From iPhones to intelligence testing to immunizations, technology, science, and medicine permeate our modern lives. In this course, students will learn to think critically about technology, science, and medicine and analyze how they have transformed the world in spectacular and mundane ways. We explore questions such as: How have debates between doctors and activists shaped policy over vaccination mandates and the AIDS epidemic? How has the Internet changed how we think and influenced grassroots political movements? What are the effects of the tests experts use to categorize people? How have culture and politics affected the goals and designs of such technologies as guns, washing machines, and electrical systems? How have science, technology, and politics interacted in debates over climate change? And, ultimately, how should we manage the tension between popular democracy and technical expertise?
Course Requirements:
Requirements include attendance at both lectures and section, weekly reading, several short reading response papers, two longer essays.
Class Format:
There will be two lectures and one discussion session per week.