ANTHR 7442 - Toxicity

(crosslisted) STS 7442

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisite: A previous class in the humanities or interpretive social sciences, preferably in Anthropology or Science and Technology Studies. Co-meets with ANTHR 4442 /STS 4442.

S. Langwick.

Identifying and managing the “toxic” is critical to medical and environmental sciences as well as techniques of governing (and resisting). This course takes up the subject of toxicity as a field of expertise, an object of knowledge and ethical substance. We will consider the specific histories of industrialization and of the sciences that shape modern engagements with toxicity, and we will explore other ways that the sorts of harms, poisons, and powers glossed as toxicity have been articulated. Over the course of the semester, students will develop the skills to “provincalizing” relations between toxicity, remedy and memory. Texts will draw from social theory, anthropology, science and technology studies and history as well as art and activism.