#7: Toxicity in Context
Instructed by Dr. Britt Dahlberg at University of Pennsylvania
PREVIOUS: #8: (De)Tangling the Business of Black Women’s Hair
Stories of lands, waters, and lifestyles which have been corrupted by industrialization are all too common. And from what we’ve seen of such crises in places like Flint, Michigan, the government isn’t always able — or willing–– to enact public policy that would protect its constituents from the harmful effects of environmental degradation.
Dr. Britt Dahlberg at UPenn wants to empower citizens who live in high-risk environments by encouraging her students to listen to, and consider, the stories that often go unheard.
#7: Toxicity in Context
School: University of Pennsylvania
Course: Toxicity in Context
Instructor: Dr. Britt Dahlberg
Course Description:
We live amidst a constant stream of messages, practices, and regulations about things, behaviors, or relationships deemed “toxic.” Within environmental health in particular, all sorts of actors grapple with complex decisions about what it means to live with materials and anticipate the ways they can interact with human health and the environment — at present through the distant future. What exactly do we mean when we categorize some substances as toxic, and by extension others as safe? Are there other ways of managing uncertainty or conceptualizing harm? How are these concepts built into broader social structures, economics, and regulations? What other work are they used to do? In this course, we will explore major social science approaches to toxicity and apply these theories to our own analysis of examples from the contemporary United States, and in particular, to a robust oral history collection with residents, developers, and government scientists grappling with these questions just outside of Philadelphia.
This course grows out of scholarship in the history and anthropology of environmental risk, and health, as well as direct ethnographic, historical, and oral history research at a site outside of Philadelphia grappling with the meaning of materials that remain on site after past industrial manufacturing. In this course, students will gain an introduction to oral history and analysis of in-depth interviews, and introduction to key approaches in theorizing toxicity. By connecting life experiences of residents, government scientists and others, at an actual site, with the literatures we read in class, students will think critically about the ways the literatures we engage do and do not fully encompass the experiences and concerns that are intertwined with toxicity for actual people grappling with making sense of uncertain harms amidst urban planning.
Ask the Instructor: Dr. Britt Dalhberg
Why did you elect to offer this course at UPenn this year?
As an Anthropologist, when I conducted ethnographic research about the ways people understand environmental risk, I quickly started to notice the ways scientific methods and assessments, were in fact interwoven with all sorts of social, cultural, economic aspects of life: for instance risk assessment also deeply shapes how people experience their neighborhoods, think about safety, social relationships, or what is possible in the future. I wanted to create more opportunities for undergraduate students to learn not only from existing literature in history of science and anthropology, but to put these literatures in conversation with first-hand accounts in Oral History interviews, and think deeply about how our fields of study can be pushed by engagement with the complexities of real life situations.
Public discussions often treat science as if we can separate it from broader societal issues. But when you look closely, science has a history to it and is actively part of contemporary life. I want to increase opportunities for a broad range of people to participate deeply in science and its social life. At the same time, I think we could use more opportunities for genuine dialogue across fields of study — and among sciences, social sciences, humanities, and publics. I wanted to offer a chance for students to learn about environmental risk, as its navigated in practice by people grappling with unknowns in their town, learn about ways government scientists and residents work together to assess risk, and get an introduction to ways to use primary source research as the basis of forming museum exhibits and framing public dialogues about science.
I have the good fortunate and interesting position of working full time as a Research Director at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, while holding affiliated faculty positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University. At the Science History Institute, a museum in Philadelphia, we have robust archives on the history of science, including a massive oral history collection, conduct ongoing research, and use this as the basis of public dialogues on science in society.
I designed this course to create more opportunities for undergraduate students to use some of these resources together to explore surprising connections between say, environmental risk assessment, and gentrification, and to learn ways to use research to open up public dialogues in forms like exhibit or program design
How do you operate Toxicity as a course?
We have seminars twice a week wherein we discuss readings about key class topics, as well as read interviews with local residents who live in close proximity to risk. There’s a nearby asbestos site — Ambler, PA — and each student completes an oral history interview with a resident of the area. I want students to understand how people living in real, risky situations assess that risk, and how they deal with it moving forward. We take a community-driven approach to our learnings.
Some different topics that we explore are looking at how we know what we know about risk, and examining the practice of assessing risk from a scientific standpoint. We look at how corporations maintain control over information regarding risks — cigarette companies, for example. For years, cigarette companies conducted research not into how risky cigarette use is, but to create doubt and undermine the claim that smoking is a negative behavior.
Is your course aimed solely at students of sociology?
Most of the students are in the Sociology of Science department. Some are PreMed, some are Public Health, and some are History students. This is an interdisciplinary course, aimed at bringing together a number of students from different disciplines.
What do you ultimately hope that your students take away from participating in Toxicity in Context?
I hope they came away from the class with a first-hand experience of some of why science — and how it is done, who is included or excluded — matters deeply for actual peoples’ lives, and that they get excited about the many ways they can contribute to this work. I hope they have both a conceptual as well as more felt experience about the complexities of risk assessment, how it intertwines with ways we think about and build neighborhoods and communities. I hope they’ve gained confidence in their own abilities to think critically, conduct research and analysis, and understand the importance of noticing and paying attention to the observations that don’t fit existing theories — and to follow those clues to new understanding. I hope they see the importance of creating opportunities for people to be genuinely and deeply involved in scientific practices — to participate and be considered in the decisions affecting their lives.
I was excited to hear from my students that exposure to these research projects, and seeing careers in public scholarship, shifted how some students thought of possible future careers. It clarified the direction they want to head in their own lives and work, or gave them some examples with which to be just a little more comfortable with the uncertainty of where they were headed, but have trust in their next steps.
If you could teach a course on any topic at all, what would it be?
This was the kind of course that I longed for during my time in school. So much of its ideation was based on my research itself. I wanted to students to grapple with key concepts surrounding risk and risk assessment, but I also wanted students to hear firsthand about the experiences of the scientists and inhabitants who work within these areas — too often their stories go untold.
I’d love to continue developing courses like this: for me, it’s almost less about the topic, than about the approach. I’m excited to keep building more connections between archives, museums, research, and learning opportunities for students across stages of their studies and careers. My aim is to make spaces of joint inquiry and relationship building: so that people can learn tools for critical analysis, and apply these to their own lives and work, and increase the flow of exchange among people with different first-hand experiences, and different training, to improve how science and medicine are done and applied in our world. This is true in my work as Director at the Center for Applied History at the Science History Institute, in teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, and in teaching and mentoring senior health researchers at Hopkins and through the MMRTP.
I’m excited that one of my colleagues Jessica Martucci, PhD, is currently teaching a course looking at experiences of people with disabilities, building on our institute’s Oral History Project, and her work in our History Lab program, and her students have been visiting the Science History Institute as part of their course. I’m excited to continue to test out linkages between public programs, museums, and universities — in Philadelphia, as well as nationally and internationally.
I envision courses and public programs where we bring different first-hand experiences and materials into the space, to explore them together, and together learn about science in society.
We are also building a digital platform for exploring these questions about science in society, to make our History Lab program more available for both classrooms, and a broad range of people interested in exploring these materials and questions together even if outside of Philadelphia. So stay tuned to our History Lab site for more this year!
