Courses for Fall 2024
| Title | Instructors | Location | Time | Description | Cross listings | Fulfills | Registration notes | Syllabus | Syllabus URL | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HSOC 0100-401 | Emergence of Modern Science | Bekir H Kucuk | COHN 402 | MW 9:00 AM-9:59 AM | During the last 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative force that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life, work, and cultural contexts of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas and techniques, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting and how they relate to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, art, literature, and music. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a "Western Civ" course with a difference, open to students at all levels. | STSC0100401 | Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector |
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| HSOC 0100-402 | Emergence of Modern Science | Abigail Riley Ballantyne | DRLB 4C8 | R 5:15 PM-6:14 PM | During the last 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative force that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life, work, and cultural contexts of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas and techniques, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting and how they relate to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, art, literature, and music. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a "Western Civ" course with a difference, open to students at all levels. | STSC0100402 | Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector |
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| HSOC 0100-403 | Emergence of Modern Science | Amelia Carter | MEYH B4 | F 9:00 AM-9:59 AM | During the last 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative force that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life, work, and cultural contexts of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas and techniques, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting and how they relate to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, art, literature, and music. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a "Western Civ" course with a difference, open to students at all levels. | STSC0100403 | Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector |
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| HSOC 0100-404 | Emergence of Modern Science | Amelia Carter | MEYH B4 | F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | During the last 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative force that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life, work, and cultural contexts of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas and techniques, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting and how they relate to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, art, literature, and music. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a "Western Civ" course with a difference, open to students at all levels. | STSC0100404 | Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector Humanties & Social Science Sector |
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| HSOC 0100-405 | Emergence of Modern Science | Abigail Riley Ballantyne | MEYH B4 | F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | During the last 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative force that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life, work, and cultural contexts of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas and techniques, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting and how they relate to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, art, literature, and music. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a "Western Civ" course with a difference, open to students at all levels. | STSC0100405 | Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector |
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| HSOC 0343-401 | Why Medical Interventions Work or Fail: A Search for Answers | Robert A. Aronowitz | EDUC 121 | T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | The past is littered with interventions that worked or were thought to work that we hold in little regard today – from frontal lobotomies to bone marrow transplants for metastatic breast cancer. Since 1962 the FDA requires proof of efficacy for new drugs. Yet uncertainty surrounds the efficacy and safety of many drugs, technologies, and practices in use today. Will some future observer of today’s practices wonder, as we do about the bleeding and purging of traditional medicine, why we do the things we do? This course will go deep into the social history of modern Western biomedicine to make sense of the ideological, economic, technical, scientific, and social forces shaping the modern medical interventions and the work they do. Students will be introduced to the rewards and challenges of studying medicine as a social and historical process. Case studies of the efficacy of contemporary biomedical interventions will be enriched by in-class meetings with prominent social scientists, biomedical researchers, and clinicians, as well as some potential visits to clinics and historical sites. Each student will develop a research project or essay review related to the efficacy of medical interventions. Most students will likely explore a current or historical controversy over the efficacy and safety of a particular intervention. In addition, there will be two shorter writing assignments. |
STSC0343401 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 0361-301 | From Medical Missionaries to Community Partners | Kent Bream | HARN M10 | W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Global health is an increasingly popular goal for many modern leaders. Yet critics see evidence of a new imperialism in various aid programs. We will examine the evolution over time and place of programs designed to improve the health of underserved populations. Traditionally catergorized as public health programs or efforts to achieve a just society, these programs often produce results that are inconsistent with these goals. We will examine the benefits and risks of past programs and conceptualize future partnerships on both a local and global stage. Students should expect to question broadly held beliefs about the common good and service. Ultimately we will examine the concept of partnership and the notion of community health, in which ownership, control, and goals are shared between outside expert and inside community member. | Society Sector | |||||
| HSOC 0490-401 | Comparative Medicine | Ian C. Petrie | STNH AUD | TR 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | This course explores the medical consequences of the interaction between Europe and the "non- West." It focuses on three parts of the world Europeans colonized: Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Today's healing practices in these regions grew out of the interaction between the medical traditions of the colonized and those of the European colonizers. We therefore explore the nature of the interactions. What was the history of therapeutic practices that originated in Africa or South Asia? How did European medical practices change in the colonies? What were the effects of colonial racial and gender hierarchies on medical practice? How did practitioners of "non-Western" medicine carve out places for themselves? How did they redefine ancient traditions? How did patients find their way among multiple therapeutic traditions? How does biomedicine take a different shape when it is practiced under conditions of poverty, or of inequalities in power? How do today's medical problems grow out of this history? This is a fascinating history of race and gender, of pathogens and conquerors, of science and the body. It tells about the historical and regional roots of today's problems in international medicine. | STSC0490401 | History & Tradition Sector Cross Cultural Analysis |
https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202430&c=HSOC0490401 | |||
| HSOC 0490-402 | Comparative Medicine | Elspeth Gow | COHN 203 | F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | This course explores the medical consequences of the interaction between Europe and the "non- West." It focuses on three parts of the world Europeans colonized: Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Today's healing practices in these regions grew out of the interaction between the medical traditions of the colonized and those of the European colonizers. We therefore explore the nature of the interactions. What was the history of therapeutic practices that originated in Africa or South Asia? How did European medical practices change in the colonies? What were the effects of colonial racial and gender hierarchies on medical practice? How did practitioners of "non-Western" medicine carve out places for themselves? How did they redefine ancient traditions? How did patients find their way among multiple therapeutic traditions? How does biomedicine take a different shape when it is practiced under conditions of poverty, or of inequalities in power? How do today's medical problems grow out of this history? This is a fascinating history of race and gender, of pathogens and conquerors, of science and the body. It tells about the historical and regional roots of today's problems in international medicine. | STSC0490402 | Cross Cultural Analysis History & Tradition Sector |
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| HSOC 0490-403 | Comparative Medicine | Elspeth Gow | COHN 204 | F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | This course explores the medical consequences of the interaction between Europe and the "non- West." It focuses on three parts of the world Europeans colonized: Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Today's healing practices in these regions grew out of the interaction between the medical traditions of the colonized and those of the European colonizers. We therefore explore the nature of the interactions. What was the history of therapeutic practices that originated in Africa or South Asia? How did European medical practices change in the colonies? What were the effects of colonial racial and gender hierarchies on medical practice? How did practitioners of "non-Western" medicine carve out places for themselves? How did they redefine ancient traditions? How did patients find their way among multiple therapeutic traditions? How does biomedicine take a different shape when it is practiced under conditions of poverty, or of inequalities in power? How do today's medical problems grow out of this history? This is a fascinating history of race and gender, of pathogens and conquerors, of science and the body. It tells about the historical and regional roots of today's problems in international medicine. | STSC0490403 | History & Tradition Sector Cross Cultural Analysis |
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| HSOC 0490-404 | Comparative Medicine | Ngamlienlal Kipgen | COHN 203 | F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | This course explores the medical consequences of the interaction between Europe and the "non- West." It focuses on three parts of the world Europeans colonized: Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Today's healing practices in these regions grew out of the interaction between the medical traditions of the colonized and those of the European colonizers. We therefore explore the nature of the interactions. What was the history of therapeutic practices that originated in Africa or South Asia? How did European medical practices change in the colonies? What were the effects of colonial racial and gender hierarchies on medical practice? How did practitioners of "non-Western" medicine carve out places for themselves? How did they redefine ancient traditions? How did patients find their way among multiple therapeutic traditions? How does biomedicine take a different shape when it is practiced under conditions of poverty, or of inequalities in power? How do today's medical problems grow out of this history? This is a fascinating history of race and gender, of pathogens and conquerors, of science and the body. It tells about the historical and regional roots of today's problems in international medicine. | STSC0490404 | History & Tradition Sector Cross Cultural Analysis |
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| HSOC 0490-405 | Comparative Medicine | Ngamlienlal Kipgen | COHN 203 | F 3:30 PM-4:29 PM | This course explores the medical consequences of the interaction between Europe and the "non- West." It focuses on three parts of the world Europeans colonized: Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Today's healing practices in these regions grew out of the interaction between the medical traditions of the colonized and those of the European colonizers. We therefore explore the nature of the interactions. What was the history of therapeutic practices that originated in Africa or South Asia? How did European medical practices change in the colonies? What were the effects of colonial racial and gender hierarchies on medical practice? How did practitioners of "non-Western" medicine carve out places for themselves? How did they redefine ancient traditions? How did patients find their way among multiple therapeutic traditions? How does biomedicine take a different shape when it is practiced under conditions of poverty, or of inequalities in power? How do today's medical problems grow out of this history? This is a fascinating history of race and gender, of pathogens and conquerors, of science and the body. It tells about the historical and regional roots of today's problems in international medicine. | STSC0490405 | History & Tradition Sector Cross Cultural Analysis |
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| HSOC 0883-401 | Climate and Change | Melissa Charenko | MOOR 212 | TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | What is climate? This course examines this question by exploring the diverse perspectives of various peoples at different times and in diverse locations. We will then investigate how the myriad of conceptualizations of climate influenced a wide array of topics, including health, race, historical change, human destiny, and responses to environmental challenges. We will investigate the changing ideas surrounding climate by examining historical texts, scientific literature, and cultural artifacts. By the end of the course, students will have developed a nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between climate and human society. Students will also be able to reflect on how the historical and cultural contexts that inform interpretations of climate impact contemporary discussion surrounding climate change and solutions for addressing climate-related challenges. | STSC0883401 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1120-401 | Science Technology and War | David J. Caruso | MCNB 395 | TR 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | In this survey we explore the relationships between technical knowledge and warin the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We attend particularly to the centrality of bodily injury in the history of war. Topics include changing interpretations of the machine gun as inhumane or acceptable; the cult of the battleship; banned weaponry; submarines and masculinity; industrialized war and total war; trench warfare and mental breakdown; the atomic bomb and Cold War; chemical warfare in Viet Nam; and "television war" in the 1990s. | STSC1120401 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1120-402 | Science Technology and War | Nooshin Sadeghsamimi | TOWN 305 | F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | In this survey we explore the relationships between technical knowledge and warin the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We attend particularly to the centrality of bodily injury in the history of war. Topics include changing interpretations of the machine gun as inhumane or acceptable; the cult of the battleship; banned weaponry; submarines and masculinity; industrialized war and total war; trench warfare and mental breakdown; the atomic bomb and Cold War; chemical warfare in Viet Nam; and "television war" in the 1990s. | STSC1120402 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1120-403 | Science Technology and War | Nooshin Sadeghsamimi | WILL 307 | F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | In this survey we explore the relationships between technical knowledge and warin the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We attend particularly to the centrality of bodily injury in the history of war. Topics include changing interpretations of the machine gun as inhumane or acceptable; the cult of the battleship; banned weaponry; submarines and masculinity; industrialized war and total war; trench warfare and mental breakdown; the atomic bomb and Cold War; chemical warfare in Viet Nam; and "television war" in the 1990s. | STSC1120403 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1222-401 | Medical Sociology | Richard Patti | COHN 402 | MWF 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | This course will give the student an introduction to the sociological study of medicine. Medical sociology is a broad field, covering topics as diverse as the institution and profession of medicine, the practice of medical care, and the social factors that contribute to sickness and well-being. Although we will not explore everything, we will attempt to cover as much of the field as possible through four thematic units: (1) the organization and development of the profession of medicine, (2) the delivery of health-care, especially doctor-patient interaction, (3) the social and cultural factors that affect how illness is defined, and (4) the social causes of illness. The class will emphasize empirical research especially but not only quantitative research. | SOCI1110401 | Society Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1382-401 | Introduction to Medical Anthropology | Emily K Ng | MUSE B17 | MW 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | Introduction to Medical Anthropology takes central concepts in anthropology -- culture, adaptation, human variation, belief, political economy, the body -- and applies them to human health and illness. Students explore key elements of healing systems including healing technologies and healer-patient relationships. Modern day applications for medical anthropology are stressed. | ANTH1238401 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1382-402 | Introduction to Medical Anthropology | Kaylani Hocog Manglona Emily K Ng |
DRLB 3C2 | W 5:15 PM-6:14 PM | Introduction to Medical Anthropology takes central concepts in anthropology -- culture, adaptation, human variation, belief, political economy, the body -- and applies them to human health and illness. Students explore key elements of healing systems including healing technologies and healer-patient relationships. Modern day applications for medical anthropology are stressed. | ANTH1238402 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1382-403 | Introduction to Medical Anthropology | Shriya Amin Emily K Ng |
CHEM 109 | R 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | Introduction to Medical Anthropology takes central concepts in anthropology -- culture, adaptation, human variation, belief, political economy, the body -- and applies them to human health and illness. Students explore key elements of healing systems including healing technologies and healer-patient relationships. Modern day applications for medical anthropology are stressed. | ANTH1238403 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1382-404 | Introduction to Medical Anthropology | Shriya Amin Emily K Ng |
MUSE 329 | R 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | Introduction to Medical Anthropology takes central concepts in anthropology -- culture, adaptation, human variation, belief, political economy, the body -- and applies them to human health and illness. Students explore key elements of healing systems including healing technologies and healer-patient relationships. Modern day applications for medical anthropology are stressed. | ANTH1238404 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1382-405 | Introduction to Medical Anthropology | Kaylani Hocog Manglona Emily K Ng |
MUSE 329 | R 5:15 PM-6:14 PM | Introduction to Medical Anthropology takes central concepts in anthropology -- culture, adaptation, human variation, belief, political economy, the body -- and applies them to human health and illness. Students explore key elements of healing systems including healing technologies and healer-patient relationships. Modern day applications for medical anthropology are stressed. | ANTH1238405 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1382-406 | Introduction to Medical Anthropology | Nipun Kottage Emily K Ng |
CHEM 119 | F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | Introduction to Medical Anthropology takes central concepts in anthropology -- culture, adaptation, human variation, belief, political economy, the body -- and applies them to human health and illness. Students explore key elements of healing systems including healing technologies and healer-patient relationships. Modern day applications for medical anthropology are stressed. | ANTH1238406 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1382-407 | Introduction to Medical Anthropology | Nipun Kottage Emily K Ng |
CHEM 514 | F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | Introduction to Medical Anthropology takes central concepts in anthropology -- culture, adaptation, human variation, belief, political economy, the body -- and applies them to human health and illness. Students explore key elements of healing systems including healing technologies and healer-patient relationships. Modern day applications for medical anthropology are stressed. | ANTH1238407 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| HSOC 1401-001 | The Peoples Health | David S. Barnes | COHN 402 | MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | While the scary threats of the moment in recent years, Ebola, MERS, swine flu, bioterrorism dominate media coverage of public health, most human suffering anddeath are driven by more mundane causes. This course critically addresses twenty-first-century public health science and policy by examining the long history (beginning with the plague epidemics of Renaissance Italy) that brought us to where we are today. Topics include responses to epidemics; socioeconomic, racial, and other disparities in health; occupational health; the rise of public health as a field of scientific inquiry; sanitary reform; the Bacteriological Revolution; the shift from disease causes to risk factors; and the social determinants of health. | ||||||
| HSOC 1401-201 | The Peoples Health | Qinyan Wu | COHN 337 | F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | While the scary threats of the moment in recent years, Ebola, MERS, swine flu, bioterrorism dominate media coverage of public health, most human suffering anddeath are driven by more mundane causes. This course critically addresses twenty-first-century public health science and policy by examining the long history (beginning with the plague epidemics of Renaissance Italy) that brought us to where we are today. Topics include responses to epidemics; socioeconomic, racial, and other disparities in health; occupational health; the rise of public health as a field of scientific inquiry; sanitary reform; the Bacteriological Revolution; the shift from disease causes to risk factors; and the social determinants of health. | ||||||
| HSOC 1401-202 | The Peoples Health | CANCELED | While the scary threats of the moment in recent years, Ebola, MERS, swine flu, bioterrorism dominate media coverage of public health, most human suffering anddeath are driven by more mundane causes. This course critically addresses twenty-first-century public health science and policy by examining the long history (beginning with the plague epidemics of Renaissance Italy) that brought us to where we are today. Topics include responses to epidemics; socioeconomic, racial, and other disparities in health; occupational health; the rise of public health as a field of scientific inquiry; sanitary reform; the Bacteriological Revolution; the shift from disease causes to risk factors; and the social determinants of health. | ||||||||
| HSOC 1401-203 | The Peoples Health | Qinyan Wu | MEYH B5 | F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | While the scary threats of the moment in recent years, Ebola, MERS, swine flu, bioterrorism dominate media coverage of public health, most human suffering anddeath are driven by more mundane causes. This course critically addresses twenty-first-century public health science and policy by examining the long history (beginning with the plague epidemics of Renaissance Italy) that brought us to where we are today. Topics include responses to epidemics; socioeconomic, racial, and other disparities in health; occupational health; the rise of public health as a field of scientific inquiry; sanitary reform; the Bacteriological Revolution; the shift from disease causes to risk factors; and the social determinants of health. | ||||||
| HSOC 1401-204 | The Peoples Health | CANCELED | While the scary threats of the moment in recent years, Ebola, MERS, swine flu, bioterrorism dominate media coverage of public health, most human suffering anddeath are driven by more mundane causes. This course critically addresses twenty-first-century public health science and policy by examining the long history (beginning with the plague epidemics of Renaissance Italy) that brought us to where we are today. Topics include responses to epidemics; socioeconomic, racial, and other disparities in health; occupational health; the rise of public health as a field of scientific inquiry; sanitary reform; the Bacteriological Revolution; the shift from disease causes to risk factors; and the social determinants of health. | ||||||||
| HSOC 1411-001 | American Health Policy | Andria B. Johnson | STIT 263 | TR 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | "American Health Policy" places the success or failure of specific pieces of U.S. health care legislation into social and political context. The course covers the time period from the U.S. Civil War to the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), addressing two central questions: 1) Why was the United States one of the only industrialized nations to, until recently, have a private, non-nationalized, non-federalized health care system? 2) Why has U.S. health insurance historically been a benefit given through places of employment? Some topics addressed include: private health insurance, industrial health and workmen's compensation, the welfare state (in Europe, Canada, and the U.S.), maternal and infant care programs, Medicare and Medicaid. One of the main take-home messages of the course is that 20th-century U.S. health care policies both reflected and shaped American social relations based on race, class, gender, and age. This course is a combination lecture and "SAIL" class. SAIL stands for "Structured, Active, In-Class Learning." During many class periods, students will work in small groups on a specific exercise, followed by a large group discussion and/or brief lecture. Students who choose to take this course, therefore, must be fully committed to adequately preparing for class and to working collaboratively in class. | ||||||
| HSOC 1411-201 | American Health Policy | Caroline Wechsler | LERN 210 | F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | "American Health Policy" places the success or failure of specific pieces of U.S. health care legislation into social and political context. The course covers the time period from the U.S. Civil War to the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), addressing two central questions: 1) Why was the United States one of the only industrialized nations to, until recently, have a private, non-nationalized, non-federalized health care system? 2) Why has U.S. health insurance historically been a benefit given through places of employment? Some topics addressed include: private health insurance, industrial health and workmen's compensation, the welfare state (in Europe, Canada, and the U.S.), maternal and infant care programs, Medicare and Medicaid. One of the main take-home messages of the course is that 20th-century U.S. health care policies both reflected and shaped American social relations based on race, class, gender, and age. This course is a combination lecture and "SAIL" class. SAIL stands for "Structured, Active, In-Class Learning." During many class periods, students will work in small groups on a specific exercise, followed by a large group discussion and/or brief lecture. Students who choose to take this course, therefore, must be fully committed to adequately preparing for class and to working collaboratively in class. | ||||||
| HSOC 1411-202 | American Health Policy | Caroline Wechsler | LERN 210 | F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | "American Health Policy" places the success or failure of specific pieces of U.S. health care legislation into social and political context. The course covers the time period from the U.S. Civil War to the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), addressing two central questions: 1) Why was the United States one of the only industrialized nations to, until recently, have a private, non-nationalized, non-federalized health care system? 2) Why has U.S. health insurance historically been a benefit given through places of employment? Some topics addressed include: private health insurance, industrial health and workmen's compensation, the welfare state (in Europe, Canada, and the U.S.), maternal and infant care programs, Medicare and Medicaid. One of the main take-home messages of the course is that 20th-century U.S. health care policies both reflected and shaped American social relations based on race, class, gender, and age. This course is a combination lecture and "SAIL" class. SAIL stands for "Structured, Active, In-Class Learning." During many class periods, students will work in small groups on a specific exercise, followed by a large group discussion and/or brief lecture. Students who choose to take this course, therefore, must be fully committed to adequately preparing for class and to working collaboratively in class. | ||||||
| HSOC 2002-401 | Sociological Research Methods | Evren Dincer | PCPE 200 | MW 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | One of the defining characteristics of all the social sciences, including sociology, is a commitment to empirical research as the basis for knowledge. This course is designed to provide you with a basic understanding of research in the social sciences and to enable you to think like a social scientist. Through this course students will learn both the logic of sociological inquiry and the nuts and bolts of doing empirical research. We will focus on such issues as the relationship between theory and research, the logic of research design, issues of conceptualization and measurement, basic methods of data collection, and what social scientists do with data once they have collected them. By the end of the course, students will have completed sociological research projects utilizing different empirical methods, be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various research strategies, and read (with understanding) published accounts of social science research. | SOCI2000401 | Quantitative Data Analysis | ||||
| HSOC 2002-402 | Sociological Research Methods | Abby Lim | DRLB 4C6 | R 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | One of the defining characteristics of all the social sciences, including sociology, is a commitment to empirical research as the basis for knowledge. This course is designed to provide you with a basic understanding of research in the social sciences and to enable you to think like a social scientist. Through this course students will learn both the logic of sociological inquiry and the nuts and bolts of doing empirical research. We will focus on such issues as the relationship between theory and research, the logic of research design, issues of conceptualization and measurement, basic methods of data collection, and what social scientists do with data once they have collected them. By the end of the course, students will have completed sociological research projects utilizing different empirical methods, be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various research strategies, and read (with understanding) published accounts of social science research. | SOCI2000402 | Quantitative Data Analysis | ||||
| HSOC 2002-403 | Sociological Research Methods | Abby Lim | PCPE 200 | R 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | One of the defining characteristics of all the social sciences, including sociology, is a commitment to empirical research as the basis for knowledge. This course is designed to provide you with a basic understanding of research in the social sciences and to enable you to think like a social scientist. Through this course students will learn both the logic of sociological inquiry and the nuts and bolts of doing empirical research. We will focus on such issues as the relationship between theory and research, the logic of research design, issues of conceptualization and measurement, basic methods of data collection, and what social scientists do with data once they have collected them. By the end of the course, students will have completed sociological research projects utilizing different empirical methods, be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various research strategies, and read (with understanding) published accounts of social science research. | SOCI2000403 | Quantitative Data Analysis | ||||
| HSOC 2202-401 | Health of Populations | Iliana V Kohler | MCNB 286-7 | TR 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | This course is designed to introduce students to the quantitative study of factors that influence the health of populations. Topics to be addressed include methods for characterizing levels of health in populations, comparative and historical perspectives on population health, health disparities, health policy issues and the effectiveness of interventions for enhancing the health of populations. These topics will be addressed both for developed and developing world populations. The course will focus on specific areas of health and some of the major issues and conclusions pertaining to those domains. Areas singled out for attention include chronic diseases and their major risk factors, such as smoking, physical activity, dietary factors and obesity. Throughout the course, the focus will be on determining the quality of evidence for health policy and understanding the manner in which it was generated. | SOCI2220401 | Quantitative Data Analysis | ||||
| HSOC 2202-402 | Health of Populations | Anneliese Luck | WILL 215 | R 3:30 PM-4:29 PM | This course is designed to introduce students to the quantitative study of factors that influence the health of populations. Topics to be addressed include methods for characterizing levels of health in populations, comparative and historical perspectives on population health, health disparities, health policy issues and the effectiveness of interventions for enhancing the health of populations. These topics will be addressed both for developed and developing world populations. The course will focus on specific areas of health and some of the major issues and conclusions pertaining to those domains. Areas singled out for attention include chronic diseases and their major risk factors, such as smoking, physical activity, dietary factors and obesity. Throughout the course, the focus will be on determining the quality of evidence for health policy and understanding the manner in which it was generated. | SOCI2220402 | Quantitative Data Analysis | ||||
| HSOC 2202-403 | Health of Populations | Anneliese Luck | WILL 202 | R 5:15 PM-6:14 PM | This course is designed to introduce students to the quantitative study of factors that influence the health of populations. Topics to be addressed include methods for characterizing levels of health in populations, comparative and historical perspectives on population health, health disparities, health policy issues and the effectiveness of interventions for enhancing the health of populations. These topics will be addressed both for developed and developing world populations. The course will focus on specific areas of health and some of the major issues and conclusions pertaining to those domains. Areas singled out for attention include chronic diseases and their major risk factors, such as smoking, physical activity, dietary factors and obesity. Throughout the course, the focus will be on determining the quality of evidence for health policy and understanding the manner in which it was generated. | SOCI2220403 | Quantitative Data Analysis | ||||
| HSOC 2227-401 | Trauma and Healing in Historical Perspective | Angelica Barbara Clayton | DRLB 3N6 | T 3:30 PM-6:29 PM | This course considers the diverse range of theories and topics related to trauma in the 20th and 21st centuries, looking to understand how trauma has been mobilized at different moments in history for political, social, and personal ends. The point of the course is not to simply support or deny trauma as an interpretive framework for human pain and suffering, but instead to look critically at how it emerged as an object of study for medical and scientific circles and the benefits and ramifications of those biomedical frameworks that were felt at the time and stay with us into the present. We also consider how trauma has been taken up by actors outside of medicine and science, including popular media, fiction and activist communities. Using frameworks from feminist science studies, disability studies, black studies and queer studies, alongside more traditional histories of psychiatry, medicine and technology, students think about such diverse topics as sexual violence, racial violence, domestic and familial abuse, theories of psychological development, memory and trust, citizenship, the criminal justice system, the effects of our environments, intergenerational effects of violence, embodiment, biomedical models of risk and disease and narratives of the self. At the heart of this course is an interest in how we should understand humans’ capacity to harm and be harmed by one another, and how we can attend to the enduring effects of inequality and structural violence while remaining firmly grounded in the day-to-day lived, felt realities of violence and interpersonal harm. | STSC2227401 | |||||
| HSOC 2317-401 | Slavery and Disease: Medical Knowledge in the Atlantic World | CANCELED | How did the development of Atlantic World slave societies give rise to new knowledge about bodies, health and disease, race, and medical therapeutics? In this course we explore the relationship between slavery and disease and its impact upon European, Native American, and African descended populations in the Americas during the era of early contact to the early nineteenth century. We pay special attention to slavery’s economic, environmental, and human costs, as we investigate the development of the medical profession and the acquisition of formal and informal medical knowledge in this epoch. Beyond that, we will investigate how perceptions of disease susceptibility and overall experiences with specific illnesses proceeded along raced and gendered lines. Topics we cover include the exchange of ideas about health and healing, responses to epidemics, the racialization of disease, slavery and commerce as conduits of disease. | STSC2317401 | |||||||
| HSOC 2347-301 | Autism, Past and Present | Amy S Lutz | COHN 203 | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | There may be no more unstable diagnosis in the history of medicine than autism. Originally considered rare, it has now been characterized as "epidemic"; initially considered a psychiatric disorder, it was subsequently classified as a developmental disability, and today is considered by many advocates to be an identity; at first attached to children who were quite disabled, it now describes extraordinarily accomplished academics, physicians, and lawyers as well. There may also be no more ubiquitous diagnosis in our current moment. As prevalence rates have soared to one out of every 36 children affected, it seems as if everyone is touched by autism in some capacity -- although a personal connection to autism is not at all required for this course. This class will cover the history of autism, from its introduction in 1943 to the present -- a trajectory that intersects with the histories of medicine, psychiatry, and disability. We will also explore the divisive issues fracturing the autism community right now, including the rise of Neurodiversity, inclusion, impairment, caregiving, representation, and even the very words we use to discuss those on the spectrum. |
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| HSOC 2421-401 | Manufacturing Minds: From Babbage to ChatGPT | David E Dunning | CANCELED | When asked to tell its own history, ChatGPT answers literally, describing (vaguely of course) its own training data set. When pressed to describe the longer history of “technology like you,” it mentions early computer science, programs that played chess or solved math problems, before naming deep learning algorithms and big data as the key breakthroughs. This lineage is not untrue, but it ignores the wider context in which individuals and organizations have come to pursue this strange dream of crafting an intelligent object. As an uncannily lucid conversation partner who freely performs all manner of textual tasks, ChatGPT participates in a longstanding tension in the history of information technology between the goals of manufacturing minds and making mindless clerical workers. In this course we historicize that tension in three domains—calculation, knowledge work, and games—all of which directly inform our efforts to imagine what ChatGPT and its ilk might be. Throughout, we will attend to the ways machinery shaped specific tasks’ construction in relation to gender, race, and class identities. We will see how technologies often imagined as disembodied are always material, interacting with human bodies and physical environments. | STSC2421401 | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202430&c=HSOC2421401 | |||||
| HSOC 2457-301 | History of Bioethics | Amy S Lutz | COHN 203 | MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | This course is an introduction to the historical development of medical ethics and to the birth of bioethics in the twentieth-century United States. We will examine how and why medical ethical issues arose in American society at this time. Themes will include human experimentation, organ donation, the rise of medical technology and euthanasia. Finally, this course will examine the contention that the current discipline of bioethics is a purely American phenomenon that has been exported to Great Britain, Canada and Continental Europe. | ||||||
| HSOC 3017-401 | Biology and Society | Melissa Charenko | LLAB 109 | TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | From environmental crises to medical advancements and global food shortages, biology and the life sciences are implicated in some of our most pressing social issues. By looking at these issues, this course scrutinizes how developments in biology have shaped, and are shaped by, society. In the first unit, we’ll look at how institutions and technologies influence the modern life sciences, including the role of universities, public health departments, and museums in the development of biology. In the second unit, we’ll explore areas of biology that have raised controversies about regulation and access, including issues ranging from health to the environment. In the third unit, we’ll examine how scientists and the public invoke biological facts when addressing what it means to be human (or of a particular race, gender, ability, etc.). | STSC3017401 | |||||
| HSOC 3028-401 | Normal People | Sara E Ray | COHN 203 | R 5:15 PM-8:14 PM | For most of us, what’s normal feels downright natural. The normal is our baseline, invisible and unconsidered until something abnormal draws our attention to it. But a little prodding shows the contradictions within bland, boring normality: it’s defined by our internal feelings as much as by quantified standards, it describes individuals as well as populations, and it is intensely difficult to describe on its own merits without comparison. So what does it mean to be normal, anyway? This seminar examines “the normal” as a medical and scientific concept from the Renaissance until today. Has the concept of normal always existed? What makes a person or body normal? How has such a thing been assessed? Can the normal exist without deviance – and is this relationship inherently one about power? We will examine how scientific ideas of “the normal” – and its conflation with “the natural” – shaped medical knowledge and ideologies about racial difference, sex and gender, socioeconomic class, anatomical difference and disability, and human behavior. How have the “normals” of the past shaped our current scientific understandings of ourselves and the people around us? Our goal will be to make visible the ways that “normal” gets normalized in order to deepen our critical engagement with modern medicine, wellness culture, and racial and gender politics. |
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| HSOC 3644-401 | Minds, Bodies, and Machines | Angelica Barbara Clayton | WILL 1 | W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM | This course interrogates the historical connections between minds, bodies and machines in science and technology by taking a critical look at the history of Artificial Intelligence and cognitive science in the 20th century. We will consider how AI has shaped our understanding of what it means to be human, just as ideas of the "human" have shaped our hopes, fears and plans for AI over time. Students will be reading primary sources alongside historical and theoretical interventions from the history of science, science studies and affiiated fields to interrogate and better understand our current moment and reimagine the future of AI. | STSC3644401 | |||||
| HSOC 4303-301 | Disease & Society | Robert A. Aronowitz | COHN 237 | W 10:15 AM-1:14 PM | What is disease? In this seminar students will ask and answer this question by analyzing historical documents, scientific reports, and historical scholarship (primarily 19th and 20th century U.S. and European). We will look at disease from multiple perspectives -- as a biological process, clinical entity, population phenomenon, historical actor and personal experience. We will pay special attention to how diseases have been recognized, diagnosed, named and classified in different eras, cultures and professional settings. | ||||||
| HSOC 4324-301 | Medical Activism and the Politics of Health | David S. Barnes | VANP 625 | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | During the second half of the twentieth century, overlapping waves of social reform movements agitating for civil rights, women's rights, peace, environmentalism, and gay rights reshaped the U.S. political and cultural landscape. Physicians, other health care professionals, and organized patient groups played important roles in all of these movements. This seminar investigates the history of this medical activism, making special use of the Walter Lear Collection in Penn Libraries' Kislak Center. Readings, discussions, and student research projects analyze the relationships between this history and the political dimensions of individual and population health in the late twentieth century. | ||||||
| HSOC 4427-401 | Technology and Medicine in Modern America | Andria B. Johnson | PSYL C41 | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | Medicine as it exists in the United States today is profoundly technological. Many folks residing in the U.S. regard it as perfectly normal for clinicians to examine patients with instruments, for specialists to expose people’s bodies to many different machines, and for those machines to produce data that is mechanically/electronically processed, interpreted and stored. People are billed technologically, prompted to attend appointments technologically, and buy everyday consumer technologies to protect, diagnose, or improve our health. (Consider, for example, air-purifiers, heart rate monitors, pregnancy testing kits, blood-sugar monitoring tests, and thermometers.) Yet even at the beginning of the twentieth century, devices such as these were scarce and infrequently used by American physicians and medical consumers alike. Over the course of this semester, we examine how “technology” came to medicine’s center-stage in the U.S., and what impact this change has had on medical practice, institutions, and consumers alike. Technology & Medicine in Modern America fulfills the Capstone research requirement for the HSOC major. Students develop and execute original research projects connected to our course questions and themes. Student topics can be wildly diverse and reflect their own interests and concentration: reproductive technologies, technology & disability, pharma & biotech, public health tech, medicalized consumers/”everyday” med tech, technology & enhancement, med tech & the military, and so on. By the end of the course, students will have honed their skills in primary and secondary source research and in constructing an academic argument and paper. Assignments. Students formulate a research question; appropriately situate their question within the literature of a core STSC/HSOC discipline (anthropology, sociology, or history); and build an argument (an answer to their research question) based on their analysis of primary sources. In addition, students continue to develop skills in critical analysis through weekly reading assignments and discussions. Requirements therefore include: weekly readings and participation in class discussions; sequenced research assignments; first draft peer review workshop; and a final 20+page original research paper and presentation. Course Format. The course fosters a collaborative atmosphere in which students complete an original research paper through critical reading and step-wise assignments that culminate in a final project. Tuesdays & Thursdays 1:45-3:15pm EST = class discussion, about shared texts or about research or writing. Class time will occasionally be reserved for asynchronous time to work on research assignments. All readings and reading notes are due at 1:45pm in advance of our class sessions. All research assignments are due by midnight (except peer review, which is due by class). Expect about 4 hours of homework per week, give or take, which includes a combination of reading, research, and writing. |
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| HSOC 4528-301 | Race and Medicine in America | Adam H Mohr | COHN 392 | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | Race has been, and remains, a central issue to the delivery and experience of healthcare in America. This course will examine a variety of issues and cases studies to examine how the patient-doctor has been negotiated, defined, and contested upon the basis of race. This course is designed to further develop students' research, analytical and writing skills in a collaborative atmosphere. Students will complete an original research paper through critical reading and step-wise assignments that will culminate in a final project. By the end of the course, students will have honed skills in primary and secondary source research, and the construction of an academic, analytical argument and paper. Students will build an argument based on their analysis of primary sources, and appropriately situate their argument within the literature of the core HSOC disciplines (anthropology, sociology, and history). In addition, student will continue to develop skills in critical analysis through weekly reading assignments | ||||||
| HSOC 4980-076 | Honors Thesis | Christine Muller | NRN 00 | Research and writing of a senior honors thesis under faculty supervision. | |||||||
| HSOC 4980-077 | Honors Thesis | John Kanbayashi | NRN 00 | Research and writing of a senior honors thesis under faculty supervision. | |||||||
| HSOC 4980-078 | Honors Thesis | Sara E Ray | NRN 00 | Research and writing of a senior honors thesis under faculty supervision. | |||||||
| HSOC 4980-079 | Honors Thesis | NRN 00 | Research and writing of a senior honors thesis under faculty supervision. | ||||||||
| HSSC 5050-301 | Seminar in the History and Sociology of Science | Beans Velocci Adelheid Clara Voskuhl |
BENN 344 | R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Seminar for first-year graduate students, undergraduate majors, and advanced undergraduates. Reading will introduce the student to current work concerning the effect of social context on science, technology, and medicine. | ||||||
| HSSC 5083-301 | Readings in Science, Technology, and Medicine | Zehra Hashmi Ramah Katherine Mckay |
WILL 215 | W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM | This graduate reading seminar engages major themes and debates in Science & Technology Studies. Bringing together scholarship in anthropology, history, history of science and information studies, the course will combine theoretical material with empirically oriented studies. It focuses on how practices, ideas, objects and tools within science, technology and medicine have been shaped by the social, political, and cultural contexts in which they emerged. Students will read texts on a set of wide-ranging topics and themes—techno-politics, actor-network theory, postcolonial technology and feminist STS among others— with the goal of engaging both the methodological and conceptual questions they raise. | ||||||
| HSSC 5310-301 | Body Histories | Rana Asali Hogarth | GLAB 103 | T 12:00 PM-2:59 PM | Early scholarship on the history of the body emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, largely spearheaded by gender and discourse theorists who saw the human body as a useful way to think about culture, language, and performativity. Soon thereafter, historians insisted on the need for a more material approach to the subject. Since both human and non-human bodies occupy a central place in the history of science, technology, medicine, this course will delve into works that seek to tell the history of these fields through body history. In recent years, the most cutting-edge scholarship in body history can be found in race, gender, and disability studies, which will be a focus of this seminar. | ||||||
| STSC 0013-301 | A History of the University of Pennsylvania from the American Revolution to the Present | Bekir H Kucuk | JAFF 104 | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | This course provides a well-contextualized journey through primary sources relating to the University of Pennsylvania from its inception as an idea to the present. Penn was both the first university and the first institution to combine the liberal arts and professional training in medicine. While the history of the university reflects broader patterns in American higher education, Penn nevertheless had its own unique trajectory in its relationship to the city of Philadelphia and to power in the United States. During our meetings, we will discuss the relationship between theoretical and practical sides of learning at the university, the nature of research, the changing structures of governance and its place in politics from the American Revolution to the Present. | Humanties & Social Science Sector | |||||
| STSC 0100-401 | Emergence of Modern Science | Bekir H Kucuk | COHN 402 | MW 9:00 AM-9:59 AM | During the last 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative force that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life, work, and cultural contexts of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas and techniques, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting and how they relate to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, art, literature, and music. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a "Western Civ" course with a difference, open to students at all levels. | HSOC0100401 | Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector |
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| STSC 0100-402 | Emergence of Modern Science | Abigail Riley Ballantyne | DRLB 4C8 | R 5:15 PM-6:14 PM | During the last 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative force that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life, work, and cultural contexts of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas and techniques, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting and how they relate to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, art, literature, and music. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a "Western Civ" course with a difference, open to students at all levels. | HSOC0100402 | Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector |
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| STSC 0100-403 | Emergence of Modern Science | Amelia Carter | MEYH B4 | F 9:00 AM-9:59 AM | During the last 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative force that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life, work, and cultural contexts of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas and techniques, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting and how they relate to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, art, literature, and music. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a "Western Civ" course with a difference, open to students at all levels. | HSOC0100403 | Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector |
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| STSC 0100-404 | Emergence of Modern Science | Amelia Carter | MEYH B4 | F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | During the last 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative force that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life, work, and cultural contexts of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas and techniques, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting and how they relate to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, art, literature, and music. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a "Western Civ" course with a difference, open to students at all levels. | HSOC0100404 | Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector |
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| STSC 0100-405 | Emergence of Modern Science | Abigail Riley Ballantyne | MEYH B4 | F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | During the last 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative force that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life, work, and cultural contexts of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas and techniques, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting and how they relate to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, art, literature, and music. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a "Western Civ" course with a difference, open to students at all levels. | HSOC0100405 | Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector Humanties & Social Science Sector |
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| STSC 0343-401 | Why Medical Interventions Work or Fail: A Search for Answers | Robert A. Aronowitz | EDUC 121 | T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | The past is littered with interventions that worked or were thought to work that we hold in little regard today – from frontal lobotomies to bone marrow transplants for metastatic breast cancer. Since 1962 the FDA requires proof of efficacy for new drugs. Yet uncertainty surrounds the efficacy and safety of many drugs, technologies, and practices in use today. Will some future observer of today’s practices wonder, as we do about the bleeding and purging of traditional medicine, why we do the things we do? This course will go deep into the social history of modern Western biomedicine to make sense of the ideological, economic, technical, scientific, and social forces shaping the modern medical interventions and the work they do. Students will be introduced to the rewards and challenges of studying medicine as a social and historical process. Case studies of the efficacy of contemporary biomedical interventions will be enriched by in-class meetings with prominent social scientists, biomedical researchers, and clinicians, as well as some potential visits to clinics and historical sites. Each student will develop a research project or essay review related to the efficacy of medical interventions. Most students will likely explore a current or historical controversy over the efficacy and safety of a particular intervention. In addition, there will be two shorter writing assignments. |
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| STSC 0490-401 | Comparative Medicine | Ian C. Petrie | STNH AUD | TR 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | This course explores the medical consequences of the interaction between Europe and the "non- West." It focuses on three parts of the world Europeans colonized: Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Today's healing practices in these regions grew out of the interaction between the medical traditions of the colonized and those of the European colonizers. We therefore explore the nature of the interactions. What was the history of therapeutic practices that originated in Africa or South Asia? How did European medical practices change in the colonies? What were the effects of colonial racial and gender hierarchies on medical practice? How did practitioners of "non-Western" medicine carve out places for themselves? How did they redefine ancient traditions? How did patients find their way among multiple therapeutic traditions? How does biomedicine take a different shape when it is practiced under conditions of poverty, or of inequalities in power? How do today's medical problems grow out of this history? This is a fascinating history of race and gender, of pathogens and conquerors, of science and the body. It tells about the historical and regional roots of today's problems in international medicine. | HSOC0490401 | History & Tradition Sector Cross Cultural Analysis |
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| STSC 0490-402 | Comparative Medicine | Elspeth Gow | COHN 203 | F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | This course explores the medical consequences of the interaction between Europe and the "non- West." It focuses on three parts of the world Europeans colonized: Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Today's healing practices in these regions grew out of the interaction between the medical traditions of the colonized and those of the European colonizers. We therefore explore the nature of the interactions. What was the history of therapeutic practices that originated in Africa or South Asia? How did European medical practices change in the colonies? What were the effects of colonial racial and gender hierarchies on medical practice? How did practitioners of "non-Western" medicine carve out places for themselves? How did they redefine ancient traditions? How did patients find their way among multiple therapeutic traditions? How does biomedicine take a different shape when it is practiced under conditions of poverty, or of inequalities in power? How do today's medical problems grow out of this history? This is a fascinating history of race and gender, of pathogens and conquerors, of science and the body. It tells about the historical and regional roots of today's problems in international medicine. | HSOC0490402 | Cross Cultural Analysis History & Tradition Sector |
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| STSC 0490-403 | Comparative Medicine | Elspeth Gow | COHN 204 | F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | This course explores the medical consequences of the interaction between Europe and the "non- West." It focuses on three parts of the world Europeans colonized: Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Today's healing practices in these regions grew out of the interaction between the medical traditions of the colonized and those of the European colonizers. We therefore explore the nature of the interactions. What was the history of therapeutic practices that originated in Africa or South Asia? How did European medical practices change in the colonies? What were the effects of colonial racial and gender hierarchies on medical practice? How did practitioners of "non-Western" medicine carve out places for themselves? How did they redefine ancient traditions? How did patients find their way among multiple therapeutic traditions? How does biomedicine take a different shape when it is practiced under conditions of poverty, or of inequalities in power? How do today's medical problems grow out of this history? This is a fascinating history of race and gender, of pathogens and conquerors, of science and the body. It tells about the historical and regional roots of today's problems in international medicine. | HSOC0490403 | Cross Cultural Analysis History & Tradition Sector |
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| STSC 0490-404 | Comparative Medicine | Ngamlienlal Kipgen | COHN 203 | F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | This course explores the medical consequences of the interaction between Europe and the "non- West." It focuses on three parts of the world Europeans colonized: Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Today's healing practices in these regions grew out of the interaction between the medical traditions of the colonized and those of the European colonizers. We therefore explore the nature of the interactions. What was the history of therapeutic practices that originated in Africa or South Asia? How did European medical practices change in the colonies? What were the effects of colonial racial and gender hierarchies on medical practice? How did practitioners of "non-Western" medicine carve out places for themselves? How did they redefine ancient traditions? How did patients find their way among multiple therapeutic traditions? How does biomedicine take a different shape when it is practiced under conditions of poverty, or of inequalities in power? How do today's medical problems grow out of this history? This is a fascinating history of race and gender, of pathogens and conquerors, of science and the body. It tells about the historical and regional roots of today's problems in international medicine. | HSOC0490404 | History & Tradition Sector Cross Cultural Analysis |
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| STSC 0490-405 | Comparative Medicine | Ngamlienlal Kipgen | COHN 203 | F 3:30 PM-4:29 PM | This course explores the medical consequences of the interaction between Europe and the "non- West." It focuses on three parts of the world Europeans colonized: Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Today's healing practices in these regions grew out of the interaction between the medical traditions of the colonized and those of the European colonizers. We therefore explore the nature of the interactions. What was the history of therapeutic practices that originated in Africa or South Asia? How did European medical practices change in the colonies? What were the effects of colonial racial and gender hierarchies on medical practice? How did practitioners of "non-Western" medicine carve out places for themselves? How did they redefine ancient traditions? How did patients find their way among multiple therapeutic traditions? How does biomedicine take a different shape when it is practiced under conditions of poverty, or of inequalities in power? How do today's medical problems grow out of this history? This is a fascinating history of race and gender, of pathogens and conquerors, of science and the body. It tells about the historical and regional roots of today's problems in international medicine. | HSOC0490405 | History & Tradition Sector Cross Cultural Analysis |
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| STSC 0668-301 | Rivers, Culture, Power | John Kanbayashi | BENN 140 | W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM | Rivers provide and divide, they constrict and connect. Although a fundamental source of prosperity and transit for human societies, they resist even the most sophisticated attempts at human control. This class examines rivers as movers of history—as sites of contestation and transformation around the globe—with a focus on how diverse societies have understood and used them. Topics include: irrigation and political power, flooding and course changes, scientific measurement of river systems, the twentieth-century rise of the concrete dam, subsequent movements towards undamming, and recent efforts to grapple with climate change. For first-year students only. | History & Tradition Sector | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202430&c=STSC0668301 | ||||
| STSC 0883-401 | Climate and Change | Melissa Charenko | MOOR 212 | TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | What is climate? This course examines this question by exploring the diverse perspectives of various peoples at different times and in diverse locations. We will then investigate how the myriad of conceptualizations of climate influenced a wide array of topics, including health, race, historical change, human destiny, and responses to environmental challenges. We will investigate the changing ideas surrounding climate by examining historical texts, scientific literature, and cultural artifacts. By the end of the course, students will have developed a nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between climate and human society. Students will also be able to reflect on how the historical and cultural contexts that inform interpretations of climate impact contemporary discussion surrounding climate change and solutions for addressing climate-related challenges. | HSOC0883401 | Humanties & Social Science Sector Cross Cultural Analysis |
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| STSC 1120-401 | Science Technology and War | David J. Caruso | MCNB 395 | TR 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | In this survey we explore the relationships between technical knowledge and warin the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We attend particularly to the centrality of bodily injury in the history of war. Topics include changing interpretations of the machine gun as inhumane or acceptable; the cult of the battleship; banned weaponry; submarines and masculinity; industrialized war and total war; trench warfare and mental breakdown; the atomic bomb and Cold War; chemical warfare in Viet Nam; and "television war" in the 1990s. | HSOC1120401 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| STSC 1120-402 | Science Technology and War | Nooshin Sadeghsamimi | TOWN 305 | F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | In this survey we explore the relationships between technical knowledge and warin the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We attend particularly to the centrality of bodily injury in the history of war. Topics include changing interpretations of the machine gun as inhumane or acceptable; the cult of the battleship; banned weaponry; submarines and masculinity; industrialized war and total war; trench warfare and mental breakdown; the atomic bomb and Cold War; chemical warfare in Viet Nam; and "television war" in the 1990s. | HSOC1120402 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| STSC 1120-403 | Science Technology and War | Nooshin Sadeghsamimi | WILL 307 | F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | In this survey we explore the relationships between technical knowledge and warin the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We attend particularly to the centrality of bodily injury in the history of war. Topics include changing interpretations of the machine gun as inhumane or acceptable; the cult of the battleship; banned weaponry; submarines and masculinity; industrialized war and total war; trench warfare and mental breakdown; the atomic bomb and Cold War; chemical warfare in Viet Nam; and "television war" in the 1990s. | HSOC1120403 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| STSC 1600-401 | The Information Age | Zehra Hashmi | FAGN 216 | MW 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | We are said to live in an “information age.” Information technologies have been credited with ushering in an era of unprecedented information creation, collection, storage, and communication. We experience the impact of this firsthand: these technologies increasingly pervade our homes, our workplaces, our schools, our most private spaces. But what exactly do we mean when we speak of the information age? When and how did it come into being? What developments—social, economic, political, or technological—made the digital world possible? How do these fit in the longer history of technology and society? And how is all this different from earlier eras? In this course, we explore these questions by looking to the history of information, information technologies, and information sciences, a history that long predates the digital computer. Although, at the center of our story will be the development of new information technologies—from the printing press and the telegraph to the computer and of course the Internet—our focus will not primarily be on machines, but on people and how individuals conceptualized, contributed to, made sense of, and dealt with the many transformational changes that have shaped the contours of our modern digital world. We will explore forms of identity, knowledge, and community that have emerged within this information age. Our goal will be to deepen historical perspectives and build analytical tools to critically evaluate the role of information in our increasingly digital world today. | SOCI2951401 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| STSC 1600-402 | The Information Age | Jina Hyun | JAFF 104 | F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | We are said to live in an “information age.” Information technologies have been credited with ushering in an era of unprecedented information creation, collection, storage, and communication. We experience the impact of this firsthand: these technologies increasingly pervade our homes, our workplaces, our schools, our most private spaces. But what exactly do we mean when we speak of the information age? When and how did it come into being? What developments—social, economic, political, or technological—made the digital world possible? How do these fit in the longer history of technology and society? And how is all this different from earlier eras? In this course, we explore these questions by looking to the history of information, information technologies, and information sciences, a history that long predates the digital computer. Although, at the center of our story will be the development of new information technologies—from the printing press and the telegraph to the computer and of course the Internet—our focus will not primarily be on machines, but on people and how individuals conceptualized, contributed to, made sense of, and dealt with the many transformational changes that have shaped the contours of our modern digital world. We will explore forms of identity, knowledge, and community that have emerged within this information age. Our goal will be to deepen historical perspectives and build analytical tools to critically evaluate the role of information in our increasingly digital world today. | SOCI2951402 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| STSC 1600-403 | The Information Age | Jina Hyun | JAFF 104 | F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | We are said to live in an “information age.” Information technologies have been credited with ushering in an era of unprecedented information creation, collection, storage, and communication. We experience the impact of this firsthand: these technologies increasingly pervade our homes, our workplaces, our schools, our most private spaces. But what exactly do we mean when we speak of the information age? When and how did it come into being? What developments—social, economic, political, or technological—made the digital world possible? How do these fit in the longer history of technology and society? And how is all this different from earlier eras? In this course, we explore these questions by looking to the history of information, information technologies, and information sciences, a history that long predates the digital computer. Although, at the center of our story will be the development of new information technologies—from the printing press and the telegraph to the computer and of course the Internet—our focus will not primarily be on machines, but on people and how individuals conceptualized, contributed to, made sense of, and dealt with the many transformational changes that have shaped the contours of our modern digital world. We will explore forms of identity, knowledge, and community that have emerged within this information age. Our goal will be to deepen historical perspectives and build analytical tools to critically evaluate the role of information in our increasingly digital world today. | SOCI2951403 | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||
| STSC 1880-001 | Environment and Society | John Kanbayashi | CANCELED | This course examines contemporary environmental issues such as energy, waste, pollution, health, population, biodiversity and climate through a historical and critical lens. All of these issues have important material, natural and technical aspects; they are also inextricably entangled with human history and culture. To understand the nature of this entanglement, the course will introduce key concepts and theoretical frameworks from science and technology studies and the environmental humanities and social sciences. | Humanties & Social Science Sector | ||||||
| STSC 2146-401 | Science and Technology in Modern East Asia | John Kanbayashi | BENN 138 | MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | Technology from East Asia is ubiquitous in everyday life in the 21st century. You may be reading these very words on a device designed or assembled in Japan, China, South Korea, or Taiwan. The region, now a global center of research and innovation, contains some of the modern world’s most impressive technological and scientific achievements. It also exhibits some of the most distressing—from mass facial recognition surveillance in China to nuclear disaster in Japan. This course explores how this state of affairs has taken shape from the 19th century through the present. Topics include industrialization, military technology, science and the rise of nationalism, the proliferation of consumer electronics, and environmental engineering in a warming world. | EALC2502401 | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202430&c=STSC2146401 | ||||
| STSC 2227-401 | Trauma and Healing in Historical Perspective | Angelica Barbara Clayton | DRLB 3N6 | T 3:30 PM-6:29 PM | This course considers the diverse range of theories and topics related to trauma in the 20th and 21st centuries, looking to understand how trauma has been mobilized at different moments in history for political, social, and personal ends. The point of the course is not to simply support or deny trauma as an interpretive framework for human pain and suffering, but instead to look critically at how it emerged as an object of study for medical and scientific circles and the benefits and ramifications of those biomedical frameworks that were felt at the time and stay with us into the present. We also consider how trauma has been taken up by actors outside of medicine and science, including popular media, fiction and activist communities. Using frameworks from feminist science studies, disability studies, black studies and queer studies, alongside more traditional histories of psychiatry, medicine and technology, students think about such diverse topics as sexual violence, racial violence, domestic and familial abuse, theories of psychological development, memory and trust, citizenship, the criminal justice system, the effects of our environments, intergenerational effects of violence, embodiment, biomedical models of risk and disease and narratives of the self. At the heart of this course is an interest in how we should understand humans’ capacity to harm and be harmed by one another, and how we can attend to the enduring effects of inequality and structural violence while remaining firmly grounded in the day-to-day lived, felt realities of violence and interpersonal harm. | HSOC2227401 | |||||
| STSC 2317-401 | Slavery and Disease: Medical Knowledge in the Atlantic World | CANCELED | How did the development of Atlantic World slave societies give rise to new knowledge about bodies, health and disease, race, and medical therapeutics? In this course we explore the relationship between slavery and disease and its impact upon European, Native American, and African descended populations in the Americas during the era of early contact to the early nineteenth century. We pay special attention to slavery’s economic, environmental, and human costs, as we investigate the development of the medical profession and the acquisition of formal and informal medical knowledge in this epoch. Beyond that, we will investigate how perceptions of disease susceptibility and overall experiences with specific illnesses proceeded along raced and gendered lines. Topics we cover include the exchange of ideas about health and healing, responses to epidemics, the racialization of disease, slavery and commerce as conduits of disease. | HSOC2317401 | |||||||
| STSC 2421-401 | Manufacturing Minds: From Babbage to ChatGPT | David E Dunning | CANCELED | When asked to tell its own history, ChatGPT answers literally, describing (vaguely of course) its own training data set. When pressed to describe the longer history of “technology like you,” it mentions early computer science, programs that played chess or solved math problems, before naming deep learning algorithms and big data as the key breakthroughs. This lineage is not untrue, but it ignores the wider context in which individuals and organizations have come to pursue this strange dream of crafting an intelligent object. As an uncannily lucid conversation partner who freely performs all manner of textual tasks, ChatGPT participates in a longstanding tension in the history of information technology between the goals of manufacturing minds and making mindless clerical workers. In this course we historicize that tension in three domains—calculation, knowledge work, and games—all of which directly inform our efforts to imagine what ChatGPT and its ilk might be. Throughout, we will attend to the ways machinery shaped specific tasks’ construction in relation to gender, race, and class identities. We will see how technologies often imagined as disembodied are always material, interacting with human bodies and physical environments. | HSOC2421401 | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202430&c=STSC2421401 | |||||
| STSC 3017-401 | Biology and Society | Melissa Charenko | LLAB 109 | TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | From environmental crises to medical advancements and global food shortages, biology and the life sciences are implicated in some of our most pressing social issues. By looking at these issues, this course scrutinizes how developments in biology have shaped, and are shaped by, society. In the first unit, we’ll look at how institutions and technologies influence the modern life sciences, including the role of universities, public health departments, and museums in the development of biology. In the second unit, we’ll explore areas of biology that have raised controversies about regulation and access, including issues ranging from health to the environment. In the third unit, we’ll examine how scientists and the public invoke biological facts when addressing what it means to be human (or of a particular race, gender, ability, etc.). | HSOC3017401 | |||||
| STSC 3028-401 | Normal People | Sara E Ray | COHN 203 | R 5:15 PM-8:14 PM | For most of us, what’s normal feels downright natural. The normal is our baseline, invisible and unconsidered until something abnormal draws our attention to it. But a little prodding shows the contradictions within bland, boring normality: it’s defined by our internal feelings as much as by quantified standards, it describes individuals as well as populations, and it is intensely difficult to describe on its own merits without comparison. So what does it mean to be normal, anyway? This seminar examines “the normal” as a medical and scientific concept from the Renaissance until today. Has the concept of normal always existed? What makes a person or body normal? How has such a thing been assessed? Can the normal exist without deviance – and is this relationship inherently one about power? We will examine how scientific ideas of “the normal” – and its conflation with “the natural” – shaped medical knowledge and ideologies about racial difference, sex and gender, socioeconomic class, anatomical difference and disability, and human behavior. How have the “normals” of the past shaped our current scientific understandings of ourselves and the people around us? Our goal will be to make visible the ways that “normal” gets normalized in order to deepen our critical engagement with modern medicine, wellness culture, and racial and gender politics. |
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| STSC 3644-401 | Minds, Bodies, and Machines | Angelica Barbara Clayton | WILL 1 | W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM | This course interrogates the historical connections between minds, bodies and machines in science and technology by taking a critical look at the history of Artificial Intelligence and cognitive science in the 20th century. We will consider how AI has shaped our understanding of what it means to be human, just as ideas of the "human" have shaped our hopes, fears and plans for AI over time. Students will be reading primary sources alongside historical and theoretical interventions from the history of science, science studies and affiiated fields to interrogate and better understand our current moment and reimagine the future of AI. | HSOC3644401 | |||||
| STSC 4427-401 | Technology and Medicine in Modern America | Andria B. Johnson | PSYL C41 | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | Medicine as it exists in the United States today is profoundly technological. Many folks residing in the U.S. regard it as perfectly normal for clinicians to examine patients with instruments, for specialists to expose people’s bodies to many different machines, and for those machines to produce data that is mechanically/electronically processed, interpreted and stored. People are billed technologically, prompted to attend appointments technologically, and buy everyday consumer technologies to protect, diagnose, or improve our health. (Consider, for example, air-purifiers, heart rate monitors, pregnancy testing kits, blood-sugar monitoring tests, and thermometers.) Yet even at the beginning of the twentieth century, devices such as these were scarce and infrequently used by American physicians and medical consumers alike. Over the course of this semester, we examine how “technology” came to medicine’s center-stage in the U.S., and what impact this change has had on medical practice, institutions, and consumers alike. Technology & Medicine in Modern America fulfills the Capstone research requirement for the HSOC major. Students develop and execute original research projects connected to our course questions and themes. Student topics can be wildly diverse and reflect their own interests and concentration: reproductive technologies, technology & disability, pharma & biotech, public health tech, medicalized consumers/”everyday” med tech, technology & enhancement, med tech & the military, and so on. By the end of the course, students will have honed their skills in primary and secondary source research and in constructing an academic argument and paper. Assignments. Students formulate a research question; appropriately situate their question within the literature of a core STSC/HSOC discipline (anthropology, sociology, or history); and build an argument (an answer to their research question) based on their analysis of primary sources. In addition, students continue to develop skills in critical analysis through weekly reading assignments and discussions. Requirements therefore include: weekly readings and participation in class discussions; sequenced research assignments; first draft peer review workshop; and a final 20+page original research paper and presentation. Course Format. The course fosters a collaborative atmosphere in which students complete an original research paper through critical reading and step-wise assignments that culminate in a final project. Tuesdays & Thursdays 1:45-3:15pm EST = class discussion, about shared texts or about research or writing. Class time will occasionally be reserved for asynchronous time to work on research assignments. All readings and reading notes are due at 1:45pm in advance of our class sessions. All research assignments are due by midnight (except peer review, which is due by class). Expect about 4 hours of homework per week, give or take, which includes a combination of reading, research, and writing. |
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| STSC 4980-015 | Honors Thesis | Hsiao-Wen Cheng | NRN 00 | Research and writing of a senior honors thesis under faculty supervision. |