Texts and Materials
Course reader (xerox packet) in installments from PT. Get a three ring binder
to hold the packet and other xeroxed handouts.
On reserve in Healey library:
Folders of additional readings
Binder of newspaper clippings
Binder of previous students' assignments
Additional information about classes, assignments, and other tasks will be
provided in regular handouts (which will also be posted on the course
website).
You need a workbook/journal to carry with you at all times and an organized
system to store loose research materials (e.g., a 3 ring workbinder with
dividers and pockets, an accordion file, or file folders).
Additional cases and lesson plans (part of a text in development) will be
linked to the course website.
Recommended texts:
- as a guide to writing and revising: Elbow, P. (1981). Writing with
Power. New York: Oxford Univ. Press (also on reserve).
- as a guide on technical matters of scholarly writing: Turabian, K. L. (1996).
A Manual For Writers of Term papers, Theses, and Disertations. Chicago:
Univ. of Chicago Press (also in library's reference section).
Schedule Of Classes
Class 1 (2/1)
Frame-setting
Introduction to key terms, Angles of Illumination (a.k.a. Critical
Heuristic) and Intersecting Processes, and to the tension between them.
Activities: Cause(s) of flu; Autobiographical Intersecting Processes; Critical
Incident Questionnaire
Additional readings (after class): Taylor, "Building on construction."
Class 2 (2/8)
A. The course as a teaching/learning community
Activities: Establishing base support group processes/procedures;
Freewriting & sharing on possible individual projects
Additional readings (after class): Elbow, Writing with Power, chapters
2, 3, 13
B. Language I: Biological stories and their structure
Case: How did we get here?--Origin stories
Martin, "The egg and the sperm: How science has constructed a romance."
Lewin, "The storytellers."
Activity: Plot the structure of Genesis, chapter 1, or Hrdy, "An Initial
Inequality."
Additional readings (on reserve): Landau, "Human Evolution as Narrative."
Beldecos, et al. "The importance of feminist critique for contemporary cell
biology."
Fausto-Sterling, "Society writes biology"
2/15 No class (Presidents' Day)
Class 3 (2/22)
Language II: Categories destabilized by scientific developments
Case: What is a mother?
Pollitt, Katha. "When is a mother not a mother?"
Activities: Reports on gender bias in biology texts; Unstable language in
newspaper clippings
Additional reading (on reserve): Yoxen, E. "Unnatural selection/Gene
Therapy."
Class 4 (3/1)
Language III: Changes in meanings of key words in relation to changes in
society
Case: What is nature/natural?--Changes in meanings of "nature" in
relation to changes in society.
Williams, R. (1976). "Nature."
Activities: interpretation of biological similies for society in newspaper
clippings; interpretation of slides of images of society and nature in the West
since the middle ages; interpretation of Gary Larson "far side" cartoons
Additional reading (on reserve): Williams, "Ideas of Nature."
Worster, D., Nature's Economy, chapters 1 & 2.
Berger, "Why Look at Animals?"
Class 5 (3/8)
Multiple layers of a scientific theory (argument, analogy, metaphor, and
defences)
Case: How did Darwin try to convince people of Natural selection as the
mechanism of evolution? --
Darwin, On the Origin of Species, Introduction & Chaps. 1, 3, part
of 4.
Activity: Close reading and reconstruction of Darwin's exposition of his
theory of natural selection.
Additional reading (on reserve): Lakoff and Johnson. "Concepts We Live By."
*A* Asmt due: Thesis question and paragraph description of proposed
project
3/15 No class (Spring break)
Class 6 (3/22)
Styles of causal explanation & their relation to ideas about social
action
Case: What causes a disease?--the consequences of hereditarianism in
the case of pellagra
Chase, "False Correlations = Real Deaths."
Activities: Interpreting parent-offspring height patterns.
Additional reading (after class; on reserve): Harkness, "Vivisectors and
vivshooters."
Class 7 (3/29)
Causes & social action II: Metaphors of control and co-ordination
Case: How are characters produced (Transmission vs. development) and
development organized?
Activities: Game of development.
Gilbert, "Cellular Politics."
Additional readings (on reserve): Sapp, "The Struggle for Authority in the
Field of Heredity."
Fausto-Sterling, "Life in the XY Corral", 319-326.
To fill in your biology re: development & embryology -- Gilbert, "An
introduction to animal development."
To fill in your biology re: Mendelian genetics -- Luria, et al. "The Rules of
Heredity."
After class reading: Goodwin, How the Leopard Changed Its Spots,
vii-xiii,18-41,77-114,169-181, 238-243.
Class 8 (4/5)
Causes & social action III: Determinist vs. constructionist explanations
of intelligence
Case: To whom is this plausible that genes could determine characters
like intelligence?
Lewontin, R. "Mental Traits."
Activities: Construction exercise
Additional readings (on reserve): Winn, "New views of human intelligence."
Lewontin, "Race and Intelligence."
Horgan, "Eugenics revisited."
*A* Asmt due: Annotated bibliography of reading completed or planned
for your project.
Class 9 (4/12)
Causes & social action IV: selectionist vs. constructionist explanations
of evolutionary/ historical processes
Case: Social messages using natural selection
Taylor, "Natural Selection: A heavy hand."
Activities: Analysis of textbook natural selection; Interpretation of video
clip(s).
Additional reading (on reserve): Moore, "Socializing Darwinism."
4/19 No class (Patriots' Day)
*A* Asmt due by mail to 41 Cornell St, Arlington, MA 02474: Narrative
Outline of Project Report
Class 10 (4/26)
Work-in-progress Presentations on Student Projects
Class 11 (5/3)
Scientists working within a field of economics, politics & moral
responsibility
Case: The breeding of hybrid corn
Lewontin, "Agricultural Research & the Penetration of Capital."
Activity: Publicly funded research and private gains
Additional readings (on reserve): Paul and Kimmelman, "Mendel In America."
Lappe and Collins. "The Green Revolution Is the Answer."
*A* Asmt due: Complete Draft of Project Report
Class 12 (5/10)
The "directed autonomy" of science with respect to social influences
Case: The rise of biotechnology
Activity: Diagramming intersecting processes
Yoxen, "The Life Industry."
Additional reading (on reserve): Rowling, "Introduction."
Class 13 (5/17)
Taking Stock of Course: Where have we come and where do we go from
here?
(Historical Scan and other activities)
*A* Asmt due: Final version of Design Project
*A* Optional asmt due: Portfolio
Bibliography
Beldecos, A., et al. (1989). "The importance of feminist critique for
contemporary cell biology." Feminism and science. ed. N. Tuana.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 172-187.
Berger, J. (1980). "Why Look at Animals?," in About Looking. New York:
Pantheon Books, 1-26.
Chase, A. (1977). "False Correlations = Real Deaths," in The Legacy of
Malthus. NY: Knopf, 201-225.
Darwin, C. 1859 [1964]). Introduction & Chapters 1, 3, part of 4. In On
the Origin of Species. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1-43,60-96.
Elbow, P. (1981). Writing with Power. New York: Oxford University Press,
chapters 2, 3, 13
Fausto-Sterling, A. (1987). "Society writes biology/ biology constructs
gender." Daedalus 116(4): 61-76.
Fausto-Sterling, A. (1989). "Life in the XY Corral." Women's Studies Int.
Forum 12: 319-326 only.
Gilbert, S. F. (1988). "Cellular Politics." In The American Development of
Biology, ed. R. Rainger, K. Benson, and J. Maienschein. Philadelphia, PA:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 311-345.
Gilbert, S. F. (1995) "An introduction to animal development." in
Developmental Biology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, 1-34
Goodwin, B. (1994). How the Leopard Changed Its Spots. New York,
Charles Scribner's Sons, vii-xiii,18-41,77-114,169-181,238-243.
Harkness, J. M. (1994). "Vivisectors and vivshooters: Experimentation on
American prisoners in the early decades of the twentieth century," ms.
Horgan, J. (1993). "Eugenics revisited," Scientific American (June): 122-128,
130-131.
Hrdy, S. B. (1981). "An Initial Inequality," in The Woman That Never
Evolved. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 20-23.
Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson. (1980). "Concepts We Live By." In Metaphors we
live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 3-6, 87-105, &
156-158.
Landau, Misia. (1984). "Human Evolution as Narrative." American
Scientist 72 (May-June): 262-268.
Lappe, F. M. and J. Collins. (1986). "The Green Revolution Is the Answer." In
World Hunger Twelve Myths. New York, NY: Grove Press, Inc., 48-66 .
Lewin, R. (1987). "The storytellers," in Bones of contention: Controversies
in the search for human origins. New York, Simon & Schuster, 30-46
Lewontin, R. (1976). "Race and Intelligence (and Jensen's reply, and
Lewontin's reply to that)." In The IQ Controversy: Critical Readings,
ed. N. J. Block and A. Dworkin. NY: Pantheon, 78-112.
Lewontin, R. (1982)."Mental Traits." In Human Diversity. New York:
Freeman Press, 88-103.
Lewontin, R. (1982). "Agricultural Research & the Penetration of Capital."
Science for the People (January/February): 12-17.
Luria, S, S. Gould, and S. Singer. (1981). "The Rules of Heredity." In A
View of Life. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin Cummings, 219-245.
Martin, E. (1991). "The egg and the sperm: How science has constructed a
romance based on stereotypical male-female roles," Signs 16(3):
485-501.
Moore, J. (1986). "Socializing Darwinism: Historiography and the Fortunes of a
Phrase," in L. Levidow (Ed.), Science as Politics. London, Free
Association Books, 39-80.
Paul, D. B. and B. A. Kimmelman (1988). "Mendel In America: Theory &
Practice, 1900-1919," in R. Rainger, K. Benson and J. Maienschein (Eds.),
The American Development of Biology. Philadelphia, PA: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 281-310.
Pollitt, Katha. (1990). "When is a mother not a mother?" The Nation,
31 Dec., 840-6.
Rowling, N. (1987). "Introduction," in Commodities: How the world was taken
to market. London: Free Association Books, 7-21.
Sapp, J. (1983). "The Struggle for Authority in the Field of Heredity."
Journal of the History of Biology 16 (3): 311-318, 327-342.
Taylor, P. J. (1995). "Building on construction: An exploration of
heterogeneous constructionism, using an analogy from psychology and a sketch
from socio-economic modeling." Perspectives on Science 3(1): 66-98.
Taylor, P. J. (1998). "Natural Selection: A heavy hand in biological and social
thought." Science as Culture 7(1): 5-32.
Williams, R. (1976). "Nature," in Keywords. NY: Oxford University
Press, 184-189.
Williams, R. (1980). "Ideas of Nature." In Problems of Materialism and
Culture. London: Verso, 67-85.
Winn, M. (1990). New views of human intelligence. New York Times Magazine, Part
2. 16-17, 28-29.
Worster, D. (1985). Nature's Economy, Cambridge U. P., chapters 1 &
2.
Yoxen, E. (1984, c. 1983). "The Life Industry," in The Gene Business, Who
should control biotechnology? New York : Harper & Row, 1-56.
Yoxen, E. (1986). "Unnatural selection/Gene Therapy." In Unnatural
Selection? London: Heinemann, 1-17.
Updated 3 Feb. '99