STS Related Courses, Spring 2009

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

American Studies

• 102, Section 01. New Orleans. Steen.

  This is an interdisciplinary course that focuses on the cultural, legal, economic, political, and racial forces at work in New Orleans before and after the devastation of hurricane Katrina. Every week, the students will hear one lecture from the primary professor and one from another professor on campus on a particular facet of New Orleans and/or the Katrina disaster. For example, we will hear lectures from faculty in the College of Engineering on the insufficiencies of the New Orleans levee system, from History faculty on the unique social and racial background of the city, from Law professors on the special legal challenges the reconstruction efforts raise for citizens, lectures on the city's musical culture, films and plays about the town, and so forth. Students will be given relevant reading materials and will take exams based on the lectures and reading.

  Day/Time: MW 2-4

• 101, Section 01. The Atomic Age and Cold War Culture. Palmer.

  The atomic bomb changed the world. In this course, we will examine the impact the development of the bomb, the decision to use it, and the nuclear arms race have had on American culture and society. The threat of nuclear annihilation, the rise of anti-Communist ideology, the development of a powerful military-industrial complex, the reliance on covert and proxy warfare, changing family dynamics, and postwar sexuality are among the topics to be considered. Our task in this class is to figure out how people use and respond to the rhetoric of progress and annihilation in the United States. We will study a variety of literary and visual media, and research scientific and political publications, aesthetic and artistic movements, and spectacular public events.

  Day/Time: MW 10-12

• 102, Section 03. Digital Neighborhoods. Laguerre.

  This seminar surveys the available sociological and political science literature on ethnic, multicultural, digital, and transnational neighborhoods. It analyzes the transformation of the neighborhood in the US and the European Union as a result of the information technology revolution and the ongoing process of globalization. It discusses the history of the globalization of the neighborhood in tandem with the history of the digitization of the home. A typology of neighborhoods—as communities and as administrative units- will be presented and discussed. The themes covered include racial and gendered space, virtual geographical expansions, digital homes, convergence of technologies, digital environment, mobility of interactions, digital diasporas, social networking, transnational relationships, and digital globalization. This seminar locates the discussion of the ethnic and non-ethnic neighborhoods within the context of global metropolitan studies.

  Day/Time: W 2-5

• C171. The American Designed Landscape Since 1850. Mozingo.

  This course surveys the history of American designed landscapes since 1850 including the rise of the public parks movement, the development of park systems, the establishment of the national parks, the landscape of the Progressive Era, suburbs, and the modernist landscape. The survey encompasses urban open spaces, conservation landscapes, urban design, environmental planning, and gardens. It reviews the cultural and social contexts which have shaped and informed landscape architecture in the United States since the advent of the public parks movement, as well as the aesthetic precepts, environmental concerns, horticultural practices, and technological innovations of American landscapes.

  Day/Time: TuTh 12:30-2

Anthropology

• 1. Introduction to Biological Anthropology. Deacon.

  This course examines human anatomy and behavioral biology within an evolutionary context. It includes an introduction to: the history of evolutionary thought from before Darwin to the present; basic human genetics and molecular biology; human variation and adaptation; evolutionary influences on behavior; the anatomy, ecology, and behavior of our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates; and the evolution of our lineage as reflected in the hominid fossil record. We will pay special attention to the complex interrelations of biology, behavior, and culture and the challenges of studying these interactions. There will be three hours of lecture and one hour of lab/discussion per week. Prerequisites: none.

  Day/Time: TuTh 12:30-2

• R5B.2. Anthropology of Media. Hubbard.

  Cell phones, I pods, interactive websites, television, popular music and film saturate and make meaningful daily lives throughout much of the globe. What are the dream worlds, futures, fabulous lives and affiliations enabled by these forms? What are the politics, exclusions and disappointments produced by the circulation of media technologies? In the Anthropology of Media we will examine this mediation of contemporary life from an anthropological standpoint. We will focus on specific case studies to explore the social worlds fashioned through the production, consumption and circulation of media. Through a range of themes including celebrity, reality television, global hip hop, social networking sites, and advertising we will probe the relationship among media, culture and power.

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11

• 3AC. Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology. Scheper-Hughes.

  Anthro 3 AC is the lower division introduction to Cultural Anthropology. This course also fulfils the American Cultures course requirement by focusing on the historical, cultural, and political formation of America as a society of native residents and successive waves of both voluntary and forced immigrants. Ultimately, this course is about what it means to be an American as well as what it means to be human and therefore a bearer of culture. This is an American cultures course with a difference. The course is guided by the anthropological method of "radical juxtaposition", a fancy term for studying ourselves, as Americans, through the detour of 'the other'. As a nation of immigrants all US citizens should know something about the countries of origin that have replenished and vitalized our country. As a nation that violently displaced its native population and that built its early agricultural plantation economy through the slave trade, we need to understand the cultural, political, and economic legacies of those national events and tragedies. In this course we will ask questions, raise puzzles, and draw on the writings of many notable American anthropologists, many of whom were or are professors at UC Berkeley, a leading department in the history of anthropology. Thus, we will cover such key areas and questions as: Race and Culture: What is "race"? What is an ethnic group? What is a culture? How does 'culture' determine 'race'? What does it mean to be "Black", "White", "Brown" or "Colored" in the US as compared to Brazil, Cuba, and South Africa at different historical moments? What can these differences tell us about race itself? Nature vs. Nurture: How do we know whether human behaviors or traits are the result of biological, genetic 'inheritance" or cultural shaping and social learning? Is mother love a universal trait? How many genders and sexualities are there? Is schizophrenia found everywhere in the world? Why do people kill? Can Hmong shamans in California's central valley and Mexican-American curandeiros really cure really cure diseases?

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11

• 250X.4. Gender & Contemporary Social Issues: Family, Poverty, Health & Globalization. Lamphere.

  This seminar focuses on a number of critical social issues that families face in the U.S. and the rest of the globe. These include health care, preserving the environment, poverty and welfare policy, immegration, balancing work and family, and cultural preservation. Women are often at the center of how these issues get played out for families, and women and men are differently impacted by government policies in each of these areas. The focus of this course will be on the contemporary U.S. with some attention to other areas of the world. We will particularly examine how men and women as members of families, organizations, and local communaties are forging stratagies to deal with problems in these areas. There will be two short essays on topics dealt with in the weekly readings and students will select an issue in which they are particularly interested in order to write a final research paper.

  Day/Time: W 10-12

• 139. Controlling Processes. Nader.

  This course will discuss key theoretical concepts related to power and control and examine indirect mechanisms and processes by which direct control becomes hidden, voluntary, and unconscious in industrialized societies. Readings will cover language, science and technology, law, politics, religion, medicine, sex, and gender. The manner of thinking about controlling processes emphasizes linkages rather than disciplinary boundaries in the anthropological perspectives.

  Day/Time: TuTh 11-12:30

• 156B. Anthropology of the Life Sciences. Rabinow.

  Today, in the wake of the various genome sequencing projects of the 1990s, the life sciences are being redesigned and recast with an eye to productive forms of experimentation and organization. Although varied alternatives on post-genomics are being explored, it is our central working hypotheses that the life sciences, once again, are unsure of their objects, the best venues in which to work on those objects, and the broader ethical framing of their undertakings. This course presents the tools for an anthropological understanding of the contemporary life sciences and their relations to the human sciences. Although there are no prerequisites students will be expected to develop facility with conceptual elements of molecular biology and anthropology.

  Day/Time: TuTh 3:30-5

• 162. Alternative Medicine: Skepticism, Alterity, and Epistemology. Young.

  Alternative medical practices have altered the American medical landscape. The epistemologies of the body underlying alternative medicine fall outside the orthodox biomedical paradigm. For that reason, alternative medical practices incur skepticism from orthodox practitioners as well as uninitiated participants. In consequence, the rhetoric of such practices is both pedagogical and persuasive, designed at once to teach the practice to its participants and to deflect skepticism about it. Unorthodox medicine is orthodox medicine’s counterdiscourse, its alter. This course will examine alternative medical epistemologies both in their own terms and as critiques of orthodox medicine.

  Day/Time: MF 11:30-1

• 180A. The Archaeology of Sex and Gender. Joyce.

  Being a mother, a father, a son or daughter: these are universal human conditions, yet in every human society they are experienced differently. Grounded in universals of human sexual variation, this course takes experiences of people of different sexes at many points in history as a lens to explore how history, art history, and anthropology make arguments about human beings in the past. Archaeological case studies are used to explore masculinity, motherhood, childhood and aging, and the intersection of sex with other aspects of identity such as race and ethnicity. Central to this course is the way archaeologists use expertise in the study of material remains to approach such questions, often considered accessible only through texts or direct observation of action.

  Day/Time: TuTh 3:30-5

Architecture

• 101. Sustainable, Low-Income Housing for a Native American Community. Cranz.

  In this design studio, students will plan a neighborhood of low-income housing (10 units) for the Pinoleville Pomo Nation (PPN) community near Lakeport (a Native American community located two hours drive north of Berkeley). The acquaintance with the PPN was made through students of UC Berkeley's engineering department who work on renewable energy solutions for this community and voiced a keen interest to learn from the architectural design process through collaboration between an engineering class and this studio. The course is uniquely positioned to leverage a synergy between a deserving community in need, and the students undertaking real-life design challenges. In addition, we expect to include engineering students, who will help address different design aspects and will enhance the multidisciplinary nature of the design process. The PPN faces several critical challenges associated with the development of housing throughout their communities. In order to meet the growing demand of people seeking to return to the lands of the PPN, especially those from low-income background, more housing developments are being undertaken with help and funds from HUD - The Department of Housing and Urban Development. At the same time, rising energy costs associated with heating and cooling are placing an increased burden on residents. Furthermore, the drought conditions within and around the PPN are also taxing the resources of the residents and the local government. As a result, the PPN is seeking to implement sustainable design and technology best practices that will increase their self sufficiency and meet their housing, energy, and water conservation needs. To accommodate the PPN needs while giving students a comprehensive educational experience the course will focus on three main topics (in parallel), addressed both theoretically and on a practical level: 1. Native American culture, history and social structure. In this part we will learn about the native-American culture, and especially the Pinoleville-Pomo culture. Those students who have taken Arch 110AC will be able to observe, interview, and listen using semantic ethnographic skills. We will debate which cultural aspects are important for the design and how should they be expressed. The theoretical part will be obtained through lectures by Native American Culture experts on campus, and through relevant literature. The practical aspects will be learned through case-studies, site visits, and discussions with the community. 2. Sustainable and low-energy building design. What is sustainable design and how to achieve it? Looking at different existing answers (LEED, AIA Top Ten Green Projects requirements etc.). Students will examine the site's climate, for tuning the design to local conditions, targeting reduced energy consumption while increasing thermal comfort. Learning occurs through case-studies, lectures and use of computerized tools and calculations. In addition, since the Native American nations are not required to comply with California Building Code, they can consider using less-conventional building materials, which may improve sustainability. Through this course we will learn different solutions, their advantages and drawbacks and how to design using these materials without compromising earthquake resistance and other possible flaws. We will learn about the "materials debate" through literature, lectures and a fieldtrip. 3. Low income and public housing; HUD requirements and people's needs. What are the roles of HUD in designing public housing? What short-comings could be observed with the current designs by HUD? How to comply with HUD requirement while respecting local, social, and cultural needs. This part will include examining existing houses on site, looking at successful and less-successful public housing examples (relevant literatures and lectures from professors in the department) and studying the HUD requirements and motivations. Students will visit the site at least twice. These visits will include interaction with the community through two "design charettes" - the first early in the semester and the second before the mid-term review. In addition, community representatives will be part of the jury, both in the mid-term review and the final review. The students will work in groups of 3 to 4 students. Each group will aim to have one engineering student, at least one architecture student majoring in Social and Cultural Factors, and one majoring in Building Science. The work in multidisciplinary groups, together with the community, will help designers reach a comprehensive solution which takes into account a great variety of real-life challenges. The PPN will be able to use these designs and realize them through their local contractors. The design studio itself will be body conscious, which means working in bio-mechanically sound postures, changing postures frequently, setting up a variety of options for work and rest in the studio, working and relaxing regularly so as to avoid all-nighters. Further, we aim to be effective within the time allotted for this portion of your course load.

  Day/Time: TBA TBA

• 139X. Metropolis of the Mind: Designing Virtual Worlds. Kalay.

  Virtual worlds were once the province of science fiction authors, like Gibson (Neuromancer, 1984), Stephenson (Snow Crash, 1992), and Wachowski (The Matrix, 1999). The advent of on-line, multiplayer games like World of Warcraft, and ‘alternative’ worlds like SecondLife, made them reality. Virtual worlds are digital, three-dimensional, immersive, interactive environments that mimic existing, bygone, or fantasy worlds. They are populated by avatars representing individuals participating online in social, economic, educational, and other activities. Virtual worlds are based on principles borrowed from architectural theory, game technology, and filmmaking, blended and adapted to support specific objectives. They can be used to design and test new places (buildings, cities, etc.), to re-create culturally significant but destroyed places, and to create new types of combined physical/informational places that can only exist in Cyberspace. Starting with architectural place-making, game design theories, and filmmaking principles, the course will introduce the principles of designing virtual worlds, through readings, discussions, and exercises. Working in groups, students will design of an actual SimVenture (simulation/adventure) of their own choice (e.g., a virtual museum, a virtual learning environment, a virtual cultural heritage, etc.). The course project will be implemented in Virtools (a commercial web-based game engine), which will be taught in class. (PhD students can substitute the course project with a research paper on a related topic.) The course is open to graduate and undergraduate students, from all departments. Prior knowledge of gaming, programming, or architectural design are desired, but not required.

  Day/Time: TBA TBA

• 212. Body-Conscious Design: Shoes, Chairs, Rooms and Beyond. Cranz.

  This seminar prepares students to evaluate and design environments from the point of view of how they interact with the human body. Tools and clothing modify that interaction. Semi-fixed features of the near environment, especially furniture, may have greater impact on physical well being and social-psychological comfort than fixed features like walls, openings, and volume. Today, designers can help redefine and legitimize new attitudes toward supporting the human body by, for example, designing for a wide range of postural alternatives and possibly designing new kinds of furniture. At the urban design scale, the senses of proprioception and kinesthetics can be used to shape architecture and landscape architecture. This course covers these topics with special emphasis on chair design and evaluation. The public health implications of a new attitude toward posture and back support are explored. The course heightens students' consciousness of their own and others' physical perceptions through weekly experiential exercises. Students produce three design exercises: shoe, chair, and a room interior.

  Day/Time: Th 2-5

Biology

• 140. Biology and Sociobiology of Human Reproduction. Carlson.

  Evaluation of human reproduction, social problems and demographics, anatomy and physiology of reproductive organs, endocrinology of the menstrual cycle; puberty, psycho-physiology of copulation and orgasm; fertilization and implantation infertility and sexual dysfunction; conception and contraception; pregnancy and abortion; birth and lactation; sexual differentiation of brain and reproductive organs; homosexuality and transexualism.

  Day/Time: TuTh 3:30-5

Computer Science

• 288. Artificial Intelligence Approach to Natural Language Processing. Klein.

  Representation of conceptual structures, language analysis and production, models of inference and memory, high-level text structures, question answering and conversation, machine translation.

  Day/Time: TBA TBA

Education

• 290C. Design-Based Research in Mixed-Media Learning Environments. Abrahamson.

  This course constitutes a design-based research forum for participant students to deepen their understanding of their own on-going design work through discussing literature on design theory and individual cognition in the social context. The objective is that the literature will feed directly into each and all students' growing understanding both of issues to anticipate as they carry out studies and theoretical models for interpreting data from these studies. The main differences between this course and a regular research group is that here the focus is on the papers, which we interpret through our projects, rather than the reverse. Typically, but not requisitely, participants will already have a design study underway. Course participants can choose any content, age group, and media, but designs will preferably be embodied in actual mixed-media artifacts, including materials, activities, and mediation emphases, and the types of design rationales I will encourage will include a cognitive component and are inspired by constructivist/constructionist pedagogical philosophy. Participants are to bring their designs through to piloting.

  Day/Time: TBA TBA

Engineering

• 290I. Managing Innovation and Change. Chesbrough.

  This course is designed to introduce students to the innovation process and its management. It provides an overview of technological change and links it to specific strategic challenges; examines the diverse elements of the innovation process and how they are managed; discusses the uneasy relationship between technology and the workforce; and examines challenges of managing innovation globally.

  Day/Time: TBA TBA

History

• 117. The Chinese Body: Medicine and Health, Sex and Gender. Nylan.

  This course brings a thematic approach to the critical analysis of the "Chinese body", as constructed before 1911, culminating with focus in the final week of classes on comparison and contrast of pre-modern and modern understandings. As the course title indicates, the course is designed to help students gain a clearer picture of how the body was viewed from four main perspectives, those of (1) gender; (2) sexual activity; (3) health; and (4) medicine. Contrary to the stereotypes of "unchanging China," notions of the body and the person changed dramatically over the course of two thousand years from the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) to the Qing (1644-1911), and contemporary qi gong ("breath work") like contemporary fengshui has little in common with older practices. The course begins with the conception of health in pre-modern China, and the important distinction (generally ignored in modern American medicine) between "healing" and "curing." Students will be introduced to the general outline of Yin/yang, Five Phases theory, to standard definitions of "Nature," and to the major microcosm-macrocosm analogies. Readings drawn from classic medical texts, classic novels and letters, and from recently excavated legal texts will demonstrate that diet, acupuncture, moxibustion, and meditation, rather than surgery, became the main treatments because of these holistic views of the body. Since a great many of the standard metaphors for good or ill health in pre-modern China refer to sexuality, this course consequently considers "ideal sexuality" (and deviations therefrom). It also considers the precise conditions under which "anti-female rhetoric" was invoked and the practical effects -- legal, financial, and imaginative -- of that rhetoric on the lives of ordinary and elite women and their male counterparts, including the limitations of that rhetoric. The course does not presuppose knowledge of China, of the Chinese language, or of the history of science. It is essential that you attend regularly, do the reading before lectures, and send questions and comments to the instructor. Selected readings will draw from such works as Donald Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature; Judith Farquhar, Knowing Practice: the clinical encounter in Chinese medicine; and The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine, Shigehisa Kuriyama, The Expressiveness of the Body; Michel Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine; Ruth Rogawski, Hygienic Modernity; Douglas Wile, The Sexual Arts of the Bedchamber; Li Ju-chen, Flowers in the Mirror (China's counterpart to Gulliver's Travels); Nathan Sivin, "Body, State, and Cosmos in China in the last three centuries B.C"; and Raoul Birnbaum; The Healing Buddha. Assigned readings will not exceed 100 pages per week. The final weeks of the course will discuss three books -- Judith Farquhar on The Chinese Hospital, Nathan Sivin on Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, and Caroline de la Pena, The Body Electric so that students may better relate what they have learned about pre-modern concepts with what they might find today in San Francisco Chinatown, in Taiwan, or in the People's Republic of China.

  Day/Time: TuTh 2-3:30

• 103U. 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.

  Day/Time: Th 12-2

• 100. Environmental Histories of France. Sahlins.

  This millennial history of "early modern France" from the Central Middle Ages to the mid-nineteenth century explores a variety of topics of environmental history ­ from climate change to the historical geography of land use patterns, and from water and forest management practices to the symbolic representations of space, landscape, and the environment. These topics will be folded into the long and complex story of the history the French state and nation in their medieval and early modern elaborations. Focusing on key periods (the 13th and the 18th centuries), resources (forests, waters), and issues (struggles over access and control), we'll consider the environmental frameworks and dimensions of this history, focusing on the construction of French identities­ local, regional, and national with and in relation to ideas and practices about the environment. Readings include secondary sources, maps and visual culture, and a range of primary documents in translation (legislation, descriptions, literary works).

  Day/Time: TuTh 2-3:30

• 103F. Medicine, Science, and Technology in Korean Society in Comparative Perspective. Kim.

  The 19th and 20th centuries brought rapid transformations to Korea as it became increasingly incorporated into global circulations of politics, knowledge, markets, and imperialism. Major consequences include changes in the ways the body was understood, health practiced, cities planned, and technology pursued. This course serves as an introduction to the histories of science, technology, and medicine as they reflect and constitute meaning for lives in Korea. We will address narratives of science, technology, and medicine in Korea; theoretical foundations of healing practices in both premodern and modern periods; application of medical and scientific knowledge to the construction of urban space, gender, nation, and empire; sports, clothing, and body image; reproductive technology; and place of "traditional" medicine and science in the "modern." These issues will be explored in comparative perspective with what was going on in other parts of Asia as well as the West.

  Day/Time: W 10-12

• 100. History of Technology. Mazzotti.

  How do technology and society interact? What drives technological change? How does technology transfer across different cultures? These and other related questions are examined using historical case studies of productive, military, domestic, information, and biomedical technologies from 1700 to the present. We shall discuss the evolution of artifacts and technological systems such as industrial machinery, weaponry, home appliances, computers, and contraceptives. The aim of the course is for you to learn about how technology affects social change and, especially, how technological change is invariably shaped by historical and social circumstances. At the end of the course you will be able to think historically about technology, and thus engage effectively with questions of technological change -- or lack thereof.

  Day/Time: MWF 2-3

• 103B. Science, Technology, and Industry in Germany 1914 - 1945. Schuering.

  In an era historians consider as Germany's "Second Thirty Year War", science, technology and industry were thoroughly entangled twice in attempts to mobilize every part of society for military purposes. As the outcome of two World Wars depended on maximization of Germany's technical and social resources, technology and society became integrally embedded in each other in new ways. This course will explore the tangled relationships between society and technology by focusing on the spheres of research, innovation, and industrial production. We will e.g. look at the contribution of chemical research and industry to gas warfare, at material science and armament research, and aerodynamics in the context of new weapon technology. Can we trace back even until World War I what Dwight D. Eisenhower called the "military-industrial complex"? How did total mobilization change the practice and perception of science and technology? Pending support from the German Academic Exchange Service, this course will include an excursion to Germany between March 19 and 29 of 2009. The itinerary includes visits to production sites, the archives of industrial and research institutes, and museums of technology. We will visit Frankfurt (as a major center for chemical industry), Munich (with the "Deutsche Museum"), and Berlin (with several Museums, Archives and Research Institutes). The maximum number of participants is ten. Students will be required to submit a short statement (2 pages) of interest by the beginning of the semester, based on which the instructor will grant admittance to the trip. The trip is designed to be an incentive for work in the 101 course and will introduce participants to the practice of archival research. It will also grant insights into various modes of public representation within the field of history of science and technology. Those participating will write a prospectus as a preparation for their thesis. However the class is also open with full credit to students who do not plan to participate in the excursion and who’ll write a regular paper about topics generated by the secondary literature they'll be reading all semester. I will answer further questions in my office hours on November 18 and 25 (4 - 6pm).

  Day/Time: M 12-2

• 100. The Life Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, 1800-2000. Barker.

  Since the Scientific Revolution, Western physicians and scientists have progressively dealt with the human body as a collection of simple machines that follow physical laws instead of as a microcosm reflecting imbalances in the natural universe. In the early nineteenth century, this perspective was advanced dramatically by discoveries in engineering, the medical sciences, and the material sciences that led to a sudden increase in the quality and number of devices for diagnosing, healing, regulating, and replacing the limbs and organs of the human body. Beginning with the invention of the "iatrophysical body," this course examines how discoveries in biomedical engineering and the life sciences transformed Western medicine and civilization between 1800 and the late twentieth century, and the ethical, industrial, military, epidemiological, and cultural forces abetting this change. The technologies discussed include x-rays and medical imaging, breast implants and other cosmetic prostheses, sanitary engineering, the artificial heart, mechanical limbs, the iron lung, vibrators, and genetic engineering.

  Day/Time: MWF 1-2

• 101. Cutting-Edge Topics in the History of Medicine and Science. Barker.

  This seminar explores recent scholarship at the frontiers of medical and scientific history, as a means of understanding the choices historians make when producing essays and articles and providing a historiographical foundation as the class embarks on the researching, drafting, and polishing of the senior thesis. How do historians of science and medicine decide what precisely to write about? What informs their research methodologies, analytical perspectives, and writing techniques? What happens when they address controversial subjects, such as sexuality, human experimentation, and pseudoscience? How do they make a contribution to historical knowledge, however small, by analyzing primary sources? This seminar is open to all students planning to write a thesis on any aspect of the history of medicine, engineering, the life sciences, or the physical sciences from the Scientific Revolution (broadly defined) to the twentieth century (exceptions to this should be approved by the instructor). Possible fields from which specific topics may be chosen include the history of gerontology; the history of conjuring, public science, and the “philosophical experiment show”; the history of experiments, laboratories, and research policies on the Berkeley campus; the history of epidemic disease; the history of sex education; the history of pharmacology, therapeutics, and alternative medicine; and the history of religion, science, culture, and the state. The seminar will be run as a workshop, with breaks for research and writing, and will emphasize constructive peer criticism of drafts as well as one-on-one tutorials with the instructor. Please contact crispin.barker@berkeley.edu with any questions.

  Day/Time: TuTh 4-6

• C192. History of Information. staff.

  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?

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11

History of Art

• R1B. Science and the Supernatural in Visual Art and Culture. Spigler.

  The theme of this course is “Science and the Supernatural in Visual Art and Culture" – broadly conceived and ranging in scope from Enlightenment-era taxonomies of flora and fauna to BioArt's genetic manipulations. Along the way we will explore Empiricism and the role of the visual in scientific investigation and understanding. Possible topics include: Experiments with Air Pumps and Birds • the role of the Microscope and Telescope in Netherlandish painting • Frankenstein and Galvanism • Napoleon and the Description of Egypt • Mesmerism and Hypnosis • the Surgical "Operating Theatre" • Anatomical Illustration and Comparative Anatomies • Darwinism, Orchid Cultivation, and Plant Movement • Spirit Photography • Thinking the Surfaces of Distant Worlds • Human Zoos • 100 Suns • Entropy and Transgenic Manipulation.

  Day/Time: TuTh 11-12:30

Journalism

• J. Reporting on Public Health and Medicine. staff.

  The course will help students understand the challenges and complexities of covering public health and medical issues and provide basic tools for developing story ideas, wading through the massive amounts of information?and disinformation--out there, and crafting sharp and informative stories. The course will stress the importance of incorporating a broad social perspective in reporting on health. We will start with some basic public health and epidemiological concepts, get comfortable reading peer-reviewed studies, and explore some major public health topics--infectious illnesses, "disease-mongering" by drug companies, health disparities, etc. Students will write (or produce in another medium) several health-related pieces in a variety of genres.

  Day/Time: TBA TBA

• J. Finding the Lost City: From Science to Story. staff.

  Finding the Lost City: From Science to Story In the avalanche of perpetual scientific breakthroughs, it can be hard to sift the narrative from the news. How to pursue the great tale, as distinct from daily reportage, will be the crux of this class. Telling authentically riveting stories ? the biologist accused of piracy, who fled into the Brazilian jungle; the FBI investigation that tracked lethal anthrax letters to a high-security government lab; the astronomer whose computer program unexpectedly revealed a financial fraud ? is a matter of craft more than luck. With this in mind, we?ll look at the art and strategy of the pitch, ways to find the narrative within a subject, and how to use a wealth of scientific detail to enrich a story rather than smother it. This class is for people interested in stories that could benefit, generally, from a knowledge of science: a relatively broad category. Writing a single long piece will be the aim, and reading assignments will focus on identifying the hidden structure that makes compelling pieces tick (quests, mysteries, and other progressions of scenes and ideas). We?ll also meet with researchers to discuss the challenges of communicating science, as well as with writers from National Geographic, Harper?s, Wired, and the New York Times magazine to learn about the complex evolution of real-world stories ? including some of the great magazine articles of the past few years ? from the people who wrote them.

  Day/Time: TBA TBA

Philosophy

• 128. Philosophy of Science. Roush.

  This is a course in general philosophy of science. We study five topics of central importance where formal probabilistic approaches have brought progress. We ask: What makes something a scientific explanation?, What is required for observations to confirm (support) a hypothesis?, Is simplicity a guide to truth?, What is special about predicting novel data as opposed to accommodation of old data?, and Does the success of science give us reason to believe its theories are true? Topics covered include the problem of induction, some paradoxes of confirmation, and the advantages and disadvantages of Bayesianism. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy.

  Day/Time: TuTh 2-3:30

Psychology

• 210. Proseminar: Cognition, Brain, and Behavior. Staff.

  Three hours of lecture per week. A survey of the field of biological psychology. Areas covered are (a) cognitive neuroscience; (b) biological bases of behavior; (c) sensation and perception (d) learning and memory, (e) thought and language.

  Day/Time:

Rhetoric

• 205. Thinking Technology - Modern Rhetoric of Cognition. Bates.

  This seminar will investigate the ways in which human cognition has been shaped by the technologies of modern culture. We will be especially interested in how political, social, and cultural systems in the industrial and post-industrial age have affected the relationship between thinking and technology. How has the “human” been defined with respect to new technological developments? The seminar will combine historical and theoretical approaches. Our investigation will begin with Descartes’ concept of thinking in the context of new mechanistic models of nature, then explore a variety of cognitive models in the era of the commercial and industrial revolution, before working through a number of twentieth- (and twenty-first) century examples of thinking machines – in the fields of cybernetics, artificial intelligence, neuro-philosophy, and cognitive science. Our goal will be emphasize the interdependence of ideas and metaphors as they arise in philosophical, political, and technological spheres.

  Day/Time: W 10-1

School of Information

• 290-02. Technologies for Creativity & Learning. Ryokai.

  How does the design of new educational technologies change the way children learn and think? Which aspects of creative thinking and learning can technology support? How do we design systems that reflect our understanding of how we learn? This course explores issues in designing and evaluating technologies that support creativity and learning. The class will cover theories of creativity and learning, implications for design, as well as a survey of new educational technologies such as works in computer supported collaborative learning, digital manipulatives, and immersive learning environments.

  Day/Time: TBA TBA

• 212. Information in Society. Van House.

  The role of information and information technology in organizations and society. Topics include societal needs and demands, sociology of knowledge and science, diffusion of knowledge and technology, information seeking and use, information and culture.

  Day/Time:

Sociology

• Sociology. Genders / Races/(Post)Colonialities in/and Sciences / Technologies / Medicines. Clarke.

  This course explores historical and contemporary intersections of issues of gender, race, feminism, and postcoloniality with sciences and technologies, emphasizing the life sciences and biomedicine. The major focus of the course is on how sex/gender and race/ethnicity have been constructed within and by sciences, medicine, and technology development. Specific topics include feminist and postcolonial critiques of scientific epistemologies and practices; historical and contemporary Course explores historical and contemporary intersections of issues of gender, race, feminism, and postcoloniality with sciences and technologies, emphasizing the life sciences and biomedicine. The major focus of the course is on how sex/gender and race/ethnicity have been constructed *within and by* sciences, medicine, and technology development. Specific topics include feminist and postcolonial critiques of scientific epistemologies and practices; historical and contemporary constructions of differences; impacts of scientific constructions of race and gender on scientific work per se and on biomedicine; the sociology of knowledge and (re)valuation of indigenous knowledges and sciences (decolonization of knowledges); and issues of gender, race and (post)coloniality in development as globalization. NOTE: This course is at UCSF only, from March 31-June 2, 2009.

  Day/Time: Tu 1-4

 

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