Astrid Schrader

History of Consciousness

schrader@ucsc.edu

Introduction to Feminist Science Studies

Summer Session II: July 31 – September 1, 2006

MWF 10:00a -12:30p

Syllabus – Subject to Revisions

Course Description:

This course aims to give a broad overview of Feminist Science Studies. We will examine a variety of feminist approaches to scientific methods and practices. The readings include historical and contemporary analyses of the relations between gender, race, sex, and sexuality and the practices of scientific knowledge production. We will explore the history and role of women in western science, feminist critiques of scientific methods, the role of language in science, and the scientific construction of bodies and identities.

Course Expectations:

The success and quality of the course crucially depends on your participation in class. Please complete all the reading assignments before the class meetings. It is recommended that you take notes while reading, writing down questions and comments. Your grade will depend on lecture attendance, discussion participation, evidence of close reading, a midterm exam, and written papers. Previous knowledge or background in a scientific discipline is not required, but genuine curiosity about the scientific making of facts is expected.

Required Texts:

Feminism and Science, ed. Evelyn Fox Keller and Helen E. Longino, Oxford University Press, 1996.

Course Reader

(Additional class handouts with definitions of terms and reading questions will be available online)

Course Requirements:

Three short response papers (1-2 pages) — (30%)

Midterm exam— 20%

Final paper (6-8 pages) — 30%

Attendance and participation — 20%

Film Screenings:
Day After Trinity (dir. John Else, 1981).

Conceiving Ada (dir. Lynn Hershman Leeson; 1997)

Donna Haraway: Reads National Geographic

Evelyn Fox Keller: Science and Gender (Public Affairs Television, Inc., produced by Leslie Clark)

Course Schedule:

Week1: Introduction and Course Overview:

Science and Feminist Science Studies: An Overview

• Selections from On Being a Scientist. Committee on the Conduct of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995). http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/obas/

• Frequently Asked Questions About Feminist Science Studies The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) http://www.aacu-edu.org/publications/pdfs/FAQ1.pdf

Film Screenings: Evelyn Fox Keller: Science and Gender (Public Affairs Television, Inc., produced by Leslie Clark)

Becoming Feminist in Science: Biographical Accounts

• Aimee Sands, "Never Meant to Survive: A Black Woman’s Journey – An Interview with Evelynn Hammonds," in The `Racial’ Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future, ed. Sandra Harding (Indiana University Press, 1993), 239-248.

• Evelyn Fox Keller, “The Anomaly of a Woman in Physics,” in Women, Science and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies edited by Mary Wyer et al., (Routledge University Press, 2001), 9-16.

• Banu Subramaniam, "And the Mirror Cracked! Reflections of Natures and Cultures," in Feminist Science Studies: A New Generation, edited by Maralee Mayberry, Banu Subramaniam, Lisa H. Weasel, 55-62.

Film Screenings: Conceiving Ada (dir. Lynn Hershman Leeson; 1997)

Week 2: Feminist Interventions:

Feminist Critique of Science: How To Make A Difference?

• Ruth Hubbard, "Science, Facts, and Feminism," in Feminism and Science, ed. Nancy Tuana Indiana University Press, 1989, 119-131.

• Helen Longino and Evelyn Hammonds, “Conflicts and Tensions in the Feminist Study of Gender and Science,” in Conflicts in Feminism edited by Marianne Hirsch & Evelyn Fox Keller, Routledge 1990, 164-183.

• Evelyn Fox Keller, "Making a Difference: Feminist Movement and Feminist Critiques of Science," in Feminism in Twentieth-Century Science, Technology and Medicine, ed. Angela N. Creager, Elizabeth Lunbeck, and Londa Schiebinger (University of Chicago Press, 2001), 98-109.

Scientific Objectivity Reconfigured:

• Sandra Harding, Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What Is Strong Objectivity? In Feminism and Science, Ch. 15.

• Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question In Feminism And The Privilege Of Partial Perspective.” In Feminism and Science, Ch. 16.

• Karen Barad, “Agential Realism: Feminist Interventions In Understanding Scientific Practices,” in The Science Studies Reader, 1-11.

Film Screenings: Donna Haraway: Reads National Geographic

Week 3: Facts and Fictions

Reproductive Facts and Fictions

• Emily Martin, “The Egg And The Sperm: How Science Has Constructed A Romance Based On Stereotypical Male-Female Roles,” in Feminism and Science, Ch 7.

• Charis Thompson Cussins, “Confessions of a Bioterrorist: Subjective Position and Reproductive Technologies,” in E. Ann Kaplan and Susan Squier, eds., Playing Dolly: Technocultural Formations, Fantasies, and Fictions of Assisted Reproduction (Rutgers University Press, 1999), 189-219.

• Steven Mentor, "Witches, Nurses, Midwives, and Cyborgs: IVF, ART, and Complex Agony in the World of Technobirth," in Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots, ed. Robbie Floyd-Davis and Joseph Dumit (New York: Routledge, 1998), 67-89.

The Role Of Language: Analogies, Metaphors, And Ideologies

• Nancy Leys Stepan, "Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science," in Feminism and Science, Ch. 8.

• Evelyn Fox Keller, “Language and Ideology in Evolutionary Theory: Reading Cultural Norms into Natural Law” in Feminism and Science, Ch.10.

• Carol Cohn, "Nuclear Language and How We Learned to Pat the Bomb," in Feminism and Science, Ch. 11.

Film Screenings: Day After Trinity (dir. John Else, 1981).

Week 4: Constructing Bodies and Identities:

Constructing Sex/Gender/Sexuality

• Selections from Anne Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality (Basic Books, 2000).

• Jennifer Terry, "Unnatural Acts in Nature: A Look at the Scientific Fascination with Queer Animal Behavior," GLQ 6:2 (2000): 151-193.

• Donna Haraway, “Animal Sociology and a Natural Economy of the Body Politic, Part II: The Past is a Contested Zone,” in Feminism and Science, Ch. 4.

Technologies of Race:

• Hammonds, Evelyn. 1997. New Technologies Of Race. In Jennifer Terry and Melodie Calvert, eds. Processed Lives: Gender And Technology In Everyday Life. NY: Routledge, 107-122.

• Jenny Reardon. 2004 "Decoding Race and Human Difference in a Genomic Age," differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 15:3.

• Kimberly TallBear, “Native American DNA: Genetic Testing for Ancestry and the Risks to Native American Tribes.” Forthcoming in Science, Technology, and Human Values

Week 5: Practices of Modern Science

• Sharon Traweek, "Cultural Differences in High-Energy Physics: Contrasts between
  Japan and the United States." In The Racial Economy of Science: Toward A Democratic Future. (Indiana University Press, 1993), 398-407.

• Joseph Dumit, “A Digital Image of the Category of the Person: PET Scanning and Objective Self-Fashioning.” In Cyborgs & Citadels: Anthropological Interventions in Emerging Sciences, Technologies and Medicines. Gary Lee Downey & Joseph Dumit. (SAR Press, 1997), 83 –102.

• Annemarie Mol, “Cutting Surgeons, Walking Patients,” in Complexities (Duke University Press, 2002), pp. 218-257.

Sustainable Science?

• Vandana Shiva, "Colonialism and the Evolution of Masculinist Forestry," in The Racial Economy of Science, 303-314.

• Helen Zweifel, "The Gendered Nature of Biodiversity Conservation," in The Gender and Science Reader, ed. Lederman and Bartsch, 289-302.

• Londa Schiebinger, "Creating Sustainable Science," in The Gender and Science Reader, ed. Lederman and Bartsch, 466-482.