Winter 2008 Advance Course Information

This information effective for winter 2008. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Crown College

[CRWN-80G ] [CRWN-80K]

Note: the following information is from winter 2007.

80G Ethics and the New Eugenics: A Social History of the "Gene"

Instructor: Eric Cummins
Office: Crown 110, TTh 4-5
Phone: 9-4621 (office), 338-8287 (home)
E-mail: ecummins@ucsc.edu

Course Description

This course is a social history of the “gene” in America. It draws on material from a wide variety of disciplines to paint a portrait of the “gene,” the driving force behind the Human Genome Project and human genetic engineering.  The course introduces students to the cultural assumptions, intellectual foundations, popular culture and science history of American genetics, highlighting the early to mid-20th century American eugenics movement, its decline and repudiation, and then its recent reassessment and resurgence on the heels of the mapping of the human genome and innovations in genetic engineering.  The course takes as a second focus “evolutionary ethics” and the adoption of the progress of the human species as a moral litmus, for many proponents a foundational principle of human genomics. And finally, the course examines the deep cultural revolution which innovations in bio-engineering are driving, forcing Americans to reconceptualize the relation between nature and technology and to renegotiate the boundaries between biological/non-biological and real/artificial.

In the broadest sense, the course asks the question, “How is the story of human genetic engineering being told in American culture, and what are the implications of this?”  It examines the ways American culture drives science at the same time as American science drives culture, treating the science of human genetics as it is bound to its American cultural meanings.

Course Format

Short lecture/reading/seminar discussion.

Coursework Requirements

Consistent attendance and active participation in seminar. A midterm and final exam and two essays, one requiring some amount of outside research.

Required Texts

• Pierre Baldi, The Shattered Self: The End of Natural Evolution
• Evelyn Fox Keller, Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines
• Course Reader

All titles available at Slug Books.

Schedule

WEEK 1 (January 2-6)

Th: Course Introduction

WEEK 2 (January 9-13): The American Technological Sublime

T:
Reading:
Keller, 1-13; Baldi, 1-89;

Th:  The Significance and Origins of Eugenics
Reading:
In course reader: 1) Robin Baker, “Reproduction Restaurant,” from Sex in the Future: Ancient Urges Meet Future Technology; 2) Richard Lynn, “Developments in Human Biotechnology,” from Eugenics: A Reassessment; 3) John C. Avise, “The Doctrines of Biological Science.” from The Genetic Gods: Evolution and Belief in Human Affairs; 16) Evelyn Fox Keller, Master Molecules,” from Carl F. Cranor, ed., Are Genes Us? The Social Consequences of the New Genetics.

WEEK 3  (January 16-20): The Gospel Becomes Popular

T:
Reading:
In course reader: 4) Ludmerer,”The American Eugenics Movement: 1905-1930,” and “Early Human Genetics: Science and Pseudoscience;” 5) Dugdale, McCulloch, and Davenport in Rafter, White Trash: The Eugenic Family Studies, 1877-1919;” 6) Kenneth M. Ludmerer, “A Decade of Change, 1914-1924,”  from Genetics and American Society: A Historical Appraisal; 7) Ordover, “Buck vs. Bell and Before.”

Th:  The First American Eugenics Movement, cont’d

Reading:
In course reader: 8) Kenneth M. Ludmerer, “Political Thrust,”  from Genetics and American Society: A Historical Appraisal; 9) Richard Weikart, “Evolutionary Progress as the Highest Good,” from From Darwin to Hitler: Evoltuionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany; 10) Edward O. Wilson, “The Morality of the Gene,” from Paul Thompson, ed.,  Issues in Evolutionary Ethics.

WEEK 4  (January 23-27): Repudiation of Eugenics in America

T:
Reading:
In course reader: 11) Kenneth M. Ludmerer, “Repudiation of Eugenics,”  from Genetics and American Society: A Historical Appraisal

Th:
WEEK 5  (January 30-February 3)

T:  Catch up

Th:  Midterm exam

 WEEK 6  (February 6-10):  Biofears and Biofantasies: 1950’s-1970’s

T:
Reading:
In course reader: 12) Troy Duster,  “The Increasing Appropriation of Genetic Explanations” and “Eugenics by the Back Door,” from Backdoor to Eugenics.

Th:
Reading:
Keller: “Genes, Gene Action, and Genetic Programs”

WEEK 7 (February 13-17): Biophoria and the New Eugenics: The Human Genome Project

T: Brave New Biology: 1980’s
Reading:
In course reader: 13) Robert Teitelman, “The Mythos of Biotechnology,” “The Biomedical Triangle,” “Chiefs, Postdocs, and Entrepreneurs,” “Raising Consciousness,” and “Children of Wall Street,” from Gene Dreams: Wall Street, Academia, and the Rise of Biotechnology; 14) Joel Davis, “’Owning’ the International Genome,”from Mapping the Code: The Human Genome Project and the Choices of Modern Science.

Th: The Cultural Critique
Reading:
In course reader: 15) Nancy Ordover, “New Technologies, Old Politics: Norplant and Beyond,” from American Eugenics: Race, Queer Anatomy, and the Science of Nationalism. 

Keller:  “Taming the Cybernetic Metaphor,” and “Positioning Positional Information”

WEEK 8  (February 20-24): Gene Politics in the Age of the Digital Body

T:
Reading:
Baldi:  Chapter 8, “Computers”
Keller: “The Visual Culture of Molecular Embryology”

Th:
Readings:
Keller: “New Roles for Mathematical and Computational Modeling”
Baldi: Chapter 11, “The Information Space”

In course reader: 19) Avida Digital World Life System, Digital Life Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, see http://www.dllab.caltech.edu/avida/.

WEEK 9 (February 27-March 3): Contemporary Images of the “Gene” and the Genetic Future

T:
Reading:
In course reader: 10) Wilson, “The Morality of the Gene;”  17) Robert Pollack,  “Invisible Cities and Crystalline Books,” from Signs of Life: The Language and Meanings of DNA.
Keller: “Synthetic Biology Redux—Computer Simulation and Artificial Life”

Th:
Reading:
Baldi: Chapter 9, “The Last Frontier: The Brain”

WEEK 10  (March 6-10): The End of Nature

T: The New-Age Naturmensch
Reading:
In course reader: 18) Thomas de Zengotita, “Chapter 6: The Fate of Nature” and “Chapter 7: Jedermensch ein Ubermensch,” from Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It.

Th: Course Conclusions
Reading:
Keller: “Conclusion: Understanding Development”
Baldi: Chapter 10, “Ethics and What Can Go Wrong”

Final Exam: Monday, March 20, 4-7pm. 221 Stevenson

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80K Science, Technology, and Human Biology on Exhibition

Instructor: Tiffany Lynn Wong
Phone: 9-2329
E-mail: tiffany.lynn.wong@gmail.com

Course Description

In this course, students will study various innovative museum exhibitions and artists whose work is geared toward educating the public about science, technology, and human biology. Field trips may include the Tech Museum of Innovation and the Exploratorium.

Innovative museums provide a rich back drop for studying the ways in which sophisticated advances in science, technology, and human biology are exhibited to the public. In this course, students will trace the history of humans bodies on display from "The Venus Hottentot" to the ethical dilemmas raised by the more recent "Bodies" exhibit.

Student will read excerpts from Carolyn Marvin's When Old Technologies Were New and study how the historical World's Fair and present day exhibitions such as, ISEA (International Symposium on Electronic Arts) and the Exploratorium, aim to wow, educate, and influence the public perspectives surrounding new scientific and technologies issues.

Besides writing three formal papers (two short and one longer final paper), students will also produce a project where they will be responsible for creating an educational hands-on workshop modeled on teaching the general public something specific on the sciences or technology.

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