STSC Related Courses, Fall 2006

Official course infomation including accurate room and time information can be found on
the UC Berkeley Online Schedule of Classes.

African American Studies

• Africam C134. Information Technology and Society. Laguerre.

  This course assesses the role of information technology in the digitalization of society by focusing on the deployment of e-government, e-commerce, e-learning, the digital city, telecommuting, virtual communities, Internet time, the virtual office, and the geography of cyberspace. Course will also discuss the role of information technology in the governance and economic development of society.

  Day/Time: M 2-5 pm

Agricultural and Resource Economics

• A,RESEC 241. Economics and Policy of Production, Technology and Risk in Agricultural and Natural Resources. Zilberman.

  This course covers alternative models of production, resource and environmental risk management; family production function; adoption and diffusion; innovation and intellectual property rights; agricultural and environmental policies and their impact on production and the environment; water resources; pest control; biotechnology; and optimal control over space and time.

  Day/Time: TuTh 12:30-2pm

Anthropology

• Anthro 176. Latin America, Science and the State. Hayden.

  This course addresses key areas of anthropological engagement in contemporary Latin America through the lens of science, technology, and medicine. For example, we will explore crucial work on race, gender, citizenship, and the nation-state through an engagement with historical and contemporary interventions in eugenics, reproduction, and public health. The relation between "traditional" knowledge and agricultural or pharmaceutical research (such as in Mexico and Peru) will be our entry point into a consideration of the central role of "knowledge" and natural history in colonialism; the relation between indigenismo and state development strategies; and contemporary concerns about globalization and intellectual property. Current controversies swirling around oil, coca, and water supplies in South America (particularly Bolivia and Venezuela) will be our points of departure for thinking about the relationship between "nature" and national sovereignties. Throughout, we will be attuned to what an anthropological perspective, and particularly work on the anthropology of science, technology, and medicine, brings to our understandings of contemporary issues in Latin America.

  Day/Time: TuTh 11-12:30pm

• Anthro 250X - 6. Modernity and Power. Rabinow.

  This advanced research seminar-consent of instructor required-will focus on the state of inquiry into the relationships between and among biopolitics, humanitarianism, and emergent political rationalities. The seminar is an extension of the work on these topics undertaken during the academic year 2005-2006.

  Day/Time: W 3-6pm

• Anthro 250X - 9. Race and Racisms. Moore.

  This graduate seminar examines historically specific political technologies of power that have used “race” as a critical marker of identity, difference, and subjugation. Anthropology’s disciplinary history is integrally entangled with racialized regimes of imperial rule as well as anti-racist projects that have highlighted the cultural politics of difference. What are the analytical and political stakes of anthropological representations that foreground race? In turn, how has interdisciplinary work that examines the cultural politics and material exclusions of racism influenced anthropological agendas? To address these questions, we explore recent forms of ethnographic representation that intervene in contemporary debates at once academic and explicitly political. Conceiving of race as a constitutive feature of modern power, the course traces genealogies of race that have articulated with political formations of nation, state, and empire. Attending to the historical contingency of distinct racisms (in the plural), we focus on discursive and material practices of racism in culturally, historically, and geographically diverse contexts. We ask how race articulates with other forms of difference and inequalities, shaping lived experiences and political subjectivation. Conceptual readings complement detailed history and ethnography to examine the processes that interpellate racialized subjects, influence political exclusions, and shape terrains of struggle. In so doing, we necessarily encounter the cultural politics of gender, class, and ethnicity as well as those of nativism, nationalism, and diaspora. Readings include conceptual statements by Hannah Arendt, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Paul Gilroy, and Lisa Lowe, as well as ethnographic endeavors by Jacqueline Nassy Brown, Charles Hale, John L, Jackson, Jr., Mahmood Mamdani, and Ann Laura Stoler, Topics include: anticolonial articulations of racism; the Rwandan genocide and ethnic cleansing; cultural racism and the politics of place in Europe; indigenous social movements in multicultural Guatemala; multiracial coalitions of the “Third World Left” in Los Angeles; racialization in the wake of 9/11; and genomics and genetic medicine.

  Day/Time: Tu 5-7pm

• Anthro 250X - 4. Anthropology of Science. Hayden.

  This graduate seminar explores work at the intersection of science studies and anthropology, with a particular interest in the emergent field of postcolonial science studies. Readings will address, first, some fundamental arguments and methodological interventions in/across science studies. Critical debates over science studies and its status as itself a form of social theory and key themes in these debates extended across several fields of inquiry. Broadly stated, topics will include: Notions of alterity, local or traditional knowledge, and encounter; constructions of nature and natural histories understood through critical engagement with colonialism, race, and nationalism; questions of exchange, reciprocities, and the propertization of scientific research; and technoscience as a mode of configuring citizenships and allocating the functions of 'the state'.

  Day/Time: Tu 3-5pm

Business Administration

• PHDBA C279I. Economics of Innovation. Mowery.

  Study of innovation, technical change, and intellectual property, including the industrial organization and performance of high-technology industries and firms; the use of economic, patent, and other bibliometric data for the analysis of technical change; legal and economic issues of intellectual property rights; science and technology policy; and the contributions of innovation and diffusion to economic growth. Methods of analysis are both theoretical and empirical, econometric and case study. (Also listed as Economics C222).

  Day/Time: W 12-2pm

Cognitive Science

• CogSci C103. History of Information. Duguid.

  This course explores the history of information and associated technologies, uncovering why we think of ours as "the information age." We will select moments in the evolution of production, recording, and storage from the earliest writing systems to the world of Short Message Service (SMS) and blogs. In every instance, we'll be concerned with both what and when and how and why, and we will keep returning to the question of technological determinism: how do technological developments affect society and vice versa? Also listed as Mass Communications C103 and Information Systems and Management C103.

  Day/Time: MW 4 - 5:30 pm

Earth and Planetary Science

• EPS 170AC. Cross Roads of Earth Resources & Society. Brimhall.

  Intersection of geological processes with American cultures in the past, present and future. Overview of ethnogeology including traditional knowledge of sources and uses of earth materials and their cultural influences today. Scientific approach to study of tectonic controls on the genesis and global distribution of energy fuels, metals, and industrial minerals essential to all societies. Evolution and diversity of opinion in attitudes about resource development, environmental management and conservation on public, private and tribal lands. Statutes and history of land use conflict in the western U.S. Impending crisis in renewable energy and the imperative of resource literacy.

  Day/Time: TuTh 2-3:30pm

Energy and Resources Group

• ERG 100. Energy and Society. Kammen.

  Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.

  Day/Time: TuTh 2-3:30 pm

• ERG 190. Religion, Science, and the Ecological Crisis in Postmodern America. Norgaard.

  Religious fundamentalism is on the rise, science is being ignored and denigrated by political leaders, democracy is threatened by crony capitalism and free market fundamentalism. Meanwhile we face climate change, continued ecosystem transformation, and biodiversity loss. This course addresses the historic and now shifting ground between science, religion, and environmental governance with the aim of re-establishing constructive relationships.

  Day/Time: TuTh 3:30-5pm

• ERG 275. Water and Development. Ray.

  This class is an interdisciplinary graduate seminar for students of water policy in developing countries. It is not a seminar on theories and practices of development through the "lens" of water. Rather, it is a seminar motivated by the fact that over 1 billion people in developing countries have no access to safe drinking water, 3 billion don't have sanitation facilities and many millions of small farmers do not have reliable water supplies to ensure a healthy crop. Readings and discussions will cover: the problems of water access and use in developing countries; the potential for technological, social, and economic solutions to these problems; the role of institutions in access to water and sanitation; and the pitfalls of and assumptions behind some of today's popular "solutions."

  Day/Time: M 2-5 pm

• ER290.001. Environmental History, Culture and Policy in Latin America and Caribbean Studies. Andrade-Downs.

  This graduate seminar course presents a critical examination of scholarly and literary works documenting and studying environmental and social transformations in Latin American and Carribean bioregions. It investigates how scholars have incorporated nature in their understandings of Latin American and Caribbean history, culture and policy. What approaches do they use to appreciate the role of nature in state formation, cultural identity and policies of development/conservation? How do these studies combine: e.g. primary historical sources and ethnographies, oral histories and statistical data? For what purpose? Class time will be based on discussion of weekly readings, with guest speakers and videos to illustrate aspects of culture, landscape and politics on different regions studied.

  Day/Time: Th 3:30 - 6:30 pm

• ERG 290-002. Water Resources, Political Economy & the Environment. Kallis.

  This is a new reading and discussion seminar on water policy issues offered by Dr Giorgos Kallis, a visiting scholar at the Energy and Resources Group. Students taking this course will develop an interdisciplinary understanding of water resource problems and their political-economic dimensions. The thesis of the course is that water conflicts are conflicts over alternative values and development futures. Classes will involve case-studies, from California and the rest of the world, and theory discussion. The course will discuss issues such as: dams and conservation, desalination, water markets, privatization, water pricing and trans-boundary conflicts.The course is ideal for students with a natural sciences/engineering background who want to be exposed to social theory or social scientists who want to understand better water resource issues. The course is primarily for graduate students planning to carry out their research project on a water resource, or related, topic. Undergraduates with a strong interest on water issues may also be admitted upon consent of the instructor. Giorgos Kallis has an MSc in environmental engineering and a PhD in environmental policy and planning. He has participated in several interdisciplinary water research projects and has published articles on European water policy, urban water management and conservation, and participatory water resources planning. He studies California's water policy under a European Union International Research Fellowship. For more information, contact Giorgos Kallis at gkallis@berkeley.edu

  Day/Time: Th 3-6pm

• ERG C293A. Technology and Sustainability. Horvath.

  Assessment of the consequences and opportunities of various technological systems (such as energy, buildings, transportation, materials, waste management) for sustainable development of society. Political and economic structures of societal decision making. Environmental consequences of various technologies. Metrics and measures. Specific topics vary from year to year according to student and faculty interests. Course meetings include a mix of faculty lectures and student-led seminar presentations. Also listed as Civil and Environmental Engineering C293A.

  Day/Time: Th 4-6pm

Environmental Science, Policy & Management

• ESPM 2. The Biosphere. Banfield.

  An introduction to the unifying principles and fundamental concepts underlying our scientific understanding of the biosphere. Topics covered include the physical life support system on earth; nutrient cycles and factors regulating the chemical composition of water, air, and soil; the architecture and physiology of life; population biology and community ecology; human dependence on the biosphere; and the magnitude and consequences of human interventions in the biosphere.

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11 am

• ESPM C11. Americans and the Global Forest. Fairfax.

  This course challenges students to think about how individual and American consumer decisions affect forest ecosystems around the world. A survey course that highlights the consequences of different ways of thinking about the forest as a global ecosystem and as a source of goods like trees, water, wildlife, food, jobs, and services. The scientific tools and concepts that have guided management of the forest for the last 100 years, and the laws, rules, and informal institutions that have shaped use of the forests, are analyzed. Also listed as Letters and Science C30U.

  Day/Time: MWF 1-2 pm

• ESPM 155. Sociology of Natural Resources. Fortmann.

  Sociological perspective on the relationship between societies and wildland resource management; social definition of natural resources, identification of publics, social organization of resource use, public involvement, and social impact analysis.

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11 am

• ESPM 161. Environmental Philosophy and Ethics. Merchant.

  A critical analysis of human environments as physical, social-economic, and technocultural ecosystems with emphasis on the role of ideologies, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior. An examination of contemporary environmental literature and the philosophies embodied therein.

  Day/Time: MW 3-4 pm

• ESPM 163AC. Environmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity, and the Environment. O'Rourke.

  Overview of the field of environmental justice, analyzing the implications of race, class, labor, and equity on environmental degradation and regulation. Environmental justice movements and struggles within poor communities and communities of color in the U.S., including African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native American Indians. Frameworks and methods for analyzing race, class, and labor. Cases of environmental injustice, community, and government responses, and future strategies for achieving environmental and labor justice. Also listed as Sociology 128AC.

  Day/Time: MW 2-3 pm

• ESPM 167. Environmental Health and Development. Conis.

  Impact of environmental alterations resulting from development programs and other human activities which affect the health of people in developed and less developed parts of the world. Case studies and mitigation measures of diseases associated with water storage utilization.

  Day/Time: TuTh 3:30-5 pm

• ESPM 186. Management and Conservation of Rangeland Ecosystems. Huntsinger.

  Begins with the evolution and domestication of grazing animals, continues through ranching and rangeland stewardship practices, and explores new institutional arrangements for conservation and restoration. Woodlands, grasslands, and shrublands provide biodiversity, wildlife habitat, watershed, recreation, open space, and forage. Human practices and ecosystem dynamics meet in rangeland management. Methods for changing, predicting, or assessing the results.

  Day/Time: MWF 9-10 am

• ESPM 256. Science, Technology, and the Politics of Nature. Winickoff.

  This course will introduce the methods and theories of Science and Technology Studies (STS) in order to explore the relationships among science, technology, law, and politics in the domains of environment and health. The course will focus some attention on the tension between technocracy and democracy in science policy, and on the role of biotechnology in reshaping the natural and political order. The course will equip graduate students in the social sciences, law, life sciences, and public policy with theoretical and practical tools for analyzing complex problems at the science, technology, and society interface. (and ESPM 290P.002)

  Day/Time: W 2-5pm

Geography

• Geography 40. Global Environmental Change. Rhew.

  An overview of the interactive processes that result in the mosaic of environments on the earth and the controls on the distribution of ecosystems. Environmental change is explored on a variety of time and spatial scales so as to enhance our capability to distinguish between natural and human-induced climatic, biotic, and physical changes.

  Day/Time: MWF 10-11am

• Geography 203. Nature and Culture: Social Theory, Social Practice, and the Environment. Sayre.

  The relationship between societies and natural environments lies at the heart of geographical inquiry and has gained urgency as the rate and scale of human transformation of nature have grown, often outstripping our understanding of causes and effects. The physical side of environmental science has received most of the emphasis in university research, but the social basis of environmental change must be studied as well. Recent developments in social theory have much to offer environmental studies, while the latter has, in turn, exploded many formerly safe assumptions about how and what the social sciences and humanities ought to be preoccupied with. This seminar allows students to explore some classics in environmental thought as well as recent contributions that put the field on the forefront of social knowledge today.

  Day/Time: W 1-4pm

History

• History. UCSF - The Pursuit of Racial Science since 1800. .

  For information on any UCSF History courses, contact the Director of the Graduate Program, Professor Elizabeth Watkins, at watkinse@dahsm.ucsf.edu. Interested graduate students can receive credit for these UCSF courses by completing an Intercampus Exchange Program Application. Go to http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/degrees/exchange.shtml for detailed instructions. Emphasizing disputes within medicine, anthropology, and the biological sciences, this seminar surveys the history of racial science from early 19th century craniometrics to 21st century genomics. Topics include the Darwinian controversy, Anglo-American eugenics, Boasian anthropology, Nazi medicine, evolutionary genetics, the linkage of "color" and "culture" in multiculturalist discourse, and the collection of racial data by public health authorities. NOTE: Before our first meeting on Friday, Sept. 15, please read the following five articles, posted as PDF files at http://www.dahsm.medschool.ucsf.edu/history/course_descriptions.aspx. Do your best to decipher the difficult technical passages. This Fall 2006 quarter course runs from September 14 through December 1.

  Day/Time:

• History. UCSF - Gender in Science and Medicine. .

  For information on any UCSF History courses, contact the Director of the Graduate Program, Professor Elizabeth Watkins, at watkinse@dahsm.ucsf.edu. Interested graduate students can receive credit for these UCSF courses by completing an Intercampus Exchange Program Application. Go to http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/degrees/exchange.shtml for detailed instructions. This course examines the role of gender in shaping scientific and medical careers and how gender has influenced the construction of scientific and medical theories, with attention to the history of theories about sex differences, considering how and why these theories were developed, how and why they underwent change, and how and why they reflected wider cultural concerns. This Fall 2006 quarter course runs from September 14 through December 1.

  Day/Time:

• History 24.003. Scientific Revolutions. Carson.

  How does science progress? Does it change smoothly or discontinuously? Build on past ideas or reject and replace them? In this seminar we will read and think together about Thomas S. Kuhn's famous book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn's book will be our launching point for wide-ranging discussions about the nature and history of science.

  Day/Time: W 2-3pm

• History 30A. The History of Premodern Science. Groppi.

  In this course, we will be studying the development and content of scientific thought before the advent of modern science. The Scientific Revolution, a series of changes in thought and belief that took place in Europe in the sixteenth century, is generally considered to mark the beginning of modern science. This course will discuss the changes of the Scientific Revolution, as well as the traditions of scholarship in ancient Greece and medieval Europe that helped bring them about. We will also examine the processes of scientific development in a number of other cultures and civlizations, including those located in China, India, the Middle East, and Africa. Susan Marie Groppi received an undergraduate degree in psychology from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research deals broadly with the relationship between social institutions and the development of science.

  Day/Time: MWF 10-11am

• History 103S.003. The Theory of Evolution: History and Interpretation. Groppi.

  The 1859 publication of On the origin of species can be seen as one of the most significant scientific landmarks of modern times, with implications reaching into a variety of scientific and social arenas. In this course, we'll look at the history of the theory of evolution by natural selection, and we'll also examine some of the ways that it has been interpreted and applied in the last century and a half. We will begin by looking at Darwin's work itself, in both a scientific and a cultural context, and from there move on to the ways in which the theory of evolution influenced (and was influenced by) science and society in Europe and the United States. Different interpretations and applications of evolutionary theory will be discussed in relation to biology, psychology, and social policy. This course is designed to be highly interactive, and will require active participation on your part. The assigned readings are important, and will serve as the foundation for our discussions. There will also be a number of short writing assignments during the course of the semester, leading up to a final paper that will draw on all of the major themes of the course. Susan Marie Groppi received an undergraduate degree in psychology from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research deals broadly with the relationship between social institutions and the development of science.

  Day/Time: M 2-4pm

• History 103F.002. Technology and Philosophy in China and the West: Explorations in Comparative Cultural History. Johnson.

  Why did technological development follow such very different paths in China and the West? There were many reasons, but I believe that the most fundamental one has to do with the radically different ways that educated Chinese and Europeans thought about man and the world. The goal of this course is to partially survey those different paths and to learn more about what those different world-views actually were. Toward this end we will compare specific examples of Chinese and Western achievements in three areas: naval architecture and navigation, which relate directly to the ability of European nations to impose their will on distant places, including China, in the age of imperialism; power technology, whose supreme expression before the twentieth century was the steam engine; and precision measurement, symbolized above all by the clock. It will be seen that Chinese attitudes about both power and precision were very different from those of Europeans. We will consider several recent attempts to account for the differences in the history of science and technology in China and Europe and then turn to Greek and early Chinese philosophy in an attempt to understand the deepest roots of those differences. Throughout we will weigh, implicitly or explicitly, the human costs and benefits of pre-modern China's ritual-centered civilization and of our own science-centered one. This 103 will be suitable for students with interests in Chinese history, the history of technology and science, and comparative history. All readings will be in English.

  Day/Time: W 2-4

• History 103H. Healing and Illness in African History. Osseo-Asare.

  This course is also listed as 103S(R).002 How do societies understand illness, and how do they restore good health? In this course, we explore how communities have confronted disease throughout Africa's history. During the first six weeks, we read about the changing role of specialist healers since the 1700s, including shamans, malams, nurses, and drug peddlers. The second half of the course turns to the history of specific diseases including malaria, AIDS, sleeping sickness, and kwashiorkor through regional case studies. Particular emphasis is placed on pre-colonial healing, medical education, colonial therapeutics, and the impact of environmental change. This course offers participants a nuanced, historical perspective on the current health crisis in Africa. Staggering figures place the burden of global disease in Africa; not only AIDS and malaria, but also pneumonia, diarrhea and mental illness significantly affect the lives of everyday people. Studying the history of illness and healing in African societies provides a framework with which to interpret the social, political, and environmental factors shaping international health today. Requirements: No previous coursework in African history is expected. Course participants will make two oral and written reports on weekly assignments. There will also be one longer research paper (12-15 pages) on the history of a particular health concern.

  Day/Time: Th 2-4pm

• History 120AC. American Environmental and Cultural History. Merchant.

  History of the American environment and the ways in which different cultural groups have perceived, used, managed, and conserved it from colonial times to the present. Cultures include American Indians and European and African Americans. Natural resources development includes gathering-hunting-fishing; farming, mining, ranching, forestry, and urbanization. Changes in attitudes and behaviors toward nature and past and present conservation and environmental movements are also examined. (also ESPM 160AC)

  Day/Time: MWF 10-11am

• History 136. Gender, Culture and Society in 20th Century America. Rosen.

  In this course we will explore topics in the social, economic and cultural history of women and gender during the twentieth century in the United Sates. We will emphasize how ideas about and experiences of family life, gender and sexual attitudes changed as American society became increasingly industrialized, urbanized and its culture dominated by mass culture, consumer culture, rapid technological advances and the transformation to a post-industrial, post-modern global economy. Ruth Rosen received her Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley and is a Professor Emerita of History at the U.C. Davis where she taught American history, women's history, immigration history and public policy for over two decades. The recipient of the University of California at Davis Distinguished Teaching Award and many other national research fellowships, she has taught and lectured all over the world. She is the editor of the The Maimie Papers, and the author of The Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in America, 1982; and The World Split Open: How The Modern Women's Movement Changed America 2001. An award-winning journalist, she has also worked as a columnist for both the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

  Day/Time: TuTh 3:30-5pm

• History 275S.001. Introduction to the History of Science. Hahn.

  The course calls for intensive readings of secondary sources in the history of Western natural philosophy, from the Greeks through Newton. It is especially useful for students preparing for the graduate examination in this field.

  Day/Time: W 2-4pm

• History 280B.007. The Forced Migration of Scientists and Scholars from Germany after 1933. Schuering.

  The expulsion of scientists and scholars as a result of the policy of the Nazi regime was a trenchant break with profound consequences, one of the darkest moments in European intellectual history. This course will examine multiple biographies from a comparative perspective, aiming at a comprehensive social profile of that group. We will also try to assess the consequences of forced migration for scholarly fields in various countries while considering recent trends in the historiography on exile and emigration.

  Day/Time: Tu 10-12pm

Interdisciplinary Studies Field Major

• ISF 60. Technology and Values in the Global Arena. Cipolat.

  In recent years, the pace of international transfers of technology, funds, resources, information, and even populations has increased dramatically. This cross-cultural diffusion has raised complex and interesting moral issues, issues which this course seeks to explore. We will examine some of the emergent ethical issues in international affairs, with particular attention to those involving technological development. Such issues include the effect of mass media and the Internet on cultural integrity, the politics of environmental regulation, ethical implications of genetic engineering, and others. In each case, the student will explore the relevant historical and empirical background as well as the salient moral and political debates. We will draw on classical, academic, and popular sources, including contemporary films, to explore the ramifications of such issues in modern culture. The goal of the course is to provide the student with an interdisciplinary introduction to key areas of conflict in the next century.

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11am

• ISF C155. Social Implications of Computer Technology. Harvey.

  Topics include electronic community; the changing nature of work; technological risks; the information economy; intellectual property; privacy; artificial intelligence and the sense of self; pornography and censorship; professional ethics. Students will lead discussions on some of these topics. (Also listed as Computer Science C195).

  Day/Time: MW 4:30-6pm

• ISF C184. The Information Revolution in Business and Society. Downes.

  In the last decade, information technology (IT) has moved from back-office applications aimed at improving productivity to strategic applications that can radically change the dynamics of companies, industries, and economic sectors. This course will explore the technological, economic, and social conditions that have made such "killer apps" possible. Students will learn how to think strategically and entrepreneurially about IT, whether for personal, business, or nonprofit applications. (Also listed as Information Systems and Management C184).

  Day/Time: TuTh 2-3:30pm

Journalism

• Journalism 226. Getting Over Wilderness: Ideas of Nature For the Environmental Journalist. Pollan.

  This is a background course in the intellectual history behind the American environmental movement, from Henry David Thoreau and John Muir to Rachel Carson and her contemporary heirs. How have our culture's peculiarly religious ideas about nature, and fixation on wilderness, colored the way we cover the environment? Why are so many environmental stories framed as zero-sum contests between Man and Nature? How else might these stories be framed? Journalists writing about the environment are powerfully influenced by a set of cultural ideas that we Americans take for granted, but that in fact have little grounding in the science of ecology or history of the American landscape. We'll read environmental history, nature writing and writings in ecology; each student will write a substantial piece of environmental journalism based on a case study.

  Day/Time: Tu 3-6pm

Landscape Architecture

• LA 258. California Water: an Interdisciplinary Seminar. Andrade-Downs.

  This seminar studies California water issues from an interdisciplinary perspective, building upon the established California Colloquium on Water, to increase understanding and appreciation of water resources and contribute to informed decision-making about water in California. Each semester, four distinguished scholars in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, engineering, STS, law, and environmental design present lectures to students, faculty and the general public. Students in the seminar attend the Colloquium lectures, complete background readings, and meet for two hours on alternate weeks in seminar session to discuss issues raised by the Colloquium presentations and related readings.

  Day/Time: Tu 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Law

• Law 271.1. Environmental Law & Policy. Farber.

  This introductory course is designed to explore fundamental legal and policy issues in environmental law. By focusing on constitutional issues and a limited number of federal statutes--principally the the Administrative Procedure Act, the Clean Air Act; the Clean Water Act; CERCLA (the Superfund law),; the National Environmental Policy Act; and the Endangered Species Act--the course exposes students to the principal approaches to environmental law (litigation, command and control regulation, market incentives, and providing information), as well as to the challenges of setting environmental policy goals and choosing policy targets. The course is designed both for students who intend to pursue environmental studies further and for those who simply want to gain a basic understanding of this key area of public policy.

  Day/Time: MW 11:15-12:30pm

• Law 271.72. International Tribunals and the Environment. Payne.

  War, climate change, commercial fishing and technological development, all have impacts on the environment at a global scale. The international system has evolved a multiplicity of courts, tribunals, commissions and other types of dispute-settlement bodies, but are they well-suited to environmental disputes? The International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, World Trade Organization and NAFTA panels and specialized bodies like the UN Compensation Commission have addressed disputes relating to the environment. This course takes a practical look at how they accept, review and decide disputes, looking at recent cases. Topics that may be considered include: transparency of international courts and tribunals, excessive proliferation of courts, and the ethics and independence of international courts and tribunals.

  Day/Time: M 2:20-4:10pm

• Law 272.1. Water Resources Law. Rossmann.

  The course emphasizes western water law with special attention to California. We deal at length with public rights in water, the public trust, area of origin claims, federal and Indian reserved rights, interstate controversies, environmental assessment, and the limitations of the takings clause on reallocations of water use. Water pollution and water quality are addressed only peripherally. The course thesis asserts that water is a distinctive species of property, a community resource that can never be fully privatized and that must be used in the public interest. We explore this remarkable idea.

  Day/Time: Th 2:20-5pm

• Law 276.5. Stem Cell & Cloning Research: Policy, Politics & Regulation. Charo.

  This course will survey the history, politics, ethics and regulation of stem cell and cloning research. Constitutional law recommended but not required. Topics include: basic science of stem cell and cloning research; debates concerning the moral and legal status of the embryo; history of national politics and federal policy concerning embryo research funding and legality; current patterns of regulation in other countries, at federal level, and at state level; intersection with politics and regulation of reproductive technologies, medical innovations, scientific research, and intellectual property law; special attention to ongoing regulatory efforts in California and legislative initiatives in Congress. Guest speakers for special topics anticipated.

  Day/Time: W 8-9:50am

School of Information

• Infosys 103. History of Information. Duguid/Nunberg.

  This course explores the history of information and associated technologies, uncovering why we think of ours as "the information age." We will select moments in the evolution of production, recording, and storage from the earliest writing systems to the world of Short Message Service (SMS) and blogs. In every instance, we'll be concerned with both what and when and how and why, and we'll keep returning to the question of technological determinism: how do technological developments affect society and vice-versa?

  Day/Time: MW 4-5:30pm

• Infosys 184. The Information Revolution in Business and Society. Downes.

  In the last decade, information technology (IT) has moved from back-office applications aimed at improving productivity to strategic applications that can radically change the dynamics of companies, industries, and economic sectors. This course will explore the technological, economic, and social conditions that have made such "killer apps" possible. Students will learn how to think strategically and entrepreneurially about IT, whether for personal, business, or nonprofit applications. (Also listed as Interdisciplinary Studies C184).

  Day/Time: TuTh 2-3:30pm

• Infosys 218. The Quality of Information. Duguid/Nunberg.

  This course explores issues of information quality in mediated communication and how people reach conclusions about the reliability, value, or authenticity of content. We will consider the problem across time, media and modes, from the coming of the book to the blog, paying particular attention to the interaction of technology, communicative forms, market forces, and institutional and legal frameworks.

  Day/Time: W 10-1pm

• Infosys 237. Intellectual Property Law for the Information Industries. Downes.

  This course will provide an overview of the intellectual property laws with which information managers need to be familiar. It will start with a consideration of trade secrecy law that information technology and other firms routinely use to protect commercially valuable information. It will then consider the role that copyright law plays in the legal protection of information products and services. Although patents for many years rarely were available to protect information innovations, patents on such innovations are becoming increasingly common. As a consequence, it is necessary to consider standards of patentability and the scope of protection that patent affords to innovators. Trademark law allows firms to protect words or symbols used to identify their goods or services and to distinguish them from the goods and services of other producers. It offers significant protection to producers of information products and services. Because so many firms license intellectual property rights, some coverage of licensing issues is also important. Much of the course will concern the legal protection of computer software and databases, but it will also explore some intellectual property issues arising in cyberspace.

  Day/Time: TuTh 11-12:30pm

• Infosys 290.19. Information Technology in China. Sanderson.

  China is the most dynamic information technology market in the world, with more Internet users, more cell phone subscribers, and faster growth in IT spending than any other nation. American IT firms who are already in China report accelerating double digit growth, but there are daunting challenges to match the huge opportunities. This seminar series provides graduate students with an introduction to the subject, focusing on the impact on policy, society, economy and business. Guest speakers will include entrepreneurs, managers, policymakers, and scholars knowledgeable about IT in China. Special note: There is no overlap between this course and the MOT course Doing Business in China. Interested students are encouraged to enrolled both courses concurrently.

  Day/Time: M 12-2

• Infosys 290.12. Computer-Mediated Communication. Cheshire.

  This course will cover the practical and theoretical issues associated with computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems. CMC includes many different types of technologies such as email, instant messaging, newsgroups, web-based chat, and online games. This course will focus on the analysis of CMC practices, the social structures that emerge when people use these applications, and the design and implementation issues associated with constructing CMC technologies.

  Day/Time: TuTh 3:30-5pm

• Infosys 290.11. Management of Technology -- Doing Business in China. Sanderson.

  "To miss today's China is to miss the great opportunity for this generation." This course is derived from China's rapid rise and its transformation of global competition. This course has three major parts: Hot Topics in 2006 such as: what are the most recent changes in China's technology, business and policy environment? What is the trend of venture capital investment in China? What are the strategies to protect your company's IP in China? How will Chinese firms going global change global competition? Etc. Must-Have Topics such as: What are the fundamental differences in doing business in China vs. doing business in the US? What are the top three unique assets that a firm needs in order to survive in China and how are they obtained? How can understanding the fine line between Guanxi and corruption determine my success in China? Etc. Topics for Careers related to China such as: If I want to start up a technology firm in China, how should I begin? If I want to work for a MNC in China, what do I need to know? The primary objectives of this course are: to develop critical analysis and strategic decision tools and skills needed to compete in the world's most dynamic emerging market to provide access and useful introductions/Guanxi to aid future business development in China to prepare students to found a startup business in China or to work with an MNC in or related to China

  Day/Time: W 2-4pm

• Infosys 290.18. Introduction to Business and Technology for Sustainable Development. Rudasingwa.

  The purpose of this course is to introduce students to an overview of the role of business and technology in poverty alleviation and sustainable development in developing regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America through: understanding the key development challenges facing the developing world in the 21st Century; identifying opportunities for sustainable business in developing countries, especially among the poor; analyzing, from theory and practice, the link between technological innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainable development; identifying and analyzing the prevailing features of the overall policy and reform environment that shape business and technology development in Africa, Asia and Latin America; introducing and discussing foreign aid, trade and foreign direct investment as tools for developing capacity to do business for sustainable development; building a higher level of generic expertise of what it takes to do business in developing countries; understanding the role of public-private partnerships in sustainable development.

  Day/Time: Th 2-4pm

• Infosys 290A.002. Information Technology and Identity: The Future of Storytelling. Hardy.

  Mass communications technologies have been profound influencers of human identity, from the printing press and the rise of vernacular political cultures to television and the power of celebrity. While the Web is still a work in progress, salient characteristics such as the collapse of distance, the discovery of like-minded groups, and information delivered in short bursts are already affecting the way people see themselves and the way they consume information. Following an overview on the relationship of technology with identity and communications, the course will look at the uses of narrative in news, public relations, advertising, entertainment, and online gaming.

  Day/Time: Tu 5-8pm

• Infosys 296A-2. Open Source Development and Distribution of Digital Information: Economic, Legal and Social Perspectives. Kapor/Samuelson.

  Substantial investments are being made by many individuals and firms in the development and distribution of open source software and other information artifacts. This seminar will consider economic and business rationales for adoption of open source modes of production and dissemination and will consider how open source projects might be made sustainable by looking into the social and organizational dynamics used to coordinate their activities. The seminar will examine licensing models widely used by open source developers, which generally grant rights to use and modify licensed information on condition that users agree to carry over to derivative works the same license restrictions imposed by the open source developer. For software, this includes free publication of source code. Open source licensing models are being adapted to apply to more than just computer software, such as databases of scientific information, certain biotechnology innovations, and music. Whether the metaphor of open source has wider social ramifications as a modality of community governance will also be given attention.

  Day/Time: M 4-6:30pm

• Infosys 296A-3. Participatory Media/Collective Action. Rheingold/Xiao.

  Three hours of seminar discussion and hands-on practice per week. This participatory class explores political activism in the Net context, as well as key aspects such as mass media, political communications, and smart mobs: emerging forms of technology-enabled collective actions. We will read and discuss issues, theories and real world examples from the US, Philippines, Korea, Mexico, China, and elsewhere. We will focus on blogging, online forums and other emerging media forms such as podcasting, photo-sharing, tagging, RSS, wiki-based communities and read about theoretical aspects of socio-technological networks as well. In addition to analytic readings, students will learn how to use a wiki for collaborative work, to blog and read and comment on blogs via RSS as part of the coursework, to listen to and produce podcasts. The class will directly engage in collective knowledge-gathering and construction of a public good. Students will engage in social bookmarking and collectively construct a resource wiki on class topics.

  Day/Time: F 9-12pm

Public Health

• Public Health 183. The History of Medicine, Public Health, and the Allied Health Sciences.. Hook.

  Prerequisites: Knowledge of (and preferably a college level course which covered) basic aspects of (mammalian) physiology and anatomy. Graduate or upper division undergraduate status. This course will examine the historical developments of social and scientific responses to human disease from their beginnings to their current roles as major forces in modern society. It will consider the evolution of diagnoses, treatment, and prevention of human morbidity and death from both a humanistic and scientific perspective. It invites pre-medical, pre-dental, and other students preparing for careers in public health, nursing, optometry, or the other health sciences, students interested in public policy and health-related law, and students of history or the other humanities who wish an overview of medicine and health from a broad historical perspective.

  Day/Time: M 2-5pm

• Public Health 282. Topics in the History of Medicine and Public Health. Hook.

  Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. A series of lectures and seminars providing detailed scrutiny of selected topics in the history of medicine, public health, and the allied health sciences. The precise content will vary from year to year and may reflect, in part, topics of class interest. Students electing to take the course for 3 units will be assigned a research topic.

  Day/Time: M 10-12pm

Public Policy

• PP 1990.3. History of Computing. Maurer and Lazowska.

  This course will follow the University of Washington quarter system and run from September 27, 2006 to December. 6, 2006. Requirements will be a mid-term project and a final white paper. Taught concurrently with PP290-3. Course examines current problems and issues in the field of public policy. As topics vary from year to year, course may be repeated for credit.

  Day/Time: W 6:30-9:20pm

• PP 190-8. Environment and Technology from the Policy and Business Perspectives. Taylor.

  The natural environment and technology are inextricably linked. The natural environment provides both the initial inputs as well as the ultimate disposal locations for the technologies that drive today's economy. As a result of the close relationship between the environment and human technology, technology has at times been cast as both the ultimate villain and the ultimate hero in environmental policy circles. This class introduces students to many features of the relationship between technology and the natural environment over time. It explores past (for the most part) environmental policy issues, such as acid rain and ozone depletion, through the lens of specific technologies that were important to both policy and business interests. It introduces some of the environmental strategies that are being used by both policy-makers and business to affect technology development and adoption today (e.g., Energy Star, TQEM). And it delves into the climate change debate, an ongoing issue on the environmental policy agenda in which harnessing the forces of technological innovation will be crucial to environmental progress. Course examines current problems and issues in the field of public policy. As topics vary from year to year, course may be repeated for credit.

  Day/Time: TuTh 12:30-2pm

• PP 190-10. Economics of Innovation. Scotchmer.

  Three hours of lecture per week. The course includes a cursory history of innovation and innovation policy, will discuss the current institutions in which innovation takes place, in particular, intellectual property, public laboratories, public funding and universities, will give an overview of antitrust policy as it relates to innovation policy, including network externalities and the Microsoft case, and will consider the international framework for coordinating innovation policy. There will be nine short homework assignments (ungraded), a book report, (possibly) a short class presentation, a midterm and final. You are expected to attend class having read the materials, and to contribute to the discussion. The syllabus for the course may be found at: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~scotch/syllabus_124.htm

  Day/Time: TuTh 12:30-2pm

• PP 290-7. Water Policy in the West. Hanemann and Henriquez.

  Water Policy in the West provides a survey of the history, science, economics, politics, legal framework, stakeholders and current pressing debates regarding the allocation of western freshwater resources. Although much of the seminar focuses on California water policy issues, other regional western water issues are also addressed, including interstate and international management of the Colorado River Basin.

  Day/Time: Tu 4-7pm

Rhetoric

• Rhetoric 174. Rhetoric of Scientific Discourse: Thinking Machines: The History and Theory of Artificial Intelligence. Bates.

  This class will explore the links between machines, humans, and thinking. Ever since the Scientific Revolution introduced the concept of a "mechanical"' universe in the 17th century, we have had to face the question of whether or not human thought can be explained as the product of some physical mechanism. So well before the invention of electronic computers, people reflected on the possibility that the human body is just a machine, and speculated that we could make machines that think -- artificial intelligence that is. Over the course of our semester, we will therefore follow a number of different trajectories in order to elucidate the way ideas about human thought have been bound up with advances in technology and science, and vice versa. We will explore ideas in physics, biology, communications technology, psychology, robotics, computing, and artificial life. We will see how certain historically specific metaphors and conceptual structures shaped both scientific discourses and cultural practices. Background ectures will trace main currents in the history of science and technology, as well as major shifts in the nature of social relations in the age of the machine. Class discussions will center on a mixture of primary sources (authors such as Descartes, Diderot, Turing, Von Neumann, and the like) and academic essays on, for example, artificial intelligence, automata, and the history of computing. And near the end of the semester we will discuss two important films that address many of our key themes--Stanley Kubrick's 2001 and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11am

 

If you would like your course to be added to this list, please contact STSC at: stsc@berkeley.edu