect the state of humans, to that of animals. The students will carry out community research projects of their choice and will immerse themselves in an important issue and generate a product that can help the plight of animals (and therefore humans) in our community.