UCD Catalog STS Course Descriptions

Winter 08 STS Course Schedule at Registrar

STS CourseGrid

STS Courses for Winter 08

STS Courses for Spring 08

STS for Fall 08
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STS 20: Methods (Choy)
STS/ANT 32: Drugs, Science & Culture (Dumit)
PHI 38: Introduction to Philosophy of Biology (Millstein)
PHI 115: Problems in Normative Ethics (Millstein)
STS 198 War, Power & Technology (Kaplan)
ANT 139BN: Gender & Sexuality (Choy)

(NEW COURSE!) STS 198/WMS 198  Fall  2008
War, Power, and Technology
T/R 9:00-11:00 am
Instructor: Caren Kaplan

The relationship between war and technology is an unsettled one. Yet, it is difficult to understand the workings of power in the modern period without investigating closely the ways in which technology has shaped and influenced the theory and practice of war. In this course we will consider the emergence of the modern nation state and its militaries in relation to science and technology; particularly in and around the subjects of gender, race, class, and sexuality.

In Fall 2008 the course will include a focus on the visual culture of war and technologies linked to photography and cartography in the rise of air power and contemporary militarism.

To help your future planning here are selected courses from 08-09:


STS 20: Methods in Science & Technology Studies
3:10-4:30 TR
Instructor: T. Choy

Do you wonder about environmental problems, the ethical implications of genomics, the relationship between friendship and messaging, what makes a garden beautiful, the wonders of insects, the accuracy of DNA tests in courtrooms, what brain scans tell us about ourselves, or any other relationship between humans and nature or humans and machines. If so, then you've taken that first step in thinking critically about the technoscientific worlds we live in.

This course offers a theoretical and practical introduction to the methods anthropologists, philosophers, sociologists, and historians use to analyze the past, present, and future worlds of technoscience. There are countless ways to do this --literary and visual representations, analysis of scientific rhetoric, anthropological immersion, philosophical scrutiny, sociological analysis, and more. We can't do all of them every quarter, but this class will give you a wide sampling. Each week, we'll take on a different method, both theoretically and practically, and we'll explore what that method helps us to learn. Readings, whether conceptual or exemplary of a certain technique, will be challenging, but we'll work through them collaboratively. In addition to reading, students will have weekly assignments that help put the week's methods into practice. Class sessions will be discussion based, centering both on the readings and what students learn from doing the practica, and students will have opportunities to bring their own expertises and technocultures into the process. By the end of the term, we'll have a collective quiver full of tools for thinking critically about and analyzing science and technology, an ability to think recognize the benefits and limits of different techniques, and a greater understanding of some the implications of living in a scientifically and technologically mediated world.

Drugs, Science and Culture, STS.032/ANT.032
Prof. Dumit,
4 units, Fall 2007, TR 12:10-1:30p

Drugs, Science & Culture looks at the competing and contradictory situations of drugs in the US and
globally. Legal, Illegal, and Pharmaceutical drugs are examined for how they are studied scientifically,
how they are culturally consumed, and how society celebrates, denigrates and regulates them. The
production, travel and advertising of facts as well as substances is considered. Anthropology helps us
understand how drugs are part of the social fabric of daily life; Science & Technology Studies helps us
see how society and everyday cultural assumptions built into the very research and production of the
drugs. Together they help us make sense of the roles of science, government and the media in shifting
attitudes toward alcohol, marijuana, Prozac and other pharmaceuticals; drug laws, war on drugs and the
global trade in sugar, cocaine, and ecstasy. (dumit@ucdavis.edu)

PHILOSOPHY 38  INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY
Roberta Millstein
MWF 1:10 - 2 PM

This course investigates philosophical critiques and analyses of the concepts and methods biologists use in research and explanation of their work to the public. It challenges students to evaluate controversial biological issues in social, cultural and political context. Issues to be discussed may include: the debate over creationism and intelligent design, whether evolutionary history was the product of chance or whether certain aspects were inevitable, whether Darwin’s theory of sexual selection is false and ought to be replaced, the accusation that many evolutionary explanations are “adaptationist,” why primarily genetic explanations of human behavior have been labelled as deterministic and reductionistic. 

REQUIREMENTS: Class participation and in-class group projects, reading reflections, short written assignments, final exam.    PREREQUISITES: None. G.E. CREDIT:  Arts and Humanities, Writing Experience.


Anthro 139B: Gender and Sexuality - The Technopolitics of "Sex"
(will count as STS course)
1:40-3pm TR
Instructor: T. Choy

This course explores the cultural and technoscientific politics of gender and sexuality. Drawing methodologically from cultural anthropology, science studies, and feminist theory, we'll explore some of the specific ways in which gender ideologies and sexual normativities have come to be built into scientific and governmental projects, as well as the ways that emergent technologies and (social) scientific knowledges refigure the significance and political implications of gender and sexual difference. Topics may include: new reproductive technologies, the search for a "gay gene," intersex movements, research on male and female intelligence, sexual reassignment surgeries, the globalization of sex education, challenges to universal theories of gender.


PHILOSOPHY 115 Problems in Normative Ethics
Roberta Millstein
MWF 10:00-10:50 AM

Many people are concerned about a variety of environmental issues, from pollution to global warming to the extinction of species.  They say that we “should” do something about those issues.  But what ethical assumptions underlie that “should”?  Is it a concern for human well-being?  For animals?  For all life?  Or, even more broadly, for ecosystems?  In other words, which things count morally?  The answers matter not only because we need to justify our actions, but because different answers may imply different courses of action.  In this class, we will explore the various answers that can and have been given to this question, and see how well these answers hold up when applied to contemporary environmental case studies.   TEXTS: Case Studies in Environmental Ethics, Patrick G. Derr and Edward M. McNamara.  REQUIREMENTS: Class participation and in-class group projects, reading reflections, short written assignments, final exam.  PREREQUISITE: One previous course in philosophy.  G.E. CREDIT:  Arts and Humanities, Writing


Winter 09
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STS 1: Introduction to STS (Carroll)
STS/ANT 109: Scientific Visualization (Dumit)
STS/ENG 164: Writing Science (Milburn)

Spring 09
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STS 175: Lab Studies Lab (Choy)
STS 180: Special Topics, Science & Power (Carroll)
STS 131: Darwin (Griesemer)