IDST 330 Diverse Perspectives in Science, Technology, and Health Studies

What counts as scientific knowledge, and how do we decide? Who participates in scientific knowledge production, technological development, and health-related caregiving and innovation, and to whom do we give credit? How have science and medicine been a source of social power and authority? Is technology political? How have our historical, social, and cultural contexts shaped what we research, what we build, and how we provide care? This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of science, technology, and health studies (STHS). STHS integrates knowledge and ways of knowing from across many academic and non-academic disciplines into a more comprehensive understanding of the contexts in which science, technology, and medicine have been created, the ethics of these practices, and their impacts on the wider world. In this class, students will learn key concepts and themes from science, technology, and health studies. We will investigate how historical, social, and cultural contexts shape our understandings of and approaches to major problems such as: the reciprocal relationship between humans and the environment, causes of and approaches to inequities in health care access, and ethics and consequences of technological change.