ANTH 374 Description (UIUC, Spr 2018)
ANTH 374 Anthropology of Science and Technology
CLASS TIME: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00 to 3:20 PM
CLASS LOCATION: 137 ARMORY
Instructor: Paul Michael (Mike) Leonardo Atienza
Email: atienza2@illinois.edu
Office Hour: Mondays 12:00–1:00 PM
Asian American Studies Student Lounge, 1208 W. Nevada Street
Course Description: This course offers an introduction to the anthropological study of science and technology. What are the social and cultural contexts of science and technology, and how do specific kinds of techno-scientific knowledges and objects contribute to how humans organize social worlds, specialized languages, and relations of power? From global climate change to the reanimation of race through genomics, from political movements galvanized through new media, to efforts to improve access to medicines for the world’s poor, the pressing problems of the planetary present are simultaneously scientific and social, technological and political, ethical and economic.
Though this course centers on anthropology, we will also cover work from STS (Science and Technology Studies), which grew from an expanded interest in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science and technology. Not merely a study of how things work or how things are designed, STS scholars are invested in a precise, empirical, and multi-level analysis of processes that often determine how power, influence, and expertise contribute to the narrative of science as an objective and legitimate form of knowledge or as Sharon Traweek put it, to have a “culture of no culture.”
The goal of this course is to enable students to understand and appreciate science and technology from an anthropological perspective. This includes a foundational grounding in ethnographic ideas, methods, and writing. This course will attempt to “defamiliarize” science and technology by providing the tools and ideas to enable students to step out of their pre-conceived ideas and attitudes that render the familiar terrains of science as “strange” and “foreign.”
