Rhetoric 198: Science, Technology, and Society Reading Group
An interdisciplinary glance at cybernetics, feminism, sex, ecology, biology, climate scientists, nature, culture, reason, humanness, the technosphere, and digital humanities in the Anthropocene and a glance back to the foundations of Enlightenment reason, logic, and science.
solennebideau@berkeley.edu &
The application for this course can be found through this link: https://forms.gle/tVxkXE8Qrxa65xmR9. Submit your application no later than the third week of the semester. If you would like to learn more about this course, but are hesitant to apply, still attend the first meeting on Wednesday, September 4th. To be entered into the bCourses site you are required to submit an application. Enrollment will be limited.
This course will take place as a discussion and group learning seminar each week. Readings completed in advance will touch on various topics typically contained within the academic field of Science, Technology, and Society (STS). As an STS reading
group, this course will look at various ways social scientists and other scholars link scientific and technological development with social developments such as culture, public policy, ethics, and more. Topics for our readings will include cybernetics, feminism, sex, ecology, biology, climate science, nature, culture, reason, humanness, the technosphere, digital humanities, the Anthropocene, and more.
Group learning is the foundation of our course, meaning that most learning will take place through discussions in seminars and the sharing of notes, readings, and other impressions. While there are no courses required as a prerequisite for enrollment, participants are expected to have experience engaging in seminar settings and in courses heavy in reading.
We aim for this course to function as an introduction to the field of STS through interdisciplinary texts situated in various contexts, epistemological backgrounds, and periods. You will finish the course with a more robust understanding of science and technology as a field of study viewed from the social sciences. The seminar discussion setting is also aimed at creating a contribution-based learning environment that is both participant-led and interdisciplinary.
Attendance Attendance at seminar each week is required. We will meet only once each week and exploring course materials together is the foundation of our course.
Expectations The method of instruction for this course will be discussion and collaborative learning. There will be no lectures, meaning that each participant should expect to contribute to the course in seminar discussions, and in creative notes and the final project.
Assignments Beyond reading, this course consists of two assignments.
Keep documentation of your impressions while reading. While this can take absolutely any form (notes, journals, sketches, or notation in any other form), we ask that you engage critically and creatively throughout this course. You are encouraged to bring insights and impressions from previous learning or outside material to contribute to
meetings each week. Plan to budget upwards of one hour each week for thinking, creatively engaging, and documenting your encounters with course topics and assigned texts.
Contribution to a final project.
The last week (or potentially the last two weeks of the course) will be devoted to creating a group piece together. This may take the form of a blogpost, concept map, or written contributions in another form. Prepare yourself throughout the semester to engage in the creation of group work. Please plan to devote around 1.5 hours each week of research and study throughout the semester to prepare for the final project.
Reading We anticipate upwards of 30 pages of reading each week. The material we interact with is not only dense, but engaged in various contexts and academic conversations. Attentive reading is expected for informed and engaged group discussions.
Digital versions (or scans) of all assigned readings will be available as PDFs on bCourses. Many of these texts will be scanned from physical copies. If you would like editable PDFs, plan ahead to find links through the UCB library or other digital libraries. If you would like to recommend additional reading to the course, please upload a link or PDF to our bCourses site.
Also note that reading materials are subject to change as the semester progresses depending on the development of our discussions. Should the group want to focus on a particular subject or stay longer with certain material, the reading list and syllabus will adapt.
Grading This course will be graded Pass/No Pass. Your completion grade for this course will be based on your contribution to group learning. This will be equally influenced by your presence at seminar each week, creative use of reading materials and notes, and a contribution to the final project. Note that your grade for the final project will reflect your preparation for the project throughout the semester. Expectations for completion of the course will be further clarified through a group decision in the first week of seminar.
This is a 3 unit class with an estimated contribution of 140 hours throughout the semester. If you anticipate this being an issue for you, or would like to consider a 2 unit enrollment with an expected contribution of ~100 hours, please contact Solenne and Ashlyn before enrolling.
Prerequisites While there is not a list of required classes you must take to enroll in this course, you will be most prepared if you have taken upper division reading and writing intensive courses. This class is not limited to Rhetoric Majors, …… (say more here?)
Arendt, Prologue to “The Human Condition”
Lorraine Datson, Objectivity (selected pages)
Adorno and Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment
Option A: “The Concept of Enlightenment” (pages 1-32)
Option B: “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (pages 94-136)
Simon Schaffer and Steven Shapin, Leviathan and the Air Pump
Excerpt TBD
Melissa Bailes, Regenerating Romanticism, Botany, Sensibility, and Originality in British Literature
“Introduction: Revealing the Straw Man, or The Historical Hoodwinking of Romanticism”
Janet Browne, I Could Have Retched All Night: Charles Darwin and His Body
Michel Foucault, The Order of Things
Excerpt TBD
Optional reading: Foucault, The History of Sexuality
“Scientia Sexualis”
Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France
Excerpt TBD
Bruno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern
Excerpt TBD
Axelle Karera, "Blackness and the Pitfalls of Anthropocene Ethics"
Vicki Kirby, Quantum Anthropologies
“Natural Convers(at)ions: Or, What if Culture Was Really Nature All Along?” Duke University Press
Selected articles from the Anthropocene Curriculum
There are no assigned readings scheduled for Week 7. Reading may be contributions from participants in the course, or it may serve as a catch-up week for any missed reading.
Bernard Stiegler, “The New Conflict of the Facultiesand Functions: Quasi-Causality and Serendipity in the Anthropocene”
Kristin Luker, Taking Chances: Abortion and the Decision Not to Contracept
“The Politics of Pregnancy: The Social and Cultural Context of Contraceptive Risk-Taking”
Michel Focault, The History of Sexuality
Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene
Introduction (pages 1-8)
Donna Haraway, "Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin"
Donna Haraway, “The Cyborg Manifesto”
READINGS TBD
None
September 4 Week 1
September 11 Week 2
September 18 Week 3
September 25 Week 4
October 2 Week 5
October 9 Week 6
October 16 Week 7
October 23 Week 8
October 30 Week 9
November 6 Week 10
November 13 Week 11
November 20 Week 12
December 4 Week 13
Participation 33%
Material Contributions. 33%
Final Project… 33%
UC Berkeley is committed to creating a learning environment that meets the needs of its diverse student body including students with disabilities. If you anticipate or experience any barriers to learning in this course, please feel welcome to discuss your concerns with the instructors.
If you have a disability, or think you may have a disability, you can work with the Disabled Students’ Program (DSP) to request an official accommodation. The Disabled Students’ Program (DSP) is the campus office responsible for authorizing
disability-related academic accommodations, in cooperation with the students themselves and their instructors. You can find more information about DSP, including contact information and the application process here. If you have already been approved for accommodations through DSP or are working through the process, please schedule a meeting with course staff so we can develop an implementation plan.