Gender in the History of Science/Medicine/Technology.

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the literature on gender in the history of science, technology, and medicine. Students learn how to use gender to analyze scientific practice and examine how it intersects with other historical categories such as race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and nationality. The course explores five interrelated topics: (1) The historical participation of women and men in scientific work, (2) the scientific and historical construction of sex and sexuality, (3) the influence of ideologies of gender on the methodology of science, medicine, and engineering, (4) the gendering of technologies and artifacts, (5) the relation between ideas of gender, science, and politics. Based on their increased historical understanding, students reflect upon their own gendered experiences and expectations in encountering science as students, as laboratory workers, patients, and consumers. This course is open to both science and non-science majors. ( DVSY , ETHC , GE3C , GEND , GESO )