STS Related Courses, Spring 2008

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

Anthropology

• Anthropology 1. Introduction to Biological Anthropology. Terrence 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 PM

• Anthropolgy 119. Special Topics in Medical Anthropology: "Violence, Social Suffering, and Human Rights". Nancy Scheper-Hughes.

  This intensive, undergraduate seminar/field practicum course will explore violence and genocide in the context of human rights. We will study the contested history, theory and practice of human rights. We begin with an understanding of violence/genocide as a continuum that includes often unrecognized forms of violence -- the 'small wars and invisible genocides' -- of everyday life. Most forms of violence are not 'deviant' at all but defined as moral in the service of political norms and economic interests. Thus, we will focus on the structural and symbolic violence of poverty, exclusion, and confinement as these negatively impact the sick-poor, the socially marginalized , the displaced and the disgraced, especially refugees, immigrants, the homeless, street children, prisoners, the mentally ill. Lectures and readings will juxtapose the routine, the ordinary -- the symbolic and normative violence of everyday life ("terror as usual") -- against sudden eruptions of unexpected, extraordinary, or "gratuitous" violence (as in genocide, state terror, dirty wars, drug wars, terrorism, rough justice, guerrilla warfare, and civil wars). We will explore the continuities between political and criminal violence, between state violence and 'communal' violence, between structural violence and domestic violence. Case studies will include: indigenous peoples, autonomy and self-determination; the rights of children and child combatants; gendered violence and human rights; the traffic in workers and organs; human rights as vehicles for achieving social justice; health as a human right; and the role of academic-activists in the struggle for human life and dignity. Part one of the seminar will introduce students to interdisciplinary (anthropological, medical, philosophical, theological, and literary) approaches to violence, genocide, war, poverty, and other forms of human suffering. Students will be introduced to Franco Basaglia's "peace-time crimes", Conrad's "heart of darkness"; Immanuel Levinas's "useless suffering"; Bourdieu's "symbolic violence"; Taussig's "culture of terror," Primo Levi's "gray zone"; Agamben's "impossibility of witnessing"; and Foucault's "carceral network". We will contrast ethnographic, literary, documentary, and humanitarian forms of 'witnessing', representing, and responding to violence and genocide. The second half of the course will look at the emergence of human rights discourses and humanitarian responses and practices and the applications of human rights to medicine, psychiatry, to expanded notions of citizenship , especially in the fraught context of new nation building following civil wars and political violence. How do conceptions of human rights vary with respect to different social, cultural and political contexts? What social groups do or do not have recognized human rights? Are specific human rights seen as 'owned' by individuals or by social groups? What notions of 'the human' and 'human dignity' are recognized and encoded in various human rights discourses? Guest speakers who have extensive experience as scholars, artists, and activists dealing with violence, genocide, social suffering and human rights will be an integral part of this course. Practicum/Field Research: Finally, and most importantly, this demanding seminar has a required field research component and practicum through which students will participate as 'interns' in local various institutional field sites , programs, institutions related to the themes of the course.

  Day/Time: Tu 2-5 PM

• Anthropology 139. Controlling Processes. Laura 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. Prerequisites: None

  Day/Time: TuTh 11-12:30 PM

• Letters and Science 180A. Archaeology of Sex and Gender. Rosemary A. Joyce.

  NOTE: This course satisfies the Archaeology core or an elective requirement for the major. 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 PM

• Anthropology 189, Section 4. The Anthropology of the Object. Helene Mialet.

  “Back to Things!” –This is the new motto of what Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel call an “object-oriented democracy”, and the first line of the back cover of their edited book Making Things Public. Assembling more than 100 writers—- philosophers, historians, anthropologists and artists— this book examines “the atmospheric conditions in which things are made public, and reinvests political representation with the materiality it has been lacking.” Mainly based on this book (not all of it and with a few additions) we will examine the role that non-humans (i.e., voting machines, bridges, stages, walls, notebooks, buildings, blogs, images, shopping carts, brains, wolves, gods etc...) play in making our social/cultural/ political world. In particular, we’ll look at the implications of taking the role of non-humans seriously for how we look at cognition, subjectivity, politics and religion. Prerequisite: None

  Day/Time: W 2-5 PM

Business Administration

• MBA 212, Section 1. Energy and Environmental Markets (formerly Policies and Strategies in Energy Markets). Severin Borenstein and James Bushnell.

  PREREQUISITE(S): MBA201A or equivalent microeconomics course CLASS FORMAT: Mix of lectures and case discussions, with one or more presentations by leading energy executives and policy makers. REQUIRED READINGS: Readings from books, periodicals, government reports and trade press. BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: 60% exams- 1 midterm and 1 final exam 30% energy strategy games -- One exercise in which teams acquire portfolios of generation units and compete with them in a market that is representative of California (The Electricity Strategy Game); One exercise in which teams act as country-level decision makers in the world oil market (The OPEC Game). Grading is based on team performance in these games and on explanations of strategies in written memos. 10% -- class participation. ABSTRACT OF COURSE CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: In the past 30 years, some of the largest industries have made the transition from a regulated to market based paradigm. Managers in many transportation, information technology, and energy companies have had to devise strategies to cope with changes in economic and environmental regulations and the evolution of new markets and trading platforms. The energy industries feature a complex mix of regulation and market-driven incentives. Over the last decade, industries that had previously been viewed as staid and conservative have been rocked by deregulation initiatives, the California electricity crises, the Enron scandal, rising commodity prices, and now the challenge to reduce greenhouse gases. Drawing on the tools of economics and finance, we study the business and public policy issues that these changes have raised in energy markets. Topics include the development and effect of organized spot, futures, and derivative markets in energy; the political economy of deregulation; climate change, environmental impacts and policies related to energy production and use; privatisation of publicly owned energy assets; market power and antitrust; the transportation and storage of energy commodities; and the economics of alternative energy sources. We examine the economic determinants of industry structure and evolution of competition among firms in these industries; investigate successful and unsuccessful strategies for entering new markets and competing in existing markets; and analyze the rationale for and effects of public policies in energy markets. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Severin Borenstein is E.T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy, Director of the U.C. Energy Institute, and a former member of the Governing Board of the California Power Exchange. He has published academic papers and consulted for government and businesses on gasoline, oil, electricity, and airline markets. James Bushnell is Research Director at the U.C. Energy Institute, a former chair of the Market Monitoring Committee of the California Power Exchange, and a current member of the Market Surveillance Committee of the California Independent System Operator. He has written extensively about the deregulation and organization of energy markets. He has consulted for utilities, entrepreneurs, and government and regulatory agencies in the U.S. and internationally.

  Day/Time: TuTh 11-12:30 PM

• MBA 295J, Section 1. Entrepreneurship in Biotechnology. Larry Lasky.

  PREREQS: MBA Core curriculum or permission of an instructor CLASS FORMAT: Introductory lectures, industry guest expert lecturers, case studies, and in-class analysis of strategies and tactics relevant to the life science industry. As a final project, groups will prepare a business plan for a new life science-based venture in the biotech or biomedical device areas REQUIRED READINGS: No textbook, but readings from biotech and device-related books, journals and websites will be assigned. BASIS FOR GRADE: Grades will be based on class participation (~ 20%), qualitative and quantitative work done between classes (~ 30%) and the final project, a business plan for a new life science-based company (~ 50%). Students in this course are from the MBA program in its various forms, Engineering, Public Health, and often UCSF and Molecular and Cell Biology. Final project teams are multidisicplinary and rely heavily on the breadth of expertise of the team members. The instructor will help teams find projects. ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: The Haas Entrepreneurship in Biotechnology class will provide students an introduction to the complexities and unique problems of starting a life sciences company. It is designed for both entrepreneurs and students who may someday work in a biotechnology or medical device startup. Students will be exposed to the topics most critical for successfully founding, financing and operating a life science company, and will be expected to perform many of the same tasks that founders would normally undertake. Discussions with life-science entrepreneurs, case studies of recent companies and hands-on work developing entrepreneurial endeavors will all be utilized. The first classes will provide an overview of the industry based on current trends and those of the past 20 years as well as on how to recognize fundable opportunities. The middle section of the course will focus on functional and operational issues facing small life science companies including obtaining financing, working with venture capitalists, bringing ideas to the clinic, intellectual property, and business development and strategic partnering. The final portion of the course will be oriented to the preparation and presentation of actual business plans. Well in advance of the project's final due date, teams will be asked to provide a written executive summary and one or more oral presentations. These exercises will help teams understand the strengths and weaknesses of their new venture, and help them to prepare a more successful plan. This class is appropriate for students who would like to start their own enterprise, and just as importantly, those who believe that they may someday work in a small life science-based company. In both cases, you will learn what drives the start up and on-going operations of these fascinating and exciting enterprises. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Larry Lasky is currently a partner at U.S. Venture Partners. He has founded several companies Proteolix, Oncomed, Bioverdant, Tetralogic. Before becoming a v.c., he spent 20 years as a scientist at Genentech working in various fields including vaccines, inflammation, cellular signaling and anti-tumor monoclonal antibody production. Two of his projects, vaccines for herpes simplex virus (HSV) and HIV, went into phase 3 clinical trials, with the HSV vaccine showing significant efficacy. During his time at Genentech, he was a standing member of the research review committee, which had oversight over all of research, and he retired as the Genentech Fellow, the highest scientific position at the company. Before Genentech, he was a founding scientist of the Genetics Institute, one of the earliest biotechnology companies. He received his B.A. and PhD in molecular biology from UCLA and did his postdoctoral studies at CalTech. His daughter is a sophomore at Cal and he is a huge Bears Fan

  Day/Time: T 2-4 PM

Center for New Media

• Center for New Media 200. History and Theory of New Media. Christiane Paul.

  This class will outline the history and theory of new media from aesthetic, cultural, and political perspectives. The course will explore notions of medium and use prominent theories of media archeology to illustrate how mediation in various forms has impacted perception and communication over time. Other topics to be discussed will include the logic of the database as a new cultural form and way of revealing patterns of knowledge, beliefs, and social behavior; as well as notions of software as a logical and inevitable consequence of the nature of the digital medium and the power of its structures and rules. Today's culture is to a large extent revolving around data flows that are an expression of processes that profoundly affect our economic, political, and social life. Data flows support the concept of a networked commons, which raises questions about agency, control, and governance. These political issues will be addressed within the framework of recent theories surrounding immaterial production. Through a series of lectures, reading assignments, and discussions, class members will position new media in this larger cultural context.

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

Comparative Literature

• Comp Lit 1A, Section3. Environment without Borders: U.S./Mexico Read Ecologically. James Ramey.

  Although the U.S. and Mexico both have rich and varied genealogies of natural philosophy and nature-representation, the contemporaneous rise of environmentalism and postmodernism in the second half of the twentieth century brings a new cluster of problems and preoccupations into focus. First, representations of nature that might once have been rendered for primarily aesthetic ends often become imbued with an overt ethical dimension, suggesting the fragility and finitude of natural landscapes, species, and habitats. Second, as Enlightenment-era modes of knowing nature are called into question by poststructuralist critiques of scientific categorization and objectivity, traditional modes of representing nature in fiction and film are re-examined, leading to a variety of daring experimental approaches. Third, as binaries that separate human from nonhuman are destabilized, some narratives search for a pre-modern relation with ecology, in which indigenous, nature-based societies provide a perceived link to a primordial “prehuman” world. This course’s focus on narratives from the U.S. and Mexico is designed to read changes in each nation’s conceptions of environmental crisis and philosophical anthropocentrism as a context for narrative art, and to map such changes in a comparative transnational compass. Students must attend classes, participate in class discussions, work on group projects, and demonstrate thoughtful readings of the assigned texts. Students will turn in a diagnostic essay as well as two progressively longer essays totaling at least 16 typewritten pages, with at least an equal number of pages of preliminary drafting and revising. Students will be asked to participate in an ongoing web-based dialogue and to give an oral presentation. Required Texts: * Pedro Paramo – Juan Rulfo * The Tortilla Curtain – T. Coraghessan Boyle * The Inferno – Dante (trans. Allen Mandelbaum) * Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman * Lolita (Annotated) – Vladimir Nabokov * The Random House Handbook – Frederick Crews

  Day/Time: MWF 10-11 AM

• Comp Lit 1B, Section 13. The Body Politic: Repression, Transgression, and Resistance. Karina Palau & Nina Pick.

  One of the earliest articulations of the concept for the body politic appears in the work of the Ancient Greek philosophers, who establish the body as an analogy for the political apparatus, describing political malaise in terms of bodily disease and state fragmentation in terms of amputation. Historical and contemporary discussions of the relationship between body and state draw on a common language—of illness, of conquest and penetration, of love and desire—that highlights a metaphorical and literal dialogue between the human body and structures/technologies of power. In this course, we will consider myriad representations of the body from different historical moments and artistic modes as we think about the ethical and political consequences of how bodies are marked, coded, observed, and interpreted. Why does it matter how bodies are represented? What do such representations, literary and visual, suggest about how different bodies are configured in relationship to tangled networks of power and conceptions of identity--individual, communal, national, and global? And what does this suggest about the possibility for negotiation, self-fashioning, and resistance? We will explore these questions in relationship to a variety of mediums including literature, photography, film, and comics. Tentative Reading and Viewing List: * (Please do not buy books before the first day of class.) * The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America 1492-1493 * Os Sertoes, Euclides da Cunha * The Human Stain, Philip Roth * The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway * The Kiss of the Spider Woman, Manuel Puig * Short stories by Clarice Lispector, Juan Rulfo * Sections of theoretical works by Foucault, Bakhtin * Comic Book, TBA

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11 AM

• Comp Lit 41E, Section 1. Cinematic Cities. Paul Haacke.

  What is the relationship between cinematic space and urban space, motion pictures and transportation, mise-en-scène and architecture? How have some of the most pressing problems of twentieth century urbanization and globalization played out through the history of film production? This course will examine not only how films have represented urban life but also how cities have shaped modes of cinematic representation. We will survey world cinema to some extent but the majority of the films will come from Europe and the United States (early urban actuality films, post-WWI city films, film noir, French Nouvelle Vague, American independent cinema,etc.); that said, we will consider all of them in transnational and worldly terms. Class time will be open to discussion and will likely revolve around questions of space and time, mobility and dislocation, montage and pluralism, vision and power, sexuality and desire, race and immigration, culture and capital, circulation and stratification, development and ruin, violence and terror. Our approach will try to balance the global and local, theoretical and historical, thematic and formal. This will be an intensive course requiring active participation, careful reading of criticism and theory, regular short writing assignments, a midterm paper and one final research paper. Screenings will be on Tuesday evenings from 5-8 in 101 Wheeler.

  Day/Time: TuTh 11-12:30 PM

English

• English R1B. What's So New About New Media?. Franklin Melendez.

  Book List: David Cronenberg, Videodrome (1983); Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985); Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira (1988); Matthew Barney, Cremaster 3 (2002); Christian Marclay, Video Quartet (2003); Bernadette Corporation, Reena Spaulings (2005) Ryan Trecartin, A Family Finds Entertainment (2005); There will also be a course reader with supplementary readings. Course Description: This course will continue to develop and polish the critical thinking and writing skills introduced in English 1A. Through the primary works of the class, we will refine close reading, analysis, argumentation and organization. In addition, we will engage a range of secondary materials, from criticism to theoretical essays. Our final project will integrate individual research. We will pursue these objectives through the course topic, which looks at the problem of New Media. Our contemporary media landscape has been acutely affected by the digital (and its unique encoding of information). For many, the change from analog to digital marks a profound shift not only in the organization of information, but in the nature of media itself and how we engage with it. This shift amounts to a significant break with what has preceded the digital, and this is what’s touted as “new” in “New Media.” It’s clear that we’re plugged into a multitude of information sources (the internet, virtual reality, video games, ipods, etc.), and questions of simulation, interface and interactivity are increasingly pressing, but the jury is still out on whether this adds up to a new information age, or simply an acceleration of what came before. The course will historicize discourses of New Media, examining the emergence of other “new” technologies such as film, television and video. What do these earlier technologies reveal about the digital landscape? How has our fundamental relation to information changed? What anxieties does do they activate? The class will engage these questions through a wide variety of objects: examples of previous “new” media, narratives organized around the status of technology, and, of course, a wide range of New Media artworks. The class will also include numerous field trips and screenings at SFMOMA and the PFA.

  Day/Time: MWF 10-11 AM

• English 150, Section 9. Senior Seminar: Speculative Fiction and Dystopias. Donna Jones.

  Areas of Concentration: 1E; 3; 6 Book List: H.G. Wells: The Island of Doctor Moreau; Villiers de l’Isle-Adam: The Future Eve; Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go; China Mielville: Perdido Street Station ; Jean-Michel Truong: Eternity Express; Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Bladerunner, Gattaca,Children of Men; Eugene Thacker: The Global Genome Course Description: This course will examine in depth the history of speculative fiction and its engagement with the thematics and topoi of the new life sciences—representation of cloning, ecological dystopias, hybrid life-forms, genetic engineering dystopias. While science is the thematic point of departure of speculative fiction, the concerns of this course will be the literary. How does literature’s encounter with the projected realities of the new biology revise our conceptions of the subject? Could there be a Leopold Bloom of the genetically engineered, a subject whose interior voice is the free-flowing expression of experience? Behind the endless removes of social, material and technological mediation lies the construction of a flesh and blood body, separated from itself through the workings of consciousness. If indeed the post/modern subject requires a psychic space shaped by the authenticity of ‘being,’ a consciousness deeply rooted in the human experience, then how do we represent that being whose point of origin is the artificial, the inauthentic? These are some of the questions to be addressed in this course. You may of course bring others. Enrollment is limited and a written application is due BY 4:00 P.M., TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30; be sure to read the paragraph on page 2 of this Announcement of Classes regarding enrollment in English 150!

  Day/Time: TuTh 11-12:30 PM

• English 203, Section 1. Graduate Readings: Disability in Theory. Susan Schweik.

  Book List: Course Reader Course Description: Disability Studies as it has emerged in the academy in the last decade is a multidisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, interdisciplinary field. For complex historical reasons themselves worth exploring, in the United States that field has had particularly strong anchoring in the arts and humanities. This course will explore the meanings of “disability,” of “theory,” of “art” and of “the humanities” by considering each term in its relation to each others. Our conversations and readings will be determined to a significant extent by students’ own research interests (but that doesn’t mean I presuppose any knowledge of disability issues), and also by the current interests of some of the foundational shapers of the field from across the country who will join us as guests. They will include a number of literary critics, scholars in deaf studies and performance studies, historians, legal scholars, and artists and photographers.

  Day/Time: TuTh 11-12:30 PM

Environmental Science, Policy & Management

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

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

  Day/Time: W 2-5 PM

History

• History #TBA. Before Medicaid, Medicare, and Managed Care: Exploring the History of American Medicine, 1900-1950. R. Bartz.

  This course examines the history of American Medicine from 1900-1950. Topics inclue: the changing organization of medical practice, reforms in medical education, developments in medical science and technology, shifting ecology of disease, transformation of medical care institutions, patient and physician perspectives on health and illness, theories of disease and clinical therapeutics, debates over costs and quality, and the history of American health policy before Medicaid, Medicare, and Managed Care.

  Day/Time: Tu 3-5 PM

• History 30B. Science and Society. John E. Lesch.

  An introductory survey of the history of the sciences and the increasingly important place they have come to occupy in modern societies since 1700. We begin by looking at the legacy of the Scientific Revolution, the consolidation of classical physics and natural history in the Enlightenment, and popular science. We go on to consider Darwin and evolution, the organizational transformation of science in the nineteenth century, the emergence of chemistry as a science and source of new technologies, and the foundations of genetics around 1900. In the twentieth century we will emphasize the relations of science to technology, medicine, industry, government, and warfare. Course requirements include a discussion section, a midterm and a final examination, and one paper.

  Day/Time: MWF 11-12 PM

• History 101.018. Social Protest in the United States. Postel.

  This seminar is designed for students who are interested in research projects on social protest movements - their internal dynamics, and their impact on American thought, politics, and society. Acceptable topics include a wide range of political, social, and cultural movements across the 19th and 20th centuries. Students will be expected to write a first and second draft, and to share their research and writing activities with both small tutorial groups and with the class as a whole. Come to the first class meeting prepared to discuss possible topics.

  Day/Time: TuTh 12:30-2 PM

• History 138. History of Science in the U.S.. Groppi.

  The course covers the history of science in the U.S. from the colonial period up to the present. We will be focusing on the unique situation of the sciences within the changing U.S. context, emphasizing debates over the place of science in intellectual, cultural, religious, and political life. As we examine the mutual shaping of national experience and scientific developments, we will also trace the emergence of institutions for the pursuit of scientific knowledge, with special attention to the relationships between science and technology and between science and the state. We will explore a large number of local examples (California geology, Ernest Lawrence, Silicon Valley, and lots on UC Berkeley). The course is aimed at students of all majors; no scientific knowledge is presupposed. Basic familiarity with U.S. history will be helpful, as the course is as much about U.S. history as about the history of science.

  Day/Time: MWF 12-1 PM

• History 181. Modern Physics. Cathryn Carson.

  The course examines the establishment of the ideas and institutions of modern physics over the last century and a half. We begin with the nineteenth-century organization of the discipline and the debates over the classical world picture (mechanics, electromagnetism and optics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics). We then follow the dramatic changes that undid the classical picture, from the discovery of radioactivity through Einstein's theories of relativity on to the creation of quantum mechanics and the accompanying philosophical disputes. Alongside these conceptual upheavals we will look at the evolving structure of the discipline, its links with industry and government, and the massive transformations of the Second World War, culminating in the atomic bomb. In the postwar period we will deal with the conceptual consolidation of the modern physical worldview and the emergence of "big science" in alliance with the state. This course fulfills the L&S breadth requirement in physical sciences. A decent high-school level course in physics or chemistry will be adequate preparation, but all students should expect to learn a good deal of science. If you have questions, please contact the instructor or visit the course website

  Day/Time: MWF 2-3 PM

• History 200B. Introduction to History of Health Services. Elizabeth Watkins.

  Prerequisites: 200A, or permission of the instructor. Continuation of 200A. This course presents a general survey from 1800 to the present, with the primary focus on Europe and the US. Topics include: the rise of scientific medicine; the significance of germ theory; the development of medical therapeutics and technologies; the growth of health care institutions; the evolution and specialization of the medical profession.

  Day/Time: Tu 10-12 PM

• History 204A. Research Methods in the History of Health Services. Elizabeth Watkins.

  Pre-requisites: HH200A and HH200B, or permission of the instructor. Introduction to medical historiiography, research methodologies, and the craft of interpreting and writing medical history. Discussion of different historical approaches employed in writing history, including intellectual, social, cultural, feminist perspectives, and the sociology of knowledge. Survey of bibliographic tools and training in the methods of oral history.

  Day/Time: F 10-12 PM

• History 217. Interdisciplinary Readings: Anthropology, History, Sociology. Brian Dolan.

  This course examines different theories and research methods developed in anthropology, history and sociology to demonstrate how particular conceptual paradigms are adapted for use by different disciplines. Through comparative readings, this course traces the intellectual foundations of medical anthropology, history and sociology.

  Day/Time: F 10-12 PM

• History 275S.001. Introduction to the History of Science (II). John E. Lesch.

  An introduction to issues and problems in the history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century science based on reading, discussion, and written analysis of selected secondary literature. General themes include the organization of science in different national settings, the nature of the scientific community, patterns of scientific change, science and gender, and the relations of science to technology, industry, medicine, government, and warfare. Requirements include several short papers.

  Day/Time: Th 2-4 PM

• History 280S.001. Genes, Blood, and the Body Politic. The Life Sciences and National Socialism. Michael Schuering.

  National Socialism constituted a very eclectic ideology, i.e. it borrowed from many sources, trying to make its peculiar world view appealing for all parts of German society. One unique feature of the NS-Regime, however, was the belief that it was founded on alleged biological facts, especially the existence of human races which differed in value and had to be kept separate. This had profound consequences for National Socialist politics at home and abroad. The idea of racial superiority led to a cruel war of extermination and the Holocaust. It also helped to justify the discrimination and even murder of the sick and helpless. But what role did the German scientific community play in all of this? In the first half of the 20th century Germany was a bright center for biological, biochemical and medical research. How did those German scientists who were left unharmed by political and anti-Semitic purges after 1933 react to the new government’s scientific pretensions? How did they contribute to the justification or implementation of forced sterilization and murder? How did geneticists, anthropologists and biologists define or work with the notion of race and eugenics? Was this an episode of a monstrous deviation from ethical principles, or is there something about the life sciences that makes physicians or scientists susceptible to ideas like this? The course will approach these questions from a biographical, institutional and social perspective. It will discuss the newest research on the topic and try to assess the relevance of these problems for today's practice of medicine and science.

  Day/Time: M 10-12 PM

History of Art

• Histart 290, Section 2. Graduate Seminar: Sexuality and Aesthetics. Whitney Davis.

  This seminar investigates the intimate conceptual relations between theories of sexuality, sexual identifications, and sexual cultures, on the one hand, and the development of philosophical or scientific aesthetics, art theory, and art criticism on the other hand. While reference will need to be made to ancient traditions (e.g., Greek doctrines of perception, eros, and art), the course will focus on European and North American developments since the later eighteenth century, concentrating on major models or frameworks in aesthetics and the theory of sexuality in relation to cultural production. These will likely include: the thread or theme of homoeroticism in idealist aesthetics and art theory (Winckelmann, Kant, Reynolds); counter-Kantian Enlightenment "phallicism" (d'Hancarville, R. P. Knight, Forberg); the impact of Darwinian theories of sexual selection on aesthetics, and the development of a homoeroticist Darwinism; aestheticism and the "Decadent" movement; neurological and psychophysiological models of reflex, erethism, sexuality, and corporeal responsiveness to stimuli; psychoanalytic aesthetics; Foucault's aesthetics and ethics of extreme sex; contemporary analytic philosophies of eroticism and art. Students will investigate these and other formations in pursuing research projects for presentation.

  Day/Time: W 7-10 PM

Integrative Biology

• Integrative Biology 200B. Principles of Phylogenetics: Ecology and Evolution. Brent Mishlet, David Ackerly.

  B 200B focuses on the use of a historical framework to answer ecological and evolutionary questions. This course covers applications of phylogenetics to ecology, evolution, development, functional morphology, populational genetics, conservation, biogeogeography, and speciation that are revolutionizing those fields. Labs are closely integrated with lectures and cover the major algorithms and software. Requirements include participation in discussion, two quizzes, and a term project. This project is an important practical experience; we allow (in fact, encourage) students to focus on questions that they are studying for their thesis or other research. IB 200B is taught every other Spring semester and alternates with IB 200A "Principles of Phylogenetics: Systematics." Both are intended for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. IB 200A covers the core theory and methodology for comparative biology: phylogenetic analyses using morphology and molecules, and living and fossil organisms.

  Day/Time: TuTh 12:30-3:30 PM

International and Area Studies

• International & Area Studies 150.5. Justice and Accountability in Times of War, Genocide, and Terrorism. David Cohen, E Stover.

  This upper division undergraduate seminar (enrollment limit of 20) uses an interdisciplinary lens to examine war, terrorism, and mass atrocity and their affects on survivors and communities. Drawing upon a variety of texts, as well as the visual media of film, art, and photography, we will study the ways in which writers, historians, philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, artists, journalists, jurists, and forensic scientists have contributed to our understanding of mass violence and its affects on society. We will examine the war crimes committed in modern conflicts, ranging from WWII in Asia and Europe to Vietnam, Cambodia, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and Iraq. We will discuss the ways in which different academic disciplines and professions have tried to explain and analyze the causes and nature of war crimes (including genocide and crimes against humanity); to document and focus the world’s attention upon them through a variety of methodologies and media; and to locate responsibility for their perpetration within the complex interplay of military, political, and cultural institutions.

  Day/Time: W 1-4 PM

Journalism

• Journalism 226. Writing Science Long. Russ Rymer.

  It’s a truism that the success of any modern society relies, in part, on scientific literacy. Often overlooked is the importance of an ingredient essential to maintaining that literacy: long-form journalism. Long form is particularly qualified to bridge the gap between science and society, but as science becomes ever more powerful and ever more arcane, the journalist’s role can be a double-edged honor: more essential, and vastly more daunting. The journalist must understand (as most laypeople do not) the nature of science, both the technicalities of specific fields and the general tenets of scientific process, and must also understand (as many scientists do not) how to translate results and processes into lay terms. The journalist must also learn to critique the larger effects of science and technology, not only the ways they contribute to our material comfort and the ultimate fate of the planet, but also their role in defining our society and providing the terms and metaphors by which we perceive our individual lives. Scientific advancements may be well presented in short newspaper articles and technical papers, but only long-form journalism has the descriptive space and the creative leeway to fully portray the subtlety of science, scientists at work, science as process, and science as shaper of our world and our times. This course will explore two parallel tracks—the underlying scientific knowledge required of journalists, and the long-form skills that allow the writer to interpret hard fact artistically and responsibly. In the first track we will discuss such subjects as the journalist’s obligation to comprehend science accurately, the opportunity of long-form journalism to depict science in the making, the ways that science is misconstrued, and issues of scientific ethics. The second track will concentrate on the science of long-form writing itself: picking a good story, organizing it, establishing a relationship with sources, checking the veracity of facts and principles, using appropriate descriptive license to bring science alive without getting it wrong, journalistic ethics, and the real meaning of “long-form”—just what exactly is that, anyway? Some classes will be devoted entirely to craft; students will discuss and edit each other’s papers. Each student will write two researched feature-length articles and be responsible for reading a wide (though not voluminous) selection of texts ranging from John McPhee, Arthur Koestler, Richard Preston and Michael Pollan to Richard Feynman and Stephen Jay Gould. While this course is meant for students wanting to write directly about scientific subjects, it can be useful for any writers wishing to portray any fact-based subject through graceful long-strand prose. Applicants are not required to have an article already underway, but it is helpful to have a story or at least a specific subject area in mind before the semester begins. Class meets 2 hours once a week. 3 credits. Restrictions and Prerequisites: Applicants should send two writing samples and a brief description of their interest in the class to Russ Rymer at rgrymer@earthlink.net. I will let you know in early January if I’m sure you are in the class or not, though final adjustments to the class roster may need to be made after our initial class session.

  Day/Time: W 2-4 PM

• Journalism 226. Reporting on Public Health and Medicine. David Tuller.

  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: W 10-1 PM

• Journalism 255. Law and Ethics. James Wheaton, Tom Goldstein.

  An introduction to the legal and ethical conflicts faced by working reporters. Half of the semester will concentrate on First Amendment and media law, including libel and slander, privacy, free press/fair trial conflicts, and civil lawsuits arising from controversial reporting methods. The remainder of the semester will focus on ethical dilemmas faced by reporters and editors. Using case studies, in-class argument, readings and guest lecturers, the course examines some of the murkier conflicts that don?t necessarily make it to court but nevertheless force difficult newsroom decision-making.

  Day/Time: W 2-5 PM

Law

• Law 276.64. Stem Cell Research: Understanding the Intersection Emerging Law and Science. Amy Schofield, Susan Stayn.

  This seminar will explore the rapidly developing field of human embryonic stem cell research from a legal and policy perspective. Topics to be discussed include federal funding restrictions and the broader federal research framework; state legal and funding initiatives, and the challenges that differing states’ approaches pose to cross-state scientific collaboration; regulatory approaches outside of the U.S.; and core legal issues in research, such as informed consent, ownership of specimens, ethical and scientific oversight, privacy, and intellectual property interests. As these issues are examined, attention will be given to the role of legislation, agency regulation, guidelines, and both public and institutional policy in providing oversight in this evolving area of scientific research.

  Day/Time: M 9-11 AM

• Law 276.1, Section 1. Cyberlaw. Brian Carver, Aaron Perzanowski.

  The emergence of global digital networks, such as the Internet, and digital technologies that enhance human abilities to access, store, manipulate, and transmit vast amounts of information has brought with it a host of new legal issues that lawyers preparing to practice in the 21st century will need to understand and address. Although many are trying to "map" existing legal concepts onto problems arising in cyberspace, it is becoming increasingly evident that this strategy sometimes doesn't work. In some cases, it is necessary to go back to first principles to understand how to accomplish the purposes of existing law in digital networked environments. The course will explore specific problems in applying law to cyberspace in areas such as intellectual property, privacy, content control, and the bounds of jurisdiction. Students with familiarity with the Internet and its resources or with backgrounds in some of the substantive fields explored in this course are especially welcome, but there are no formal prerequisites. Grades for the course will be based either on a series of short papers or on a supervised term paper. This class will meet Jan 24, 2008 - May 1, 2008.

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

• Law 276.61, Section 1. Biotechnology and Chemical Patent Law. Karen Boyd.

  prerequisites: Patent Law or instructor approval, Intro it IP and/or admission to the patent bar This course will examine some of the issues encountered frequently (and sometimes uniquely) in the application of patent law to the life sciences and chemistry industries. Particular attention will be given to the legal and policy issues in connection with the disclosure and scope of patents. In addition to a caselaw survey approach, pharmaceutical/biotechnology cases and issues pending in the courts and legislature, and of particular concern in the industry will be studied. In lieu of a final exam, students will choose 3 classes for which to prepare short (5-7 page) papers on the cases/materials addressed in those classes.

  Day/Time: Th 4:20-6:10 PM

Legal Studies

• Legal Studies 168. Sex, Reproduction, and the Law. Joan H. Hollinger.

  Why and how does the State regulate sex, sexuality, and reproductive behavior? What are the personal and societal consequences of our technological capacity to separate sex from reproduction? A number of legal and social issues will be analyzed, including sterilization, access to contraception and abortion, adolescent sexuality and statutory rape, the legal status of fetuses and frozen embryos, and the parentage of children conceived through assisted reproduction.

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11 AM

Medieval Studies

• Medieval Studies 150. Black Death: Disease and Culture in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Samuel Kline Cohn.

  Professor Samuel Kline Cohn, University of Glasgow, Distinguished Visiting Professor in Medieval Studies. The course will beging with a brief introductory examination of disease and history globally from prehistory to the present. It will then concentrate on the Black Death of the fourteenth century and its recurrings, first with attention and cultural change, utilizing chronicles, imaginary literature, works of art, and machine=readable data. While the course will examine plague over five hundred years of history, its focus will be the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Where possible, course readings will rely on primary sources in translation.

  Day/Time: TuTh 9:30-11 AM

Nuclear Engineering

• Engineering 124. Ethics and the Development of Technology. William E. Kastenberg, G. Hauser-Kastenberg.

  Because of the rapidly changing nature of technology, new and complex ethical issues are emerging which bring into question the ability of society to address, and hopefully resolve them. These new issues are arising in such areas as biotechnology, information technology, nanotechnology and nuclear technology. They range from protecting the health and welfare of the public and the environment, to patenting living organisms and labeling products containing genetically modified organisms, to biological, chemical and nuclear weapons of mass destruction, to concerns regarding the alteration of the ecology of life. This course focuses on the nature of these emerging technical issues, their ethical, legal and social ramifications, and what individuals and our society value in relation to these issues. We will examine what contemporary philosophy, religion and art, and contemporary views of natural and social science have to say about these issues, and about the relationship between individual and societal values regarding these issues. The goal of this course is to develop awareness in our students of these issues and a basis to pursue future study.

  Day/Time:

Nutritional Sciences

• Nutritional Studies& Technology 166. Nutrition in the Community. .

  Prerequisites: 10 recommended; upper division standing required. This course addresses basic nutrition in the context of the comm unity. It explores nutrition programs that serve various segments of the population and the relationships of these programs to nutrition policy at the local, national, and international levels. Comm unity assessment is used as the basis for program planning, implementation, and evaluation. The specific needs of population groups (infants, children, women, and the elderly) are considered and questions of food security are investigated. (Fall)

  Day/Time:

Philosophy

• Philosophy 187, Section 2. Special Topics in the History of Philosophy: Aristotle's 'De Anima'. Andreas Anagnostopoulos.

  Aristotle's 'De Anima'_ (On the Soul) is an attempt to provide a general account of the soul and psychological faculties and phenomena within the framework, as much as possible, of his program of natural science. This course will be devoted to a close reading of Aristotle?s De Anima both within its historical context and in light of contemporary debates concerning the work, especially its significance for post-Cartesian philosophy of psychology. In addition to the usual requirements, participation and presentation of short writing assignments will be required. Philosophy 25A is a prerequisite.

  Day/Time: M 4-7 PM

Political Economy of Industrial Societies

• PEIS 150.2. Information Technology, Politics and Society in East Asia. L Freeman.

  This seminar examines and compares the political, economic and social impact of new information technologies (especially the internet and the mobile phone) in three Asian countries: Japan, China and South Korea. Particular emphasis will placed on analyzing government attempts to control and regulate new technologies and understanding the differing ways publics have sought to use them as tools for social and/or political change. We will also consider how these technologies have been used in elections (Japan/Korea) and/or by political parties, by NGOS, grassroots political groups and organization to enact political change and/or increase political participation (such as by the Communist party in China). Finally, students will research the ways in which prior "information regimes" and cultures have guided and shaped the development of new technologies in each of these countries.

  Day/Time: TuTh 12:30-2 PM

Psychology

• Psychology 290I, Section 2. Personality, Emotion Regulation, and Culture. Oliver P. John.

  This advanced seminar in social-personality psychology will focus on basic and individual-difference chapters in the 2007 Handbook of Emotion Regulation, and then consider recent work on the intersection of personality and culture, with a particular emphasis on cultural and ethnic differences in personality traits (e.g., Big Five), emotion (e.g., experience, expression, and regulation), and self-enhancement. To make intensive class work and discussion feasible, enrollment will be limited; thus, please obtain instructor’s approval before registering. Grading: Several class presentations; position papers; weekly readings.

  Day/Time: Th 10-12 AM

• Psychology 290J, Section 5. Culture and Cognition. Kaiping Peng.

  This course will deal with issues in social cognition from a cultural psychological perspective. We will discuss relationships between culture and some popular topics in social psychology, The basic topics we are going to cover in this semester are: culture and self (dialectical self knowledge, self verification, subjective well-being), culture and categorization (category formation, use and learning), culture and judgment (hypothesis testing, choice and regret, prediction, moral judgments), culture and attribution (causes theories across culture and domains), culture and the problems of others minds (intentionality, responsibility, contract formation, causal inquiry in legal domains), identity effect (cultural identity and its consequences), culture and reasoning (dialectical thinking, creative problem solving), and methodological issues of cross-cultural study (priming cultures, implicit measurement of cultures, validity of cross-cultural contrast). More specifically, we will discuss the main paradigms of the Berkeley’s Culture and Cognition Lab, including 1) Contextualizing the Asian/Holistic Mindset (with subareas of Taoist philosophy, construction of a naïve dialecticism scale, national character, and relation to deeper psychological structures); (2) Cognition, Reason and Emotion in relation to Dialectic Thought; (3) The Self (including dialectical self, group identity dynamics, and biculturalism); (4) Effects of Culturally Specific Cognitive/Emotional Processes on Social Institutions (law, business, international relations).

  Day/Time: Tu 10-12 PM

Public Health

• Public Health 275. Current Topics in Vaccinology. Lee W Riley.

  Prerequisite: 260A and basic immunology course. This is an advanced infectious disease course designed to cover issues related to the biological aspects of vaccinology. It will begin with discussions related to the concepts of correlates of protection, new understanding of cell-mediated and humoral immune response, and mucosal immunity. Then, topics related to the latest drevelopments in recommbinant vaccine technology, vaccine delivery stystems, "naked DNA" vaccines, "designer" vaccines ("edible vaccines"), and the status of AIDS vaccine as a paradigm for new vaccine development will be covered. Each session will begin with a didactic lecture on topics outlined in the syllabus. This will be followed by a 10-15 minute discussion based on published studies assigned for the week. Two students will lead the discussion at each section. A satisfactory letter grade or a passing grade will be based on participation in class discussions, presentation, and a five-page paper. Offered odd-numbered years.

  Day/Time: W 2-4 PM

• Public Health 293. Infectious Disease as Portrayed in Film. Lee W Riley.

  This seminar will explore how infectious diseases have been depicted in film throughout history from different parts of the world. Film, from its earliest inception, has played an important role in influencing human knowledge as well as fear, prejudice, and stigma regarding infectious diseases. Different countries portray diseases through their own distinct cultural perspectives. Within a country, time alters the way infectious diseases are viewed and these views reflect the mainstream prejudices and outlook societies had at the time. This seminar is designed to introduce not only how film has influenced the general public’s perception and understanding of infectious diseases, but also some of the film’s greatest directors around the world, including Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurosawa, and Abbas Kiarostami. Discussions will center around scientific accuracy of the portrayal of diseases, the impact film had on society’s perception, and how our discussions relate to our understanding of the infectious disease issues that dominate the contemporary world. (may also be taken as PH 292)

  Day/Time: Th 4-6 PM

Rhetoric

• Rhetoric 132. Rhetoric, Culture and Society. Michael Wintroub.

  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.

  Day/Time: M 2-5 PM

• Rhetoric 230. Artificial Intelligence: Theoretical Histories. David Bates.

  If Artificial Intelligence is usually associated with the Age of the Computer, the concept has a long and complicated history. As a way of studying the modern problem of AI, this seminar will interrogate the theory of machine intelligence from its early appearance in the Scientific Revolution up to the contemporary era. Our goal will be to explore the intersecting discourses that make up Artificial Intelligence – including psychological, scientific, philosophical, social, and political discourses. We will begin with an intensive reading of Descartes’ thinking about reason and machinery, paying special attention to his physiological work on cognition, as well as the political valence of these new ideas. With the Enlightenment we will focus on the image of the “automaton” and link it with new conceptions of the human, and new economic and political relations in a modernizing society. The nineteenth century is a rich source for modern ideas on “machine intelligence.” We will of course investigate Charles Babbage and his early mechanical computer designs (the Difference Engine, the Analytical Engine), but we will also look at broader cultural forces that brought machines, bodies, and minds into close proximity, for example, via communications technology and theory. The last half of the seminar will focus on the computer era, beginning with early advances in cybernetics and electronic computers in the Second World War, and continuing with post war developments in digital technology and Artificial Intelligence research, stressing the military origins of these disciplines. The concluding sessions will look at some revolutionary new ideas on thinking and bodies that have emerged from new zones of exploration, including biology, phenomenology, and cognitive science. Some of the texts we will read: Descartes, Treatise on Man, Passions of the Soul, Discourse on the Method; Otto Mayr, Authority, Liberty, and Automatic Machinery in Early Modern Europe; Rousseau, Second Discourse; articles by Simon Schaffer, Jessica Riskin, and Lorraine Daston on Enlightenment robotics; selected materials on Charles Babbage; Laura Otis, Networking: Communicating with Bodies and Machines in the Nineteenth Century; selected texts by Norbert Weiner et al. on cybernetics; Alan Turing, “Machine Intelligence and Computing”; Paul Edwards, The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America; John von Neumann, “General and Logical Theory of Automata,” The Computer and the Brain; selected texts by Alan Newell and Herbert Simon on logic programs; texts on connectionism; Hubert Dreyfus, What Computers Can’t Do; Douglas Hofstadter, Fluid Analogies and Creative Concepts.

  Day/Time: Th 10-1 PM

• Rhetoric 240G, Section 2. Epistemologies of Empire: From the Early Modern to the Modern. Michael Wintroub.

  The question of how empires are made, represented, resisted, etc., is not simply political, but epistemic. Indeed, questions that have dominated the history and social studies of science over the past several decades are equally relevant to the history and sociology of colonialism and empire. How does power/knowledge operate so as to efface locality and particularism? What mechanisms/discourses/instrumentalities are operative in extending the reach of power/knowledge beyond specific sites towards the universal? How are local contexts replicated across space and time? In this course we will examine the articulation, mobilization and extension of political/epistemic/spiritual power from the end of the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. In particular, we will, examine different ideas/discourses/practices/embodiments of science, gender, religion, class, politics, race, as they intersect, compete, and are transformed in the making of nations and empires; in other words, what are some of the ways that empire is thought about, made and challenged in the early modern and modern periods. Required Books: * Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, Nature, Empire, And Nation: Explorations of the History of Science in the Iberian World * Walter Mignolo, The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality and Colonization * Michel de Certeau, Possession of Loudun * Jeffrey N. Peters, Mapping Discord. Allegorical Cartography in Early Modern French Writing * Chandra Mukerji, Territorial ambitions and the gardens of Versailles * Kristin Schultz, Tropical Versailles: Empire, Monarchy, and the Portuguese Royal Court in Rio de Janeiro, 1808-1821 (New World in the Atlantic World) * Ken Alder, The Measure of All Things * Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France * Richard Drayton, Nature’s Government: Science, Imperial Britain and the ’Improvement’ of the World * Maya Jasanoff, Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850 * Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Studies in Travel Writing and Transculturation * Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection

  Day/Time: W 10-1PM

• Rhetoric 240G, Section3. New Directions in Science and Technology Studies. Charis Thompson.

  This course is divided into three sections, Theorists and Methods, The Sciences of Life, and Bio- and Necro-politics and STS, and within each section there are further thematic headings. The course serves both to introduce graduate students to science and technology studies and to introduce new works and directions in the field. The syllabus foregrounds the life and biomedical sciences, and thematizes space and trans-place, time and genealogy, disciplines and inter-disciplines, method and / as theory, identity and governance, ethics and objectivity, knowledge and stratification, security and transparency. This is a book-based class, with the exception of one article by Achille Mbembe that is available as a downloadable pdf online. All reading is required. The books are available at the University Book Store (NOT UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOKS!!!!) and will also be on reserve in the undergraduate library. Required Text: Butler, Judith, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, 2007. Who Sings the Nation-State?: Language, Politics, Belonging. Seagull Books Carson, John, 2006. The Measure of Merit: Talents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the French and American Republics, 1750-1940. Princeton University Press Epstein, Steven, 2007. Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research. Chicago University Press. Foucault, Michel, (ed. Paul Rabinow), 2006. Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth. New Press Galison, Peter, and Lorraine Daston, 2007. Objectivity. Zone Books Haraway, Donna, 2007. When Species Meet. University Of Minnesota Press Hayden, Cori, 2003. When Nature Goes Public: The Making and Unmaking of Bioprospecting in Mexico. Princeton University Press Jasanoff, Sheila, 2007. Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States (new edition). Princeton University Press Landecker, Hannah, 2007. Culturing Life: How Cells Became Technologies. Harvard University Press Latour, Bruno, 2007. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (new edition). Oxford University Press MacKenzie , Donald, 2006. An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets. MIT Press Petryna, Adriana, 2002. Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton University Press Rose, Nikolas, 2006. The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press Thompson, Charis, 2007. Making Parents: The Ontological Choreography of Reproductive Technologies (paperback). MIT Press

  Day/Time: M 2-5 PM

• Rhetoric 244. On Wonder From the Passionate Soul to the Emotional Brain : Affects in Philosophyand Neurobiology Today. Catherine Malabou.

  Current research in neurology and neurobiology show that the brain is the very form of subjectivity. This statement does not imply any simple reductionism. It simply insists upon the fact that continental philosophy and critical theory should not continue to ignore the genuine neurological revolution which took place in the late XXth century. The redefinition of the brain, the multiple discoveries that have been made concerning its organization, the end of determinism that follows such discoveries, the end of the conception of the brain as a gathering of rigid and localized areas, had become inescapable. We know now that the brain is plastic. The brain has always been described through technological metaphors: a hydraulic pump that drives the animal spirits to the muscles, a central telephone exchange that connects or cuts communication, a computer that runs its programs. These metaphors proceed from a centralizing conception of the brain, seen as a machine that works from the top down, that orders movement, controls behavior, and brings about a unity of mind, conscience, and man himself. Cerebral plasticity shatters this conception. The brain learns, differentiates itself, reconstructs itself. Briefly, the plastic brain is a feeling brain. “The Feeling Brain” is the subtitle of Antonio Damasio’s book Looking for Spinoza, Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling Brain. This book comes after Descartes’ Error. These titles show clearly that a new reading of the philosophical traditional theory of passions is necessary to redefine the role played by affects within consciousness, reason and cognition. Damasio opposes Spinoza’s notion that the human mind is the idea of the human body to Descartes’ dualistic conception of body and soul. For Spinoza, the mind and the body are parallel attributes of the very same substance, and not two distinct substances as in Descartes’ view. The confrontation between Descartes and Spinoza helps to interrogate the role of emotions, affects and feelings in the construction of the self. Neurobiologists show that brain damage may cause profound emotional indifference and unconcern. Brain damage render manifest that loosing emotion is loosing reason, that loosing the body is loosing the mind. In order to study the importance of affects and loss of affects in the constitution of subjectivity, the course will focus on the central part played by a particular affect, wonder, in Descartes’ Passions of the Soul and in Spinoza’s Ethics (books III and IV). Starting with the definition of affects in general and of wonder in particular in Descartes and Spinoza, we will study the contemporary philosophical interpretations of these definitions (Deleuze, Derrida, Zizek) and see how the neurological point of view challenges them. If the transition from a wired brain to a plastic brain is a transition from a “brain-machine” to a “brain-world”, it means that suffering from brain damage alters our existential relationship to the world. This implies that the study of the emotional brain cannot be reduced to a theory of passions, but must be considered from a new ontological point of view. The issue of auto-affection and its deconstruction will also be addressed on that point.

  Day/Time: Tu 5-7 PM, Th 1-3 PM

Sociology

• Sociology 119. Society and Information Technology. Philip Gordon.

  Technology, derived from ancient Greek, means "study of methods." A dictionary definition: "A manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge." The course will examine the relationship between technology and human society; how technology influenced the development of society, how society influenced the development of technology, and how people in society view technology. The course will provide current and historical examples and information from around the world, since technology, despite the perception of the popular press, is not unique to the US. The course will be of value to students in business and sociology, and requires no specialized knowledge

  Day/Time: MW 4-5:30 PM

Vision Science

• Vision Science 230. Ethics in Scientific Research. Dennis Levi.

  Ten 3-hour seminars per semester. This seminar will examine a range of ethical issues that arise in the process of doing science. Beginning with the philosophical and social foundations, we will consider the pathogenesis of fraud, statistics and deception, the ethics of authorship and publication, research with human subjects, the use of animals, the definition(s) of misconduct and the difference between misconduct and questionable research practices, the relationship between industry and science, and, finally, the responsibilities and obligations of the scientist in society.

  Day/Time:

Women's Studies

• Gender & Women's Studies. Foundations of American Cyber-Culture. .

  Six hours of lecture/studio per week. This course will enable students to think critically about, and engage in practical experiments in, the complex interactions between new media and perceptions and performances of embodiment, agency, citizenship, collective action, individual identity, time, and spatiality. We will pay particular attention to the categories of personhood that make up the UC Berkeley American cultures rubric (race and ethnicity), as well as to gender, nation, and disability. The argument threading through the course will be the ways in which new media both reinforce preexisting social hierarchies and yet offer possibilities for the transcendence of those very categories. The new media--and we will leave the precise definition of the new media as something to be argued about over the course of the semester--can be yet another means for dividing and disenfranchising, and can be the conduit of violence and transnational dominance. Also listed as Art Practice C23AC. This course satisfies the American cultures requirement.

  Day/Time:

• Gender and Women's Studies. Bodies and Boundaries. .

  Three hours of lecture/discussion per week. Examines gender and embodiment in interdisciplinary transnational perspective. The human body as both a source of pleasure and as a site of coercion, which expresses individuality and reflects social worlds. Looks at bodies as gendered, raced, disabled/able-bodied, young or old, rich or poor, fat or thin, commodity or inalienable. Considers masculinity, women's bodies, sexuality, sports, clothing, bodies constrained, in leisure, at work, in nation-building, at war, and as feminist theory.

  Day/Time:

• Gender and Women's Studies 130. Gender and Health. Barbara Barnes.

  Three hours of lecture per week. 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 12:30-2 PM

• Gender and Women's Studies. Gender and Science. .

  Three hours of lecture/discussion per week. What role has science as a social institution played in the sexual division of intellectual and emotional labor underlying our cultural history? What consequences has the division of labor had for scientific practice? In what ways has the historical exclusion of traditionally female interests affected the development of the natural sciences? What differences if any would the full and equal participation of women make?

  Day/Time:

 

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