HIST 251 Syllabus PDF

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HIST251: History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Fall Semester 2020, University of Southern California Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-10:50AM, online via Zoom Prof. Aro Velmet [email protected] Office hours: Tuesdays 11AM-12noon or by appointment via Slack or Zoom Teaching Assistant: Srjita Pal [email protected] Office hours: Fridays 12noon-2PM or by appointment Structure of the Remotely Taught Course This class will meet remotely throughout the semester – such are the extraordinary times we live in. There will likely be hiccups and problems. Be generous to yourselves, your colleagues, and to me as well. For my part, I will adjust the course as necessary, when issues come up and as we learn to navigate remote learning throughout the semester. All adjustments will be made with your pedagogical and personal interests in mind. The primary gateway to the course content will be our Blackboard site, where you will find the agenda for every class session. The course consists of short pre-recorded lectures, occasional short tasks and quizzes, completed over Blackboard at your own pace, and synchronous meetings over Zoom. We meet three times a week. Twice for “lectures” and once for “sections”. The Zoom component of the lecture starts at 9:30AM, but will normally not run the whole period, depending on the amount of asynchronous work. If you cannot make the synchronous meetings because of time zone or connectivity issues, please get in touch with me ASAP, and we will develop alternative forms of participation. You’ll find more information on various aspects of remote learning below. Good luck! Introduction The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has highlighted how the history of science, technology, and medicine continues to shape the present. Scientists widely acknowledge that human industrial and agricultural activity have created conditions for the emergence of novel viral diseases. Responses to the 1918 flu pandemic have shaped current public health policies in containing the spread SARS-CoV-2. New approaches to vaccine development, prompted by the 2003 SARS epidemic offer hope for ending the current crisis. Long-standing political conflicts, the role of social media, discourses of race and class all shape the course of the pandemic, showing that there is much more to modern public health than just “following the science”. This class is about that “much more”. Using three case studies, we will chart the history of modern science, technology, and medicine in a global context. The basic paradox we will attempt to explore is the following: Over the past two centuries, science, technology, and medicine have become at once increasingly specialized and

apparently distinct fields of expert activity, while simultaneously becoming ever more intertwined with all aspects of human life – politics, culture, industry, and war. How do we make sense of these seemingly opposing trends? What kinds of social forces has brought these changes about? What are the consequences of these developments for democracy, social conflict, the nature of knowledge and the place of humanity in the natural world? How has modern science been understood by scientists themselves, and how has it been interpreted in popular culture? Finally, how have scientific conflicts set in motion years ago continued to shape our lives today? First, we will look at the voyage of the Beagle and Charles Darwin’s work on evolution in The Origin of Species, perhaps the single most famous scientific work of the modern era. This case study helps us see the difficulties in defining the boundaries of modern “scientific activity”. It highlights the role of social forces – imperialism, in particular – in shaping the emergence of scientific inquiry and helps us see how science is inevitably bound up with politics. Second, we will study the emergence of the germ theory of disease. We will ask what it means to use a “scientific method” and what makes a “scientific revolution”. We will also survey the consequences of bacteriology on colonized societies in Africa and South-East Asia and discuss how the advent of bacteriology shapes global health regimes today. Finally, we will conclude by discussing the Chernobyl catastrophe, asking what it tells us about the relationship of technology and the environment, of risk and inequality, and the age of global climate change in which we all live today. Learning objectives This course satisfies the GE-H, “Traditions and Historical Foundations” category. It traces the development of a fundamental idea or tradition – that of modern technoscience as a formally and institutionally bounded activity based on assumptions of rationality, universality, and skepticism - across multiple cultures (Britain and its colonies, France and its colonies, the US, and the former Soviet Union). The course also satisfies the GE-C “Social Analysis” category. It looks at how the development of human scientific and technological activity has been shaped by cultural and political factors including: imperialism, gender, race, political ideology, infrastructure, formal intellectual traditions, and the law. Students will learn to understand and use the basic methods of Science and Technology Studies, with a focus on historical and literary approaches. They will learn how to understand “empirical evidence” as a socially constructed category, and critically evaluate the social processes by which evidence is created, assembled, and validated. By the end of the course, students will be able to: -

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Be familiar with the history of science, technology, and medicine on a global scale and Understand the historical transmission of the interlinked ideas of science, technology, and medicine and recognize that the boundary between “science” and “society” as malleable and contested. Analyze how social, cultural, and political factors influence the production of science, technology and medicine and vice versa. Analyze how scientific controversies are constructed, debated, and resolved – through significant texts in that history.

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Understand the nature of evidence as social, and critically discuss the processes by which evidence is assembled, classified, and validated. Describe how popular and political imagination shapes the understanding of science in society. Be familiar with the significant writers, practitioners, and thinkers in these areas like Charles Darwin, and Louis Pasteur, as well as the texts that influenced these movements. Understand the continuity between the past examples of technoscientific innovation and their later manifestations

Required materials (all primary sources) Charles Darwin, ed. James Secord, Darwin’s Evolutionary Writings (1859 etc) Paul de Kruif, Microbe Hunters (1926) Craig Mazin, Johan Renck, Chernobyl (2019) (HBO miniseries) The materials listed above can be purchased at the USC bookstore, or purchased/rented through your on-line vendor of choice. They all exist in digital formats of various kinds. All other readings will be posted on Blackboard. The reading load is designed to average about 120 pages per week, keeping in mind the difficulty of the texts and concurrent assignments. Most weeks will include a primary source reading of roughly 5-30 pages in length. Course requirements and grading Participation – 15% Paper #1 (Darwin in society), 4-5 pp. 15%, due in section at the end of Week 5 Mid-term exam– 20%, conducted in-class in Week 9 Paper #2 (Chernobyl review), 5-6 pp. 20%, due in section at the end of Week 12 Take-home final exam – 30%, due November 20 at midnight, PST. Assignments Participation: Participation means coming to class having completed the readings assigned for the lecture/section, being ready to discuss them, summarize the main points and offer your own interpretations. It means being respectful of others’ points of view, even when you disagree with them. It means staying on topic and backing up your claims with textual evidence. It means listening attentively and taking others’ points with a generosity of spirit. Finally, it means participating in both synchronous and asynchronous activities (time zone differences and connectivity issues permitting), including Blackboard forum posts, small-group activities, and source annotations. Darwin in Society (5-6 pages): Your first written assignment is to analyze how Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution has been used later in history. Choose one episode we have discussed in class – eugenics, religion, or racial politics – and discuss how Darwin’s ideas were mobilized to advance a specific goal. Your goal is not to pass judgment of these conflicts or to decide whether later authors read Darwin “correctly” or “incorrectly”, but to evaluate why they interpreted Darwin the way they did. Chernobyl review (5-6 pages): Write a review of Craig Mazin’s and Johan Renck’s miniseries Chernobyl. Discuss how its portrayal reflects or fails to consider aspects of science in society discussed in this class.

Make sure to discuss not only the content of the miniseries but also its aesthetics – how it dramatizes and illustrates the Chernobyl disaster. Mid-term exam and take-home final exam: Both the mid-term and final exams will consist of essay questions. The mid-term will consist of two essay questions on the first two sections of the course. The final will consist of two essay questions, on the final section of the course plus a synthetic question asking you draw insights from the entire semester. Course policies. READ WITH CARE – Many questions are likely answered here Course Mechanics: The course meets three times a week – two “lectures” and a discussion section, all over Zoom. The lectures consist of an “asynchronous” component and a “synchronous” component. The asynchronous component is a pre-recorded introduction to the day’s topic, about 15-25 minutes in length. It will be posted on Blackboard the weekend before class. You should view it at your own pace and come to class having digested it. The synchronous component will be interactive and require participation in small groups and with the entire class. Students will be expected to have completed the required readings before the lecture for which they are assigned. “Completed” means having read the texts, synthesized the main points, and being prepared to discuss them in lecture. Given the current public health emergency, the course will be meeting remotely. The primary interfaces of instruction are Blackboard, Zoom, and Slack, all discussed below. Course Materials: All textual course materials, images, study guides and assignment instructions are posted on Blackboard by the first week of class, and updated as necessary. Additional excerpts from primary sources will be circulated in class. Lecture notes will not be made available. This is a pedagogical point: note-taking is a useful synthetic skill that requires you to condense and summarize information, helping with analysis and recall. Attendance: Because the purpose of the class is to understand how the meaning of texts is shaped by the perspectives of their readers, everyone must participate in discussion. Therefore, attendance in lecture and in discussion sections is mandatory. You are permitted one unexcused absence in this course. Two absences are permitted, but will be reflected in your final grade since they keep you from participating. A student with more than three absences is likely to fail the course. There will be no extra credit work to make up for more than three unexcused absences. If you are struggling with medical or personal issues that might be impacting your attendance, please contact the instructor as soon as possible to discuss your options. Lateness: Three late arrivals will be counted as an absence. Any lateness of more than ten minutes will be counted as an absence. The penalty for late assignments is one third of a letter grade per day (a B+ becomes a B etc.) After 72 hours the paper will receive an F and any submissions after that time will not be read. Extensions: Will be granted under special circumstances. Medical paperwork and/or other supporting materials will need to be provided.

Religious holidays: Please notify the instructor during the first week of the semester of any planned absences due to religious holidays. Students with Disabilities: Students requesting academic accommodations due to disabilities must register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) as early in the semester as possible (GFS 120, tel. 740-0776, fax 740-8216 open M-F, 8:30 AM – 5 PM). Please bring your letter of verification for approved accommodations (which you can obtain from DSP) early in the semester, and let me know if you need any assistance with this process. Academic Integrity: All work must be your own. You may not borrow another person’s ideas, words or arguments without properly acknowledging them. For a guide to USC College’s policies on plagiarism and academic integrity, go to: http://studentaffairs.usc.edu/scampus Policies Regarding Online Instruction Given the extraordinary circumstances in which we are in, with students spread across the world and instruction at USC being completely online for the Fall semester, the University and individual faculty have established a number of policies to ensure pedagogical equity for all students, regardless of their time zone difference, connectivity issues, etc. These policies are also designed to protect the rights of other students and the intellectual property of the faculty. They are also here to help you navigate the brave new world of online instruction. Please consult them carefully. Zoom: Zoom is the primary method of instruction for this semester. Links to class sessions will be posted on Blackboard, and the instructor will send out e-mails with the class agenda, including the duration of the meeting ahead of time. Because the class relies on asynchronous activities, including some prerecorded lectures and BB discussion, not all synchronous sessions will run for the scheduled 1h20. The expected length of a class session will be communicated in advance. Blackboard: Blackboard is your one stop shop for everything class related: Readings, links to lectures, Zoom meetings, discussion forums, outside materials, the syllabus. Whenever you are looking for something, look there first. Slack: Slack is the space for informal discussion. This is where you can clarify course concepts, ask questions from your colleagues, the instructor, or the TA. I will be checking it regularly, but please allow time for responses. Class Participation and Attendance in Synchronous Sessions: Students may be in time zones other than PST. USC considers the hours from 7:00am to 10:00pm, in the local time zone for each student, as reasonable times for students to attend synchronous sessions or engage in synchronous learning activities or assessments. If the class meeting time falls outside of that window, you may be excused from synchronous sessions. Please notify the instructor promptly, if this applies to you. You are expected to review recordings from the synchronous sessions and will be asked to complete an additional discussion task to demonstrate your synthesis of the material.

Camera Policy: Zoom is hard. It is exhausting, mentally demanding, and a poor substitute for the energy generated by being present in a physical educational space. But this semester, it’s all we’ve got. Building a collaborative, pedagogical community entirely online is hard enough as it is; without visual cues, it becomes even harder. In the interests of facilitating discussion, students are strongly encouraged to keep their cameras on. It helps with your own focus, it helps your colleagues focus, and it helps ensure a smooth flow of conversation. If the space around you makes the use of a camera difficult, consider using a virtual background. That said, we recognize that there are a number of circumstances in which using a camera is not feasible, and we will accommodate for those. Recording of Online Meetings: For the Fall 2020 semester, USC policy requires that all classes conducted online be recorded for asynchronous viewing with transcriptions made available. Recordings ensure that all classes are ADA compliant, and can be freely accessed at all times by students irrespective of the region or time zone they are studying from. As students may be personally identifiable in class recordings via their voice, name, or image, these recordings may be considered “educational records” subject to federal privacy laws (FERPA). In order to protect the identity of students and ensure a safe space for discussion of delicate topics, students should under no circumstances distribute these recordings to anyone not participating in the class. Students are not permitted to create their own class recordings without the instructor’s permission. Readings and Lecture Outline Week 1 Tu, Aug 17. Introduction. Ed Yong, „How the Pandemic Defeated America,“ in The Atlantic, Sept 2020. Th, Aug 19. Reason and History: Two views Primary source: David Hume, „Of scepticism with regard to reason,“ in A Treatise of Human Nature, 1739 (4 pages). Steven Pinker, „Dare to Understand“ , „Progressophobia“ in Enlightenment Now, 2018, 15-27, 55-70. Week 2 – Case study 1 – The Origin of Species Tu, Aug 24. The Beagle - Exploration and Empire Primary source: Darwin, Journal of Researches, in Darwin’s Evolutionary Writings, 3-66. Elizabeth Hennessy, „In Darwin’s Footsteps“ in On the Backs of Tortoises, 17-42. Tu, Aug 26. Darwin – The Hero and his Theory Primary source: Reviews and Responses in Darwin’s Evolutionary Writings, 96-103. Janet Browne, „Charles Darwin as a celebrity,” Science in Context 16 (2003), 175-194. Week 3

Tu, Sept 1. Darwin and Victorian Politics Primary source: Thomas Malthus, Essay on the Principle of the Population, 1-11, 17-31. Primary source: Darwin, The Origin of Species in Darwin’s Evolutionary Writings, 132-173. Th, Sept 3. Race and Eugenics Primary source: Francis Galton, Hereditary Genius (1869), 336-362. Week 4 Tu, Sept 8. Evolution and Religion Primary source: Darwin, Descent of Man in Darwin’s Evolutionary Writings, 233-255. Edward Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate over Science and Religion, 31-60. Th, Sept 10. Social Darwinism Redux: The Bell Curve debate Primary source: Charles Murray & Richard Hernstein, The Bell Curve, 527-535, 546-552. Primary sources: Stephen Jay Gould, „A Mismeasure by Any Measure,“ DeWayne Wickham, „Born to Lose,“ Salim Muwakkil, „Timing is Everything,“ all in The Bell Curve Debate. Week 5 – Case study 2 – The germ theory of disease Tu, Sept 15. Microbe Hunters Primary source: de Kruif, Microbe Hunters, „Pasteur: Microbes are a Menace,“ 54-101. Th, Sept 17. Louis Pasteur’s Scientific Method Primary source: de Kruif, „Pasteur: And the Mad Dog,“ in Microbe Hunters, 140-177. Gerald Geison, „The Secret of Pouilly-le-Fort,“ The Private Science of Louis Pasteur, 177-205. ***Assignment 1: Analysis of Darwin in Society due in section*** Week 6 Tu, Sept 22. Did the Bacteriological Revolution Happen? David Barnes, „Taxonomies of Transmission“ in The Great Stink of Paris, 105-139. Tu, Sept 24. Bacteriology and Empire Primary source: de Kruif, „Walter Reed: In the Interest of Science – and Humanity!“ in Microbe Hunters, 286-307. Aro Velmet, „Africa in the Global Race for a Yellow Fever Vaccine“ in Pasteur’s Empire, 170-217. Week 7

Tu, Sept 29. Bacteriology and the Postcolony Guillaume Lachenal, „Lessons in Medical Nihilism: Virus Hunters, Neoliberalism, and the AIDS Pandemic in Cameroon,“ in Para-States and Medical Science, 103-140. Th, Oct 1. Public Health Preparedeness Andrew Lakoff, „The Generic Biological Threat,“ and „Diagnosing Failure“ in Unprepared, 35-65, 140-161. Guest visit by Andy Lakof Week 8 Tu, Oct 6. The Bacteria Strike Back Claas Kirchhelle, „Pharming Animals – a global history of antibiotics in food production (1935-2017)“ in Palgrave Communications, 7 August 2018 (13 pages). Guest visit by Claas Kirchhelle. Th, Oct 8. Biology and Capital Mike Davis, „Plague and Profit“ in The Monster at our Door. Week 9 Tu, Oct 13. ***Midterm Exam in class*** Th, Oct 15. No class – begin watching Chernobyl. Week 10 – Case study 3 – Chernobyl and Disaster Manageme...