Fall 2022 offering of STS 301–Science and Civilization taught by Jake Clayton (MW 3:00-4:15 pm):
STS 301: Science and Civilization
STS 301 is a critical examination of the relationship between science and some of the most enduring questions in philosophical thought. By undertaking an interdisciplinary study of science as a particular, historically-situated form of knowledge-making, we will explore the ways that science shapes and is shaped by the values of the cultures that practice it. Specifically, we will examine the ways that concepts of the self, the individual’s relationship to the state, and the cultural Other developed alongside scientific practice. Because of this focus, I anticipate that this course will be of particular interest to students curious about the following: shifting definitions of humanity and posthumanism, colonialism and postcolonial theory, human-animal relations, biopolitical power, and life at the end of the anthropocene.