Joshua Silver

This course is an introductory seminar to the interdisciplinary study of science, medicine, and technology. We will ask questions such as: How is scientific knowledge made and how does it change? How does this knowledge come to shape our built environment, technologies, bodies, lived experiences, and social differences? Relatedly, what are the relationships between scientific knowledge and power? Finally, what do radical epistemological challenges to scientific knowledge formations (such as from feminist, constructivist, and decolonial perspectives) mean for science? Topics may include the politics of science in the public sphere, medicalization and biopolitics, climate science, and artificial intelligence. Foundational readings will include Knorr Cetina on epistemic cultures, Daston on the history of objectivity and scientific images, Benjamin on race and technology, Jasanoff on science and the state, Haraway on situated knowledge, Kuhn on scientific revolutions, and Latour on Actor-Network Theory.  We will also screen several documentaries. The course will involve at least one field trip, such as to a large research laboratory in Chicago (e.g. Argonne National Laboratory or FermiLab). Coursework will include writing exercises, group work in the form of a mock orals exam, one presentation, and a final paper that builds on both course readings and guided independent research.