History 296 - Histories of Science: Foundational and Innovative Readings

[AS/EU/US/TC/TE/TS] This course explores the history of scientific disciplines emphasizing the methods, theories, institutions, political players, and cultural movements entangled in their development. Covered fields include biology, physics, geology, chemistry, and meteorology. Close readings of seminal works—by Janet Brown, Gregg Herken, Michelle Murphy, Daniel Margocsy, and more—will show us how different archival efforts revealed unexpected influences behind notable scientific events: the production of the atomic bombs, the invention of electricity, Charles Darwin’s ideas of evolution, the development of protocol feminism, and the discovery of oxygen. Portrayed primarily as European and North American enterprises, these scientific fields grew by “borrowing” knowledge from every corner of the world. We will learn from historians, such as Gordon McOuat, how to capture  the cosmopolitan and yet parochial character of science in our work: expounding on the role indigenous groups, local circumstances, collections in museums, and voyages around the world played in the construction of “objective” scientific theories. Lastly, we explore how to interpret the informal lab, field, and collecting notes produced in the course of this scientific work by recreating long forgotten scientific practices. Our approach, thus, will be enactive: we will spend time combing through archives, dive into museum basements, and traverse fields to experience how "writing history" and "doing science" overlap in important ways. 

Spring semester. Professor Mirza.

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Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Learn how to identify and combine methods in history and science to uncover overlooked scientific and cultural occurrences along with their influences. Learn to use technical scientific details to produce better historical research whilst making rigorous archival research engaging for a broad audience. Students are expected to produce short weekly essays on critical readings, two in-depth essays presenting new literature in the history of science, four hands-on workshop experiments, and a multi-medium work in history of science aimed at the general public.