Anthropology 455: An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies
- Jan. 18: Introduction and Case Study
- Jan. 23: Science Made and Science in the Making 1
Required:
1. Bruno Latour, Science in Action, Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 1986. Chapters 1-3
- Jan. 30: Science Made and Science in the Making
1. Bruno Latour, Science in Action, Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 1986. Chapters 4-end
2. Bruno Latour, "Postmodern? No, simply amodern! Steps toward an anthropology of science," Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci. Vol. 21, No. 1 pp. 145-171.
- Feb. 6: Actor Network Theory
Required:
1. Bruno Latour, Science in Action, Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 1986. Chapters 5-end
2. Michel Callon, "Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay" in Science Studies Reader
3. Bruno Latour "On Recalling ANT" Latour, B. In Law, J. and Hassard, J. (eds.), Actor network theory and after, Blackwell, pp. 15-25, 1999. Draft Version online
4. 3. Michel Callon and Vololona Rabeharisoa "Gino's lesson on humanity: genetics, mutual entanglements and the sociologist's role" Economy and Society, 33(1), February 2004 p. 1 - 27. Available online (on campus) at
- Feb 13: Science, Politics and Social Order 1
Required:
1. Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air Pump, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985 pp. 1-80.
2. Steven, Shapin, The Social History of Truth: civility and science in seventeenth-century England, Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1994, Introduction, Chapter 1
3. Donna Haraway "Modest_Witness@Second_Millenium." in Modest_Witness@Second_Millenium. FemaleMan(c)_Meets_OncoMouse(tm), New York: Routledge, 1997 pp. 23-49.
Additional/Supplementary:
1. Bruno Latour "Drawing Things Together," in Michael Lynch and Steve Woolgar ed. Representation in Scientific Practice, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990.
2.Elizabeth Potter, Gender and Boyle's Gases, Indiana University Press, 2001
- Feb. 20: Science, Politics and Social Order 2
Required:
1. Shapin and Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air Pump. chs. 3-4.
2. Hobbes, Leviathan, selections. 3. Union of Concerned Scientists, "Scientific Integrity in Policy Making Investigation of the Bush administration's abuse of science," http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/reports-scientific-integrity-in-policy-making.html
- Feb. 27: Science, Politics and Social Order 3
Required:
1. Shapin and Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air Pump. chs. 5,7,8 (6 optional).
2. Introduction, Science bought and sold : essays in the economics of science,ed. Philip Mirowski and Esther-Mirjam Sent, Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press, 2002 (High quality (16MB) | Med. Quality (9MB))
- Mar 6: Subjectivity and Situation
Required:
1. Haraway, "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and The Privelege of Partial Perspective" Science Studies Reader
2. Karen Barad, "Agential Realism: Feminist Interventions in Understanding Scientific Practies" in Science Studies Reader
3. Alison Wylie, "The engendering of Archaeology: Refiguring Feminist Science Studies," in The Science Studies Reader
- March 13: "Spring" break. Book Review.
Texts to choose from:
Ludwig Fleck, The genesis and construction of a scientific fact
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
David Bloor, Knowledge and Social Imagery
Ian Hacking, Representing and Intervening
Bruno Latour and Steve Woolger, Laboratory Life
Evelyn Fox Keller, Reflections on Gender and Science
Donna Haraway, Primate Visions
Donald MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy
Collins, H. M., (1985) Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice Beverley Hills & London: Sage. [2nd edition 1992, Chicago: University of Chicago Press]
Charis Thompson, Making Parents
Jenny Reardon, Race to the Finish
Joseph Dumit, Picturing Personhood
Paul Rabinow and >?? Machine to make a future
Andrew Lakoff, Pharmaceutical Reason
John Law Aircraft Stories, Durham : Duke University Press, 2002.
Sheila Jasanoff, Designs on Nature
Collins, Harry, (2004) Gravity's Shadow: The Search for Gravitational Waves Chicago: University of Chicago Press
- March 20: Book Review Presentations in class.
- March 27: Objectivity and Description
Required:
1. Michael Lynch and John Law, "Pictures, Texts, and Objects: The literary language game of bird-watching,", in The Science Studies Reader.
2. Peter Galison & Lorraine Daston, "The Image of Objectivity," Representations 40 Fall 1992: 81-128. (available through JSTOR) or from course website ( here ).
Additional/Supplementary:
1. Svetlana Alpers, The art of describing : Dutch art in the seventeenth century, Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1983.
2. Edgerton, Samuel Y. The Renaissance rediscovery of linear perspective, New York : Basic Books, [1975].
- April 3: Experiments and Systems
Required:
1. Rheinberger, Experimental Systems, Historiality, Narration, and Deconstruction in the Science Studies Reader
2. Hughes, Thomas The Evolution of Large Technological Systems in the Science Studies Reader
3. Peter Galison, Trading Zone: Coordinating Action and Belief in the Science Studies Reader
- April 10: Objects and tools
Required:
1. Collins, H. M., (1974) `The TEA Set: Tacit Knowledge and Scientific Networks', Science Studies, 4, 165-186. in Science Studies Reader
2. Susan Leigh Star and James Griesemer, Institutional Ecology, "translation," and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 1907-39 Science Studies Reader
3. Stephen Collier Budgets and Biopolitics in Global Assemblages Copy on Course website
- April 17: From science to global technical modernity
Special Visit from Neal Lane, University Professor of Physics, former Science advisor to President Bill Clinton
Required Readings: 1. Sheila Jasanoff, "(No?) Accounting for Science" Science and Public Policy June 2003, p. 157. PDF 2. Nowotny, et. al. Re-Thinking Science, chs 1, 4, 16.
- April 24: Class review and conclusion
Additional/Supplementary:
1. http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/ant.html
2. Journals: Social Studies of Science, Science Technology and Human Values, New Genetics and Society, Science in Context, Critical Inquiry, Common Knowledge, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, Representations, Configurations, Grey Room, Economy and Society
Other Important Information:
Incompletes are not given.
Honor Code issues: For the assignments, group investigation and
research is encouraged, but each assignment handed in must be the
student's own original work. In the case of group assignments,
division of labor will be up to the students, and any necessary
honor code guidelines will be provided.
Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to speak with the instructor during the first two weeks of class. All discussions will remain confidential. Students with disabilities will need to also contact Disability Support Services in the Ley Student Center.
