STS Related Courses, Fall 2008

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

African American Studies

• African American Studies 134. 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 2:00-5:00

Anthropology

• Anthropology 127. Introduction to Skeletal Biology and Bioarchaeology. Agarwal.

  This course is an introduction to skeletal biology and its basis for the analysis of human skeletal remains. The study of the human skeleton provides insight into human evolution and health, and can be applied in archaeological, forensic, and biomedical contexts. The first half of the course will deal with the structure, function, and growth of the human skeleton, while later classes will introduce the methods used to analyze and interpret archaeological skeletal remains and gain information on aspects such as age, sex, health, and biological variation. Lectures provide relevant background, but students are expected to devote a significant amount of time to work and participate in weekly labs.

  Day/Time: Tu 11:00-1:00

• Anthropology 137. Energy, Culture & Social Organization. Nader.

  This course will consider the human dimensions of particular energy production and consumption patterns. It will examine the influence of culture and social organization on energy use, energy policy, and quality of life issues in both the domestic and international setting. Specific treatment will be given to mind-sets, ideas of progress, cultural variation in time perspectives and resource use, equity issues, and the role of power holders in energy related questions.

  Day/Time: TuTh 11:00-12:30

• Anthropology 196. Evolutionary Theories of Biology and Culture. Deacon.

  Fast-paced advanced seminar on classic and current issues in biological anthropology. Readings will include some basic background but primarily will be drawn from current research papers in topic areas such as evolutionary theory, human paleontology, human evolutionary genetics, brain evolution, evolution of human cognition and language, species-unique physiology, primate behavior and adaptation, and other relevant areas. Students are expected to present critical seminar discussions of current research papers and produce 4 written commentaries critically analyzing primary sources. Prerequisite: Open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students with at least 2 courses in biological anthropology or equivalent. Anthro 111 is strongly recommended.

  Day/Time: W 4:00-6:00

• Anthropology 219. Public Anthropology: Critical Thinking for Critical Times. Scheper-Hughes.

  The goal of this seminar is to explore a critically engaged anthropology ( and medical anthropology) and the different forms this might take. Most anthropologists focus on their scholarship and leave to others --the media, legislators, political leaders, technicians, policy experts, and business--the applications of their research to everyday and political life. Critically applied and public anthropology, however, has a long and distinguished pedigree from Franz Boas and Margaret Mead to Pierre Bourdieu, Laura Nader and Paul Farmer to mention but a few of those anthropologists who have envisioned anthropology as both an intellectual field, a discipline, and a ‘force field’, a site of critical thinking and resistance. Opportunities and dangers face the academy today and social science and anthropology in particular. While anthropology is well positioned to understand and interpret cultural complexity and diversity in a globalized and violent world, powerful forces actively seek to limit radical enquiry, academic freedoms and to undermine humanistic, philosophical, and critically interpretive research. We need to overcome the stodgy and anachronistic opposition between scholarship and active engagements in the world. Critical scholars link theory and practice and move comfortably between observation (detachment) and action (engagement), between the podium and street, and strive to reach broad audiences and multiple publics. In addition to writing scholarly discourses, they write ethnographies that reach broader publics, editorials, pamphlets, broadsheets, and blogs. This seminar will open with classic essays on the role of the scholar, the intellectual, and the writer in the world (Boas, Benedict, C Wright Mills, D.Hymes), followed by more recent ethnographies and critical essays that have illuminated social issues such as race and immigration, jails, policing and the death penalty, law and lawlessness in strong and weak states, epidemics, medicine, anthropology and ethics, humanitarianism and human rights, war, violence, and the militarization of everyday life, public security, legalized torture, and other threats to freedom in the 21st century. In addition to seminar discussions and critical reaction papers on key readings, the seminar will also discuss anthropological involvements in critical events in the field and at home. Wars, dirty wars, genocides, perverse forms of economic and cultural globalization, immigration, race and racism, the dearth penalty have been potent sites of engagement for critically applied cultural and medical anthropologists.

  Day/Time: W 2:00-4:00

Architecture

• Special Topics in the Physical Environment in Buildings249X Section4. The Secret Life of Buildings. Benton.

  This exploratory seminar addresses a secret life of buildings, one related to physical performance. Think of a building that has been influential in your architectural development. How much do you know about the physical environment it creates? How it changes over the cycles of time, season, and weather? The building¹s amenities as viewed from an occupant's perspective? The energy it consumes? Buildings offer a remarkable target for energy conservation. In aggregate, they consume over one third of the total U. S. annual energy use and almost 60% of domestic electricity production. They are also extraordinarily persistent objects in our modern society with lives measured in decades if not centuries. Building design decisions result in energy performance patterns that will last our lifetimes. The seminar emerged from the VITAL SIGNS Project, a U. C. Berkeley curriculum materials development effort funded by the Energy Foundation, NSF, and PG&E in the 1990s. Vital Signs encouraged architecture students to examine architectural, lighting, and mechanical systems in existing buildings with attention to energy use, occupant well being, and architectural spacemaking. It assembled a collection of measurement techniques, often involving novel approaches, to reveal operating patterns in the complex environment of contemporary buildings. In VITAL SIGNS, existing buildings serve as laboratories and offer interesting lessons on the success and failure of various design methods. The approach has a number of benefits. The personal experience you gain in performing the evaluations contributes to your experiential base at a formative time. Analysis of data collected in the field and the comparison of these data to values given by simulation tools provides a foundation for understanding the more abstract tools and standards used by designers in practice. Finally, you can share these experiences with other students and schools in the form of written case studies. The class will conduct a series of case study exercises involving the collection of background data, the survey of those associated with the building (e.g. designers, operators, occupants), the measurement of physical parameters, analysis, and the writing of short reports. The course will include both individual and group assignments, with some opportunity to tailor the assignment to specific student interests.

  Day/Time: Th 2:00-5:00

• Special Topics: Contruction and Materials 269X Section2. Bio-Intelligibility. Gutierrez.

  Matter has become an ever more essential media for enabling technological advances across multiple disciplines. This phenomenon derived largely from the advent of Quantum Mechanics revolutionized our perception of the world permitting us to see and consequently to manipulate matter into unimagined scales. Yet, material breakthroughs since the late twentieth century would not have been viable where it not for the introduction of computational systems which unveiled new thresholds in the fields of imaging and processing data. Broadened scalar manipulation spanning from macro to nano range has become feasible through advanced imaging technologies leading Material Science and consequently multiple disciplines to an exponential growth in the last decade. The introduction of these material advances presents radically new prospects for the field of architecture particularly when new scalar boundaries within material performance can become the origin for design research. The praxis of new design models that address simultaneously new scalar extents inevitably involves disciplines outside architecture principally when pertaining to the development of bio-responsive control systems. In order to efficiently address the inherent complexity of bio-systems early assimilation of performative criteria in the design research process must be met. This seminar aims at developing critical understanding of emerging technologies, fabrication and distribution processes involved in the production and application of functional materials as they amplify the bio-climatic intelligence of built environments. Students are required to confront and develop specific knowledge on the impacts that new technologies, new materials and new modes of production bear on the environment. This expertise is to be developed and manifested as integrative operations that aim at the reduction of energy consumption, material, volume, weight and industrial product replacement by existing technical systems, etc. Functional materials embody the new generation of ecological material optimization by combining positive environmental interfacing with technological innovation. Environmental materials that implement new functional properties can open up new niches and provide a product with functions previously unthought-of. This seminar will examine sustainable production, innovation and application strategies that embody optimization derived from new technologies applied into broad scale processing. This seminar addresses material design research as a multi-stage condition that encompasses full cycle analysis of material performance. Students are to develop an understanding of multi-scalar material performance emphasizing analysis of interdependencies of form, material distributions, and organizations, physical and bio-chemical exchange. Analysis of the rising application of biomimmicry within design practice in the development of material systems is a crucial component of the course. Specific examination of implementation methods of functional materials to address physical adaptability to environmental and climatic fluctuations will be studied. The latter refers specifically to the analysis of claddings that can embody equivalent performances to those applied for example in biomedics, with fabrics adaptable to physiological variations. “Local responsive intelligence” opens opportunities for climatic intelligence that is not dependant on mechanic/sensor based systems, thus making them more viable for ubiquitous application. Contemporary strategies for bio-climatic responsiveness via multi-scale intelligence will be examined from innovations on material simulation systems, low-energy/low-waste manufacturing, raw material reduction and material consumption reduction within potential design applications.

  Day/Time: Tu 2:00-5:00

Business Administration

• MBA 290T-1. The Business of Nanotechnology. Isaacs and Grossman.

  The field of nanotechnology, at most ten years old, has emerged as an important new area for investment and business opportunity, and one that is already having an impact in many industries. Both established companies and young start-ups are developing businesses based on innovations in nanostructures and nano-scale developments in materials science, information technologies and the life sciences. Offered for the first time in Fall, 2005, this is UC Berkeley's first course focused on nanotechnology-based business opportunities. The course provides a comprehensive overview of the core elements in this emerging field, specifically the scientific and technical basis of nanotechnology, the emerging business opportunities, and the policy issues that represent both threats and opportunities to nanotechnology investors, innovators, and entrepreneurs. This course is particularly suited for those who anticipate founding or operating a technology company. The course focuses on skills needed for the identification of opportunities that can lead to successful entrepreneurial ventures in nanotechnolgy, regardless of the individual's "home" skill set, whether managerial or technical. We examine in depth the many approaches being taken today to capitalize on opportunities in nanotechnology. Course material and speakers focus on executing marketing, technology development and strategic plans that integrate technological development with evolving customer requirements. A central goal of the course is to improve understanding of how the confluence of technological innovation, market forces and venture finance drives new technology ventures.

  Day/Time: Tu 4:00-6:00

• MBA 290B-1. Biotech Industry Perspectives & Business Development. Hoover.

  The focus of this course will be on business development in biotechnology, and in particular on the strategic and other issues inherent in partnering the research, development and commercialization of human healthcare products. Experience has shown that biotechnology companies almost inevitably enter into joint ventures, partnerships and other collaborations in order to develop one or more of their products or technologies. We will explore the strategic rationale for such partnerships, both from the perspective of smaller development stage biotechnology companies, and from the perspective of larger biotech or pharmaceutical companies. We will also explore in depth the complex management, financial and other issues which must be considered both when entering into such a partnership, and in managing such a relationship over the relatively long period associated with the development and commercialization of healthcare products. We will begin with a brief discussion of the biotechnology industry and the process by which products move from research through clinical development and the FDA approval process to commercialization. With this background, we will then explore biotech partnering in detail. Topics will include the role of patents and other intellectual property; determining the scope of a collaboration; the significance of manufacturing rights; co-promotion, co-marketing and other commercial arrangements; key financial terms (including upfront fees, milestone payments, royalties, profit sharing, transfer pricing, loans and equity investments); and management of a collaboration, including in particular how decisions are made when the partners cannot agree. Following our consideration of biotech partnering, we will move on to a discussion of mergers and acquisitions. Smaller biotech companies often articulate a business development plan which aims at becoming a “fully integrated pharmaceutical company� through mergers and acquisitions. We will explore product acquisitions (the purchase of a single product line or group of related products being divested by another company) as well as corporate mergers and acquisitions (the purchase of an entire company). The focus will be on issues specific to biotech M&A, and in particular on the valuation, timing and other issues associated with consideration by the board of directors of a potential purchase (growth strategy) - or sale (exit strategy) - of a product or company.

  Day/Time: Tu 4:00-6:00

• MBA 294.3. BioBusiness Speaker Series. Raube.

  The objective of MBA294.3 is to provide students with a general overview of the different areas that make up the Biobusiness space. General themes of the course will be Entrepreneurship, Business Development and Corporate Challenges, Investing and Valuation, Consulting, and Marketing within the Biobusiness arena. Speakers will take students through one or two cases that are representative of the speaker’s industry experience. In this way students will learn about challenges in Biobusines and will be provided with a framework for addressing these challenges. This speaker series is ideal for students who wish to pursue careers in biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, healthcare, consulting or any other healthcare related field.

  Day/Time: M 4:00-6:00

Center for New Media

• New Media 190 Section 1. Digital Culture. Rinehart.

  How do digital media influence the ways in which we think, perceive, and remember? How does digital mediation affect our interactions with the world, other people, and even our sense of ourselves? This course explores these questions through the contemporary concept of "interactivity." Focusing on interaction as both a perceptual and physical experience, the course traces the history of "interactive media" from photography and film through early computing, video games, and contemporary digital installation. Over six weeks we'll read passionate arguments from philosophers, engineers and artists; we'll discuss classic and contemporary examples ranging from stereoscopes to Second Life; and we'll engage creatively with each other and the course material to produce our own mock-ups and imaginative designs for interaction. Six week course: meets 6 Thursdays -- Oct: 2,9.16,23,30 and Nov 6 from 5-7pm. Museum Theater, BAMPFA

  Day/Time: Th 5:00-7:00

• New Media 190 Section 2. Performance and Technology. Derecho.

  This course will explore a diverse array of cultural objects and practices that showcase the performance of technological modes, methods, tools, and ways of being. The units will be: Art Foregrounding Media, Android and Robot Performances, Machines Acting Up, Digital (CGI-produced) Worlds, Electronic Warfare, Techno Futures, Surveillance, Personal and Domestic Cameras, Nation-States Performing Tech Mastery, and Performing Online. Media used in stage productions, films and television shows (Battlestar Galactica, Terminator, Star Wars, 300), music movements such as Afro-Futurism and Detroit Techno, cell phone videos, the Cold War Space Race, 1980s Japanophobia, Internet porn, and online flame wars are some of the phenomena we will examine. Students will be asked to consider questions of human-technology interactions over the last century have altered bodily, oral, visual, and written performances in art, politics, war, popular culture, and everyday life. Also listed as Theater 119, Section 1.

  Day/Time: TuTh 2:00-3:30

Cognitive Science

• Cognitive Science 105. The Mind, Language, and Politics. Lakoff.

  An analysis of contemporary liberal and conservative thought and language, in terms of the basic mechanisms of mind: frames, prototypes, radial categories, contested concepts, conceptual metaphor, metonymy, and blends. The framing of political discourse. The logic of political thought. The purpose of the course is to provide students interested in political and social issues with the tools to analyze the framing of, and logic behind, contemporary political discourse

  Day/Time: TuTh 2:00-3:30

English

• Research Seminar 250/1. Ecocriticism Meets Biopolitics. Francois.

  This research seminar addresses two areas of literary and critical theory concerned with animal/human divides and the relationship between place, language and politics. "Biopolitics" commonly refers to the politicization of those areas of life that the human shares with other animals, and to the interest the modern state takes in “making live” and in the regulation and rendering productive of life functions—through statistics on population, sexual habits, health, sanitation, etc. “Ecocriticism,” on the other hand, usually refers to the study of the relationship between literature and something called “nature” and is often defined by narratives of human destructiveness and difference. As we compare different definitions of “nature”—as a set of finite, exploitable resources, a normative authority limiting human experimentation, a repository of traditional ways of doing and knowing, and a site of vulnerability in need of protection from extinction—we will also explore the alternatives to the nature/human binary developed by the writers in question. This research seminar addresses two areas of literary and critical theory concerned with animal/human divides and the relationship between place, language and politics. “Biopolitics” commonly refers to the politicization of those areas of life that the human shares with other animals, and to the interest the modern state takes in “making live” and in the regulation and rendering productive of life functions—through statistics on population, sexual habits, health, sanitation, etc. “Ecocriticism” usually designates the study of literature in relation to something called “nature,” and is often defined by narratives of human destructiveness, difference and lost connection. What insights can these two fields bring to bear on one another and what role does the study of literature and linguistic experience play in either? How and why has the ethical turn toward nonhuman others—evident in the emerging field of animal studies--coincided with the industrialization of food production and modern consumerism? Other topics will include: the conflict between “modernity” and “modernization” and the role of marginalized communities; agriculture as a border-space between “culture” and “nature”; fantasies about ecological disaster, social catastrophe, and science’s (or poetry’s) ability to save or destroy humankind.

  Day/Time: M 3:00-6:00

Geography

• Topics in Political Geography 255. Intimate Geographies: Nature, Science and Self. Kosek.

  Day/Time: Tu 9:00-12:00

History

• History 100. The Animal Histories of Western Civilization. Sahlins.

  To quote the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, animals are not only "good to eat" but they are also "good to think." Vegetarian critics might disagree with the first statement, but they cannot disavow the second. This course focuses on the social, cultural, and intellectual histories of animals in the West. Using primary sources alongside the work of historians and others, the course traverses the history of Europe and its colonies since the Ancient World, taking on topics that touch on the contemporary discourses of animal rights, including the Christian idea of dominion, animal cruelty and suffering, animal trials, the rise of the pet society, and animal rights as identity politics. As social history, we consider the uses (and abuses) of animal in agriculture and in civilization, using a series of specific "animal studies" (the pig, the horse, the cat, the dog) to illustrate and identify major historical sociological transformations from antiquity through feudalism to modernity. As intellectual history, the course engages a history of literary and philosophical queries and quarrels about the relations of humans and animals; and, as cultural history, the course considers the representation of animals in a variety of different media, but also investigates the deep classificatory schema that structure our historical relations with the animal world.

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11:00

• History 100. Scientists as Servants of the Church and State, 1600-2000. Barker.

  Scientists have occupied a privileged place in Western societies since the Scientific Revolution, but can they be trusted? For most of the past four centuries, the answer has been a resounding no. In this course, we explore the evolution of the idea that scientists are free from the duty to uphold the authority of church and state and the frequent attempts to suppress this freedom. Should scientists pursue research only on state-approved topics? Should data be concealed if they threaten religious doctrine or corporate profits? What balance should be struck between efficient, coordinated research and the independence to follow one's own theories? Should scientists engage in politics? We begin by studying the first blueprints for scientific utopias, the imprisonment of Galileo for heresy, and the "citizen's science" of the French Revolution, continue with Darwinism, Einstein, biology under Stalin, Nazi cancer research, and the influence of Cold War anxieties on American high school science curricula, and conclude by investigating the growth of corporate and internationally regulated science at the end of the millennium. The readings combine historical texts with classics of recent scholarship, including Francis Bacon's New Atlantis (1627), Mario Biagioli's Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism, Emma Spary’s Utopia’s Garden: French Natural History from Old Regime to Revolution, Margaret Jacob and Larry Stewart's Practical Matter: Newton's Science in the Service of Industry and Empire, 1687-1851, Claudia Clark's Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935, James Jones' Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Robert Proctor's The Nazi War on Cancer, and Edward Larson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion.

  Day/Time: MWF 2:00-3:00

• History 100. Food and Famine: The Historical Roots of the Global Food Crisis. Vanhaute.

  In the beginning of the 21st century, the world is confronted with what seems to become the first global food crisis. In this course we research and discuss the relationship between food and famine both in the past and the present. The angle is comparative and global, combining a general view with selected case studies. Central topics include: food and famine in world history; the success and decline of peasant societies; economic growth, globalization and food security.

  Day/Time: MWF 3:00-4:00

• History 103B Section 6. Nature and Culture: 19th and 20th Century Environmental History: America and Europe in Comparison. Schuering.

  Environmental history is a relatively young discipline. It has sprung from a culture of activism and is now moving towards the mainstream of historical research. While the current state of environmental anxiety and crisis certainly proves its relevance, historians are proceeding to take a more profound look at the changing relationship between humankind and its natural surroundings as it has unfolded since the Industrial Revolution. This course is an examination of various models and problems in the field. Based on a number of exemplary case studies as well as theoretical and methodological writings, it aims to construct an interdisciplinary framework of analysis, combining history of science and technology with the history of new social movements and economic history. The course will follow the history of the fierce political debates on preservation and protection, on issues of hazards and health, on the management of scarce resources, and on the emergence of a movement that for the first time in history acknowledged the intrinsic value of all living beings. Students from related fields (i.e. other than history) and the natural sciences are also very welcome to join the discussion. The course will include a Teaching Library session.

  Day/Time: Tu 12:00-2:00

• History 103. Transgression in the History of the Biological and Medical Sciences. Barker.

  How do scientists, physicians, governments, and populations respond to transgressions of the natural order, and how do they define 'natural?' What happens to researchers whose theories and data conflict with the accepted facts, or who by merely daring to engage in serious work threaten the status quo? What difference does it make when the changes affect an entire society, an easily identifiable minority, or a small number of individuals? This seminar investigates some of the fundamental challenges Western civilization, science, and medicine have faced from the Scientific Revolution to the present, from epidemic disease and fraud in the laboratory to racist health care and the collapse of gender, class, and sexual norms. The readings are a selection of recent texts in the history of science and medicine and primary documents, including "Dying in the City of the Blues: Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health," "The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco," "The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock's Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control," "Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex," and "The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character."

  Day/Time: Th 10:00-12:00

• History 180. The Life Sciences. Lesch.

  Since 1750 This course will survey the development of the sciences of living nature from the mid-18th to the late-20th century. Topics include scientific and popular natural history, exploration and discovery, Darwin and evolution, cell theory, the organizational transformation of science, physiology and experimentalism, classical and molecular genetics, and the biomedical-industrial complex. Emphasis is on the formation of fundamental concepts and methods, long-term trends toward specialization, institutionalization, professionalization, and industrialization, and the place of the life sciences in modern societies. Many lectures are illustrated by slides. Two midterms and a final examination. A paper may be substituted for part of the final examination.

  Day/Time: TuTh 3:30-5:00

Integrative Biology

• Integrative Biology 160. Evolution. Padian.

  An analysis of the patterns and processes of organic evolution. History and philosophy of evolutionary thought; the different lines of evidence and fields of inquiry that bear on the understanding of evolution. The major features and processes of evolution through geologic times; the generation of new forms and new lineages; extinction; population processes of selection, adaptation, and other forces; genetics, genomics, and the molecular basis of evolution; evolutionary developmental biology; sexual selection; behavorial evolution; applications of evolutionary biology to medical, agricultural, conservational, and anthropological research. Prerequisites: Biology 1B or consent of instructor. Note: This course satisfies the Upper Division Biological requirement for the major.

  Day/Time: MWF 10:00-11:00

• Integrative Biology 187. Human Biogeography of the Sea. Kirch.

  Modern Homo sapiens began crossing the water barrier of Wallacea into Australia and Near Oceania during the Pleistocene, at least 40,000 years ago. Ultimately, populations of H. sapiens spread all the way across the Pacific to colonize virtually every habitable island. This course examines this remarkable history of dispersal and expansion from the perspectives of biogeography and evolutionary ecology. H. sapiens, like any other species, faced problems of dispersal, colonization, and potential extinction, and adapted in a variety of ways to the diversity of insular ecosystems encountered. For humans, it is necessary to use a dual evolutionary model that takes into account cultural evolution and transmission, as well as biological evolution of human populations. This course also explores the impacts of human populations on the isolated and often fragile natural ecosystems of oceanic islands, and the reciprocal effects of anthropogenic change on human cultures. Prerequisites: Evidence that student has mastered basic concepts in evolution and ecology (Anthro 1 and/or Bio 1B) Note: This course satisfies the Upper Division Biological requirement for the major.

  Day/Time: TuTh 3:30-5:00

• Integrative Biology 296. How Would Nature Do That?: A Graduate Seminar in Bio-inspired Design. Full.

  The course will emphasize case studies and multi-disciplinary team problem-solving. It will also rely heavily on guest lectures and the wealth of scientific expertise on campus. Confirmed guest lecturers include Janine Benyus, author of "Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature", Dr. Steven Vogel, author of "Cats Paws and Catapults" and renowned biomechanics expert, and Mr. Jay Harman, inventor and founder of Pax Scientific, whose Lily impeller was recently included in the New York Museum of Modern Art show "Design and the Elastic Mind". Dr. Full of the CIBER lab and others will be revealing the development of several exciting scientific breakthroughs at Berkeley, including the now famous discovery of gecko adhesion. We will be discussing all of the science in light of the practical design and business applications. We are seeking a well-rounded student class that includes designers as well as business and science students. They will be expected to quickly digest biological concepts and work in teams to solve a wide variety of problems, from prototyping to performing simple experiments to developing analysis based on biological models. Throughout, the goal will be to teach innovation through the integration of these three disciplines. The course is open to all students with permission of the instructors and we are making a list of potential participants. Any interested students are encouraged to contact me at this email address. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions. If you would be interested in participating, I would be delighted to speak with you about what I think would be a very fruitful collaboration.

  Day/Time: MW 12:00-2:00

Law

• Law 271. Renewable Energy and Other Alternative Fuels: Law, Policy and Promise. Weissman.

  Our world is fundamentally dependent on energy flows, yet the fuels and sources that have sustained us for the last century all seem to be showing tight limits or tragic flaws. This course explores the emerging field of renewable and alternative energy supplies. It reviews local, state, and federal laws and policies that promote or impede the use of these options, and considers emerging distributed generation models. Turning to specific fuel choices, it surveys the range of emerging technologies and looks in depth at some specific models of high potential or value, concluding with consideration of proposed strategies for reducing greenhouse gasses.

  Day/Time: W 3:20-5:10

• Law 272. Biodiversity Law. Biber.

  This class provides an overview of the most important legal tools in the United States for the protection of biodiversity. The course begins with a short overview of the history of wildlife law in the United States. It then turns to a detailed examination of the most important statute for protecting biodiversity in the United States, the Endangered Species Act. The course wraps up with an overview of habitat protection statutes (particularly wetlands protection under the Clean Water Act), constitutional limits on biodiversity protection, and a glimpse at emerging issues such as control of invasive species and international environmental law. Though the class focuses on the legal structure for protecting biodiversity, it will also explore policy questions such as the role of science and politics in decisionmaking, the meaning and value of diversity, and assessments of the success or failure of the ESA.

  Day/Time: MW 1:55-3:10

• Law 272. Environmental Justice. Harris.

  The environmental justice movement arose in the late 1980s as under-resourced communities of color organized to fight the disproportionate siting of locally-unwanted land uses (LULUs) in their neighborhoods. The movement distinguished itself from the mainstream environmental movement in both its methodology and its substantive concerns. With respect to method, the movement put political organizing at the center and law at the periphery, in contrast to mainstream environmentalism which has relied heavily on judicial and legislative action. With respect to its concerns, the EJ movement focused on the social justice needs of humans in the built environment, rather than on the need to protect ?the environment? from humans. In this seminar we will survey the history of the environmental justice movement and then examine current legal, policy, and political issues with which the movement is struggling, including land use planning and climate change. Students will write a final paper based on either library research or original fieldwork.

  Day/Time: M M 2:20-5:00

• Law 275. Playing by the Rules: Video Games and the Law. Simon.

  California is at the center of the video game industry in the United States, which is, according to some measures, larger than the film industry. This seminar examines the legal regulation of the video game industry in sequence from the development to the distribution of game assets. The seminar will discuss legal regimes -- such as intellectual property, tort, contract, and constitutional law -- from the perspective of in-house counsel. An underlying concern is to understand and assess the role of the law in fostering or inhibiting creativity and innovation within a particular industry. The seminar will be based on discussion using a range of materials and exercises, including discussing case-law, law review and popular press articles; reviewing a range of industry contracts; advising guest industry experts; conducting infringement analyses; and participating in a negotiation exercise between a developer and publisher. The class will conclude with students presenting on topics of their choosing in order to receive feedback prior to completion of the final paper.

  Day/Time: M 6:20-8:10

Molecular Cell Biology

• Molecular and Cell Biology CB 31. Modern Biology: Genes, Cells and Creatures. Beckendorf and Wilt.

  Purpose This is a course is designed for persons not majoring in the biological sciences, and is intended to satisfy their breadth requirement in biological sciences. Students who have already taken Bio 1A or Bio1B may not take the course for credit. We shall consider three different areas in contemporary biology, ranging from molecules and cells to populations and ecosystems, that are especially important for the personal and civic lives of college graduates. We shall avoid jargon and specialized vocabulary, and trace historical antecedents and the current social impact of new findings in biology. There will be emphasis in the discussion sections on writing and problem solving. The goal is to demystify and personalize the scientific approach, to explore some interesting and important aspects of modern biology, and to acquaint students with the importance of biological science in contemporary every day life. Format There are two lectures and 1 required discussion section each week. We will first examine the history of the discovery of genes, what they are, how they work, and their current importance. We shall then explore how cells communicate in order to protect the body from disease. How does the body fight disease; why is there a resurgence of various diseases? Does it affect us here in the U.S.? Finally, we will examine the effects of global warming on biological systems ranging from microbial diseases to coral reefs to tropical forests. How quickly and how much will climate change affect alpine species, plankton in the polar seas, agriculture in the arctic, productivity in salt marshes? Prof. Wilt will deliver lectures 1-19 and Prof. Beckendorf lectures 20-29.

  Day/Time: MW 11:00-12:00

Philosophy

• Philosophy 132. Philosophy of Mind. Searle.

  The single most important question in philosophy ? and in intellectual life generally ? at the present time is this: How, if at all, can we reconcile a certain conception that we have of ourselves as conscious, free, rational, ethical, language using, social and political human beings in a world consisting entirely of mindless, meaningless physical particles? This course is directed to the most essential part of that question, the nature of the human mind. What is consciousness and how can it be caused by brain processes? How does it function causally in our behavior? How do we represent reality to ourselves in our mental processes? What is the nature of perception, memory, knowledge and action? Do we have free will? Does the existence of unconscious mental processes threaten our free will? Can cognitive science extend our understanding of ourselves as human beings? Are our brains really just digital computers? How exactly do our mental processes underlie society and our construction of social institutions, such as money, property, marriage and governments? This course will be concerned with these and other such fundamental questions in the foundations of philosophy, cognitive science and psychology.

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11:00

• Philosophy 135. Theory of Meaning. Campbell.

  This course reviews central issues in theory of meaning, in particular the relation between meaning and reference to objects. What explains our ability to refer to objects? Is the ability to think about an object a matter of standing in an appropriate causal relation to it? And if we take this view, does it help us to understand how thought might be in the end a biological phenomenon? We will look at basic lines of thought set out here by Kripke and Putnam, and theorists such as Dretske and Fodor who have built on their ideas. We will also look at the contrasting view of meaning and reference presented by the later Wittgenstein. We will begin, however, with the classical views of Frege and Russell. Prerequisite: two previous courses in philosophy.

  Day/Time: MWF 9:00-10:00

• Philosophy 138. Philosophy of Society. Searle.

  How does human society differ from that of other social animals? How is it possible that there can be an objective reality of such things as money, property, government, marriage, and universities, even though such things exist only because we believe they exist? What is the role of language in constituting human reality, and what is language anyhow? These and other related questions will be discussed in this course. The course deals with the foundations of the social sciences and the differences between social science explanations and natural science explanations. We will cover a large number of topics such as these: Why is the nation state such a powerful form of social organization? Why did socialism fail? Are there human rights, and if so what are they and where do they come from?

  Day/Time: TuTh 2:00-3:30

• Philosophy 290. Fallibility in Science and the Courtroom. Roush.

  Our belief-forming processes are fallible; even in our best epistemic states we still might be wrong. Fallibilism reassures us that our imperfect reliability doesn't mean that any belief is as good as any other. Nevertheless, there are three areas of discussion where this point is not fully observed: the pessimistic induction over the history of science, worries about the use of fallible testimony and fallible jurors in the courtroom, and the debate over Intelligent Design "theory" in the public schools. This is because we do not fully understand how to take our fallibility into account. In this seminar, we discuss fallibilism and a proposal for a new rationality constraint, and apply these ideas to the debates above.

  Day/Time: W 4:00-6:00

Political Science

• Political Science 135. Game Theory in the Social Sciences. Powell.

  Enrollment limited to juniors and seniors. This course offers a non-technical introduction to game theory. The class draws on substantive examples from political science, economics and other social sciences to present and develop general principles about how actors, be they firms, consumers, political candidates, states, etc., interact strategically. We will start with the simple case where the actors choose their actions simultaneously. Later we will consider dynamic situations in which actors can react to other actors. Finally, we will examine signaling situations in which the actors try to learn about each other through observing their behavior. There are no formal prerequisites for the class but students with some analytic background (e.g. Econ 1 or PS3) often find the course easier going. Class requirements are: problem sets, a midterm, and a final.

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11:00

Psychology

• Psychology C123 Section 1. Computational Models of Cognition. Griffiths.

  The objective of this course is to provide advanced models of cognitive science and computer science with the skills to develop computational models of human cognition. Computational modeling is one of the central methods in cognitive science research, and can help to provide insight into how people solve the challenging problems posed by everyday life, as well as how to bring computers closer to human performance for some of these problems. The course will explore three ways in which researchers have attempted to formalize cognition - symbolic approaches, neural networks, and probability and statistics - considering the strengths and weaknesses of each.

  Day/Time: TuTh 2:00-3:30

• Psychology 290B Section 5. Neural Bases of Circadian Rhythms of Vertebrates. Zucker.

  In this seminar we will consider neural bases of circadian rhythms of vertebrates with an emphasis on mammals. We will review early studies from the 1920's through the 1960's and highlights in subsequent decades, culminating in current work. In the process we will try to identify new questions capable of being answered with existing tool boxes. The student in charge of the seminar on a given week will be asked to select a paper that all of us will read (chosen in consultation with me), and mail a copy of the paper to the rest of us. We will discuss this paper in class and then the person in charge will present a more recent paper that the rest of us will not have read. In the organizational meeting I'll present a list of potential topics and we'll select a meeting time. Depending on student interests we may deviate to consider ultradian and seasonal rhythms in relation to circadian rhythms and what we can learn from studies of invertebrates and plants. One 2 hour meeting per week, no term papers or exams. Class limited to graduate students.

  Day/Time: M 4:00-6:00

• Psychology 290B Section 3. The Science of Sleep. Walker.

  We spend one-third of our lives sleeping and we have absolutely no idea why. We will not come up with the answer in this course. However, what we will explore are a fascinating array of neuroscience studies and brain theories for why we sleep. We shall spend most of our time reviewing what is known about sleep and dreaming from the perspectives of physiology, psychology, and neuroscience. We will investigate various approaches to understanding the function of sleep and debate several theories as to its function. We will review arguments for the critical role of sleep (and perhaps dreaming) in memory processing, brain plasticity, emotional regulation and even creativity. It is likely that the more you learn, the worse your sleep will be this is an unintended benefit of the course. The structure of the course will involve the evaluation of selected empirical and review papers (2 or 3 per class). These will be presented in a rotation by you [the students] in a PowerPoint format lasting approximately 10 min. You will likely give 5 or more of these presentations in the course of the semester. You will be required to post this PowerPoint file on the bSpace course web site ahead of time. The purpose of the presentations is to give a short overview of the paper, and to form the basis of a class-lead discussion of the articles - again by you the students. Students are expected to keep up on all the reading, so they can participate in the weekly discussions. The discussions are the core of the course, and the success of the course is determined by your participation across all weeks. To facilitate this, each student will be required to generate 2-3 questions about the articles for each week, and, at random, students will be asked to read out their questions prior to the start of the formal presentation to also help with class discussion after.

  Day/Time: W 1:00-3:00

• Psychology 290. Readings in Aesthetic Science. Palmer.

  In this course we will read some of the relevant literature on interdisciplinary aesthetic science, including philosophy of aesthetics, empirical aesthetics, and aesthetics from the artist's and viewer's perspective. Requirements: each participant will be responsible for an in-class presentation and leading discussion on one topic. A final paper of approximately 10 double-spaced pages will be required for a letter-grade.

  Day/Time: Th 2:00-4:00

Religious Studies

• Introductory Topics in Religious Studies. Science and Religion. Graves.

  Must science and religion conflict? Historically, science and religion have explained nature from different perspectives. Those explanations often appear to conflict, but closer scientific study and deeper religious insight often show places of fruitful dialogue and integration. The course explores topics of nature and humanity where science and religion conflict, dialogue, and integrate.

  Day/Time: TuTh 2:00-3:30

Rhetoric

• Rhetoric 132. Scientific Revolutions. Wintraub.

  The great divide separating we “moderns” from the so-called “primitives”—whether our own ancestors or indigenous groups from other cultures—is based on science. Science appears to us as a way of discovering Truth that is wholly divorced from culture, politics, religion, etc., thus radically distinguishing “us” —its practitioners/possessors— from the ways that pre-modern cultures went about making decisions and understanding the natural world. In this course, we will explore the rhetorical foundations of what we call science—that is, we will explore the social, political and cultural roots of an activity that defines itself by its opposition to rhetorical practice, history, politics and culture. Our readings—which will include works on witchcraft, alchemy, astrology, courtly politics, gender and religion—will try to situate the practice of early modern science in these diverse (and seemingly far from scientific) contexts. Required Books: * Francis Bacon, New Atlantis and the Great Instauration * René Descartes, Discourse on Method * Mary Shelly, Frankenstein

  Day/Time: TuTh 3:30-5:00

• Rhetoric 172. The Social Theory of Capital and Biopower. Bhandari.

  Once the debate over the nature and meaning of capitalist power faded with the development of the Keynesian welfare state after World War II, critical theorists became interested in the exercise of another kind of power, the power over life itself, even before the revolutionary implications of biotechnology had come into view. This course will explore these two kinds of power, the power of capital as dissimulated in the voluntary exchanges of commodities and money and biopower as expressed in biopolitics. Capital will be studied as an organization of time, and biopower will be analyzed in terms of the distinctions which it traverses, if not collapses—the distinctions between the private and the public, the biological and the social, society and the state, and science and politics. This will be a course based on close readings of demanding texts; attendance is mandatory, and students are expected to come to class with questions about and challenges to the assigned readings. A five page paper will be assigned for each book. Required texts: * Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy * Moishe Postone, Time, Labor and Social Domination: a reinterpretation of Marx’s critical theory * Nikolas Rose, The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power and Subjectivity in the Twenty First Century * Charis Thompson, Making Parents: The Ontological Choreography of Reproductive Technologies * Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins, Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture and Health

  Day/Time: TuTh 12:30-2:00

Scandinavian

• Scandinavian R5B Section 2. Nature and the City. Wichmann.

  In this course we will explore a variety of Scandinavian writing (novels, poetry, and short stories) through the double lens of a pair of major, seemingly opposite themes: nature and the city. How have these two tropes been imagined and portrayed? What ideological values have been associated with them? How do the texts portray the interaction between human beings and their environment, whether natural or man-made? Students will hone their analytical and writing skills through discussion, close reading, and process-oriented writing activities, including an online discussion group, peer editing, and thorough revision of longer essays. Texts: Knut Hamsun, Hunger and Pan Hjalmar Söderberg, Doctor Glas Elin Wägner, Stockholm Stories F.E. Sillanpää, People in the Summer Night Peter Hoeg, The Woman and the Ape Selections of poetry and short fiction, in Course Reader Andrea Lunsford: The Everyday Writer (Rec.) Prerequisite: Successful completion of the "A" portion of the Reading & Composition requirement.

  Day/Time: MWF 12:00-1:00

School of Information

• Scool of Information 216. Computer-Mediated Communication. Cheshire.

  This course covers the practical and theoretical issues associated with computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems. CMC includes many different types of technologies such as email, newsgroups, chat, and online games. We 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. We will primarily take a social scientific approach to computer-mediated communication (including research from psychology, social psychology, economics, and sociology). We will investigate questions such as: How do we represent identity and perceive others in CMC environments? How are interfaces and visualizations used in CMC to help make sense of relationships? Why do some Wikis "succeed" while others do not? How is the production of open source software such as Linux similar to (and different from) a social movement? Why are reputations useful in some online environments, and not in others? Can we really develop meaningful relationships and perhaps even love-purely through CMC?

  Day/Time: TuTh 12:30-2:00

• School of Information 290. Information Technology Economics, Strategy, and Policy. Chuang.

  Application of economic principles, from microeconomics, game theory, industrial organization, information economics, and behavioral economics, to analyze business strategies and public policy issues surrounding information technologies and IT industries. Topics include: economics of information goods, economics of search, economics of networks, economics of peer production, economics of security and privacy.

  Day/Time: M 3:30-5:30

Sociology

• Sociology C126 Section 1. Social Consequences of Population Dynamics. Johnson-Hanks.

  Introduction to population issues and the field of demography, with emphasis on historical patterns of population growth and change during the industrial era. Topics covered include the demographic transition, resource issues, economic development, the environment, population control, family planning, birth control, family and gender, aging, intergenerational transfers, and international migration.

  Day/Time: TuTh 2:00-3:30

• Sociology 128AC. Environmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity, and the Environment. Staff.

  This course engages a new arena of environmental problems, community responses, and policy debates regarding “environmental justice” (EJ) issues – essentially the race, class, and equity implications of environmental impacts and regulation. The course presents empirical evidence on distributions of environmental quality and health, enforcement of regulations, access to resources to respond to urban and industrial problems, and the broader political economy of decision-making around environmental and health issues. The course then explores and critically analyzes philosophies, frameworks, and strategies underlying environmental justice movements and struggles of African American, Latino American, Asian American, and American Indian communities. The course is organized into five main sections: (1) frameworks, methods, and data for analyzing race, class, and environment; (2) perspectives on the environment, race, and justice; (3) cases of environmental injustice; (4) community responses; and, (5) government policies and future trajectories.

  Day/Time: Th 10:00-11:00

Theater, Dance and Performance Studies

• TDP 119. Performance Theory: Performance and Technology. De Kosnik.

  This course will explore a diverse array of cultural objects and practices that showcase the performance of technological modes, methods, tools, and ways of being. The units will be: Art Foregrounding Media, Android and Robot Performances, Machines Acting Up, Digital (CGI-produced) Worlds, Electronic Warfare, Techno Futures, Surveillance, Personal and Domestic Cameras, Nation-States Performing Tech Mastery, and Performing Online. Media used in stage productions, films and television shows (Battlestar Galactica, Terminator, Star Wars, 300), music movements such as Afro-Futurism and Detroit Techno, cell phone videos, the Cold War Space Race, 1980s Japanophobia, Internet porn, and online flame wars are some of the phenomena we will examine. Students will be asked to consider questions of human-technology interactions over the last century have altered bodily, oral, visual, and written performances in art, politics, war, popular culture, and everyday life. Instructor: Gail De Kosnik, TuTh 2-3:30, 242 Dwinelle, 4 units, CCN 88102.

  Day/Time: TuTh 2-3:30

Women's Studies

• Gender and Women's Studies 237 (4). Transnational Science, Technology and New Media. Thompson.

  This is a core class in the new Ph.D. Transnational Gender and Women's Studies. It will expose students to critical thinking about science, technology and new media. The class explores intersections of gender and women's studies with science, technology, engineering, medicine, and new media around the world; including women in science; transnational feminist science and technology studies; technologies of reproduction, production and destruction; divisions of scientific and technical labor; embodiment and subjectivity; digital divides, digital consumption, embodiment, and circulation; modernist projects of categorization; and the making and breaking of gendered bodies. It mixes secondary sources with primary sources, and among the primary sources mixes scientific and technical documents with new media and the arts.

  Day/Time: W 2:00-5:00

• Gender and Women's Studies 130. Genre, Race, Nation and Health. Thompson.

  The role of gender in health care status, definitions and experiences of health, and in practices of medicine. Feminist perspectives on health care disparities, the medicalization of society, and transnational processes relating to health. Gender will be considered in dynamic interaction with race, ethnicity, sexuality, immigration status, religion, nation, age, and disability, and in both urban and rural settings.

  Day/Time: TuTh 2:00-3:30

• Special Topics 210. Theories of Sexuality. Luker.

  Thinking rigorously and in a theoretical-informed way about human sexuality is harder than ever before. What sexuality is and how to study it seems to have become ground zero for a set of interconnected debates that scholars sometimes call the "postmodern delemma." Put in its shortest possible form, this delemma says that "modernity" (a period reaching from sometime in the 16th century to sometime in the 20th century, depending upon whom you read) sought to understand social life in "objective," "scientific" and "empirical" ways. Of most interest to us in this course, understanding sex - heretofore the domain of religion, myth and morality -- in a scientific and scoiological way was therefore the quintessentially modern project.

  Day/Time: Th 4:00-6:00

 

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