CAT 3C Controlling Life Professor Naomi Oreskes T TH 9:30-10:50 Pepper Canyon Hall

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1 CAT 3C Controlling Life Professor Naomi Oreskes T TH 9:30-10:50 Pepper Canyon Hall Office HSS 6086A noreskes@ucsd.edu Office Hours: Mondays 1-3 pm and by appointment Synopsis Historians often think of the 20 th century as a century of death, as tens of millions of individuals lost their lives at the hands of brutal dictators, in revolutions, and in two world wars. But the 20 th century was also the century of controlling life, as scientifically based concepts and technologies inspired both individuals and nation-states to try to improve on life as given in nature. The results of this inspiration were both benevolent and malevolent. New forms of technology gave individuals new choices and opportunities, but the desire to improve the human race also led to repressive antimiscegenation laws, forced sterilizations, and mass murder. This course will focus on three major cultural expressions of the goal of controlling life: eugenics and racial hygiene; birth control and the contraceptive pill; and contemporary biotechnology. We will explore both the scientific and technological bases for these movements, their cultural forms, and artistic responses to the promises and the threat of controlled life. Assignments There will be an assigned reading for every class, either in one or more of the required books, or in an electronic reserve reading. There will be two papers, a final project with paper, and a final exam. Following Sixth College guidelines, attendance in class and active participation in section is required. Grading Two papers: 15% each (2 x 15 = 30%) Final Exam, Essay style, with questions provided in advance, 20% Final Paper/Project 30% (See details below) Attendance and section participation 20% Controlling Life Group Project and Final Paper For the course project and paper, students will work in small groups to make a 5-minute video interviewing an active

2 member in a current debate surrounding past, present, or proposed future attempts to control life, such as (but not limited to) stem cell research, cloning for reproductive or research purposes, bioengineered transgenic crops and animals, etc. Students will be asked identify a specific individual, involved in some way in the issue, who they will interview for the purpose of producing a five-minute video on the topic. For example, students might interview a nurse who works with neo-natal IVF babies born prematurely, an advocate for the disabled who opposes pre-natal testing, or an activist lobbying in favor of stem cell research. Scientists in Biotechnology, Ethics Professors, Medical Care Practitioners, nurses, patients, stem cell researchers,artists, politicians, and social activists would all make excellent candidates for the interviews. Having found an interview subject, students will develop a set of questions, to guide the interview. After several iterations of editing the footage (with help from our digital media coordinator, Tara Knight, the projects will be screened for the class in the first annual Controlling Life Film Festival. A range of prizes will be awarded for the Most Insightful interview, the Funniest, the Most Terrifying, the weirdest you get the idea. Each individual student will also be required to submit a 5- page written paper explaining the context of their interview. This will include discussion of why you chose this particular person, how you developed your question set, what you learned most from the process, what questions arose for your from your project, and what questions arose from viewing the collection of videos of the entire class. Required books 1. Sourcebook on History of Evolution, Mark A Largent. This book will be arriving late, but excerpts will be available on line. if you need to save money, skip buying this and read early sections on line, the rest on reserve. 2. In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity, Daniel J. Kevles 3. Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis, Robert Proctor

3 4. On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, , Elizabeth Siegel Watkins 5. Whose View of Life?: Embryos, Cloning, and Stem Cells, Jane Maienschein 6. Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood 7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, Original 1818 edition only, please.

4 Schedule of classes, readings, and assignments Part I. From natural selection to improving the race Tuesday April 3 Charles Darwin and the idea of selection Reading: Largent, 75-84, , Thursday April 5 But who selects? Reading: Largent, ; Kevles, Tuesday April 10 Eugenics in America, I. Kevles, ; Largent, Thursday April 12 Eugenics in America II Kevles, Film in section: Are you fit to marry? (1927) Tuesday April 17 Racial Hygiene, I: The idea of racial health Proctor, Thursday April 19 Racial Hygiene, II: From cleansing the race to mass murder Proctor, Tuesday April 24 Film in class: Nazi Medicine: In the Shadow of the Reich Proctor, Paper 1: Eugenic Logic and Illogic First draft due in class Thursday April 26 Thursday April 26 Guest lecture: Deborah Hertz, Professor of History and Herman Wouk Chair in Modern Jewish Studies. Film in Section: Excerpts from Triumph of the Will Part II. A technological vision: the Engineering Ideal in biology Tuesday May 1: Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal Largent, ; Pauly [electronic reserve]

5 Thursday May 3 From parthenogenesis to birth control Pauly, , [electronic reserve] Tuesday May 8 The eugenic and cultural origins of birth control Largent, , Watkins, Paper 1: Eugenic Logic and Illogic Revised version due in class Tuesday May 8 Interlude: Artistic interpretations of scientific hubris Thursday May 10 Film in class: Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931, 71 minutes) Reading: Shelley, Frankenstein, The original 1818 text. Tuesday May 15 Film in class: Man-made Monster (1941, 59 minutes) Presentation by Tara Knight, Sixth College, about video interview project. Thursday May 17 Film in class: Mary Shelley s Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh, 1994, 123 minutes) Paper # 2: The Frankenstein theme and its alternative endings Due in class Tuesday May 22 Part III: Biotechnology: Newfound freedom or a new eugenics? Tuesday May 22 The Pill and the Sexual Revolution Watkins, Thursday May 24 Do embryos have rights? Should they? Maienschein Tuesday May 29 Cloning and stem cell research: promise, hype, or immoral human experimentation?

6 Maienschein, Part IV The current debate Thursday May 31 Projects shown in lecture, I Video projects due in section. Final paper first draft due in class, Thursday May 31 Tuesday June 5 Projects shown in lecture, II Begin reading Atwood, The Handmaid s Tale. Thursday June 7 A sterile future? Finish reading Atwood, The Handmaid s Tale. Final paper, revised version, due Monday June 11. FINAL EXAM Wednesday, June am