STS 6401 - [Science, Technology, Gender: Historical Issues]

(crosslisted) FGSS 6400, HIST 6410

Spring. Not offered 2017-2018. 4 credits. Student option grading.

S. Seth.

This course explores five, often interrelated, aspects of the literature on gender, science, and technology: (1) The historical participation of women (and men) in scientific work; (2) the embodiment of scientific, medical, and technical knowledge; (3) the scientific construction of sexuality; (4) the gendering of technological systems and artifacts; and (5) feminist critiques of scientific knowledge. We b egin with an analysis of reason, gender, and sexuality in the classical and late-antique western world, before moving on to an examination of the origins of modern western science in the scientific revolution, considering the claim that “science,” by its very nature, is an androcentric enterprise. The rise of scientific and medical disciplines and professions in the 19th century will provide a focus for discussions of the systematic exclusion of women from the production of scientific knowledge at precisely the point that women’s bodies become the object of intensive scientific study. Drawing on a range of material, the course considers the construction of homosexual and intersexual individuals in scientific discourse. In later weeks, we will discuss so-called “postmodernist” critiques of science, and will debate the possibilities for “feminist science.”