Feminist/Intersectional Science and Technology Studies
Minor/Concentration in Feminist/Intersectional Science and Technology Studies (F/ISTS)
The Consortium for Critical Interdisciplinary Studies (CCIS) announces a new interdisciplinary minor and concentration in Feminist/Intersectional Science and Technology Studies (F/ISTS). Science and Technology Studies (STS) is a capacious and inherently interdisciplinary academic field that investigates the intimate entanglements between the technical and social dimensions of science, technology, and medicine. Understanding this interplay is central to addressing many of the most pressing problems of our times, such as struggles around vaccination, climate justice and environmental racism, health disparities, digital surveillance, and the growing mistrust in “science” as a domain of authority. F/ISTS is a focused approach to Science and Technology Studies (STS) that homes in on the reciprocal relations between techno-scientific knowledge and practices, on the one hand, and gender, race, class, and other intersecting axes of power, on the other.
Learning Outcomes-- Students who successfully complete this minor or concentration will be able to:
- Examine the role of cultural, ethical, social, political and economic factors in determining the norms, values and meanings of scientific, technological and medical practices.
- Understand the ways in which the production and applications of science, technology and medicine shape and are shaped by knowledge and beliefs about gender, race, class, and sexuality.
- Situate techno-scientific and biomedical discourses within local, national, and transnational contexts.
- Situate their own relations to science, medicine, and technology within structures of power and cultural-historical forces.
- Contribute to feminist, historical, and decolonial accounts of contemporary biomedicine and techno-science.
- Craft and evaluate efforts to create more socially just, equitable and inclusive science, technology, and medicine in a diverse and globalized world.
Structure and Requirements
The concentration or minor in F/ISTS consists of five required courses:
- One introductory course;
- One intermediate level methods course;
- Three electives, at least one of which must be an advanced seminar
- A sixth, optional course will be a one-credit capstone
Electives
F/ISTS electives are courses that a) involve critical interrogation of the natural, social, medical, or data sciences; and b) examine the implications of scientific/technical knowledge or practices in terms of major axes of social hierarchy such as sex/gender, ethnicity, race, class, nation, religion, sexuality, disability, and age. At least two of the three electives must meet both of these criteria (Group 1, below). In addition, one elective (but not more than one) can be a more “general” science and technology studies course that involves the first criterion only (critical interrogation of the natural, social, medical, or data sciences; Group 2, below).
Note that “critical interrogation” means that the grounds of knowledge production and/or scientific authority are critically examined, including underlying philosophical assumptions, epistemological frames, methodologies, institutional structures, or funding and dissemination of research, especially the entanglements of these with the formation, maintenance, and/or disruption of social hierarchies. Courses in traditional disciplines (especially history, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy) with explicit STS approaches will generally be accepted. Courses that are primarily intended to teach students a scientific or technical approach or review current literature in a given thematic area of science, medicine, or technology do NOT meet the criteria for FISTS electives.
F/ISTS Requirements for Minor and Concentration
- Introductory course
- Practicing Intersectionality OR Intro to Women & Health
- Methods course
- Knowledge, Practice, Power (formerly “Feminist Inquiry: Epistemologies & Methods)
- Three electives, at least one at an advanced level
- Two electives from Group 1 (F/ISTS courses)
- One elective from either Group 1 (F/ISTS courses) or Group 2 (other STS courses).
- Mini-course*
* An optional 1-credit mini-course, convened each spring for F/ISTS juniors and seniors, allowing F/ISTS students to co-organize a public event on a F/ISTS theme. The capstone/academic portion of this will include: reading works by the speaker in advance, preparing questions in advance and collectively prioritizing them. During the public event, students will serve as interlocutors, and will attend a workshop or seminar discussion with the speaker before or after the public portion of their visit. After the event, students will write a brief essay integrating the contents of the speaker's presentation with their own work, identifying questions for further development, or challenging the speaker's contributions.
List of pre-approved F/ISTS electives
Group 1 (choose either 2 or 3 from this list)
Anthropology, BC3223, Gender Archaeolxgy
Anthropology, UN3702 Black/Life/Science
Anthropology, UN 3988 Race/Sexuality in Science and Social Practice
Anthropology, UN3160 The Body and Society
Anthropology, UN3811 TOXIC
CSER, UN3942 Race and Racisms
Comparative Literature & Society, GU4325 Abolition Medicine
EEEB, GU4700 Race: The Tangled History of a Biological Concept
EEEB GU4321 Human Nature: DNA, Race & Identity
HIST UN2972 Unsettling Science
History, BC3666 Origin Stories: Race, Genealogy, and Citizenship History, UN2950 Social History of U.S. Public Health
History, BC3301 Science and Fascism
History, BC2321 Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Culture of Empire
Sociology, BC3750 How Race Gets Under Our Skin
Sociology, BC3933 Sociology of the Body
Sociology, UN3246 Medical Sociology
Sociology, BC3946 Global Health, Politics, and Society
WGSS, BC2950 Science, Technology, Power
WGSS, WMST BC1050 Women and Health
WGSS, WMST BC3131 Women and Science
WGSS, WMST BC3513 Critical Animal Studies
WGSS, WMST W4304 Gender and HIV/AIDS
WGSS, WMST W4308 Sexualities & Science
WGSS, WMST W4311 Feminism & Science Studies
WGSS, WMST GU4210 BLACK GEOGRAPHIES
WGSS, GU4317 Bodily Disruptions: Politics, Precarity, and the Governance of Disease
WGSS, WMST GU4325 Embodiment and Bodily Difference
Group 2 (selected examples; choose up to 1 from this list)
AMEC, UN 3844 Health and Society in Contemporary East Asia
Anthropology, UN 3966 Culture and Mental Health
Anthropology, UN 3976 Anthropology and Science
Anthropology, UN 3826 Brain Science: A Social History
Anthropology, UN 3829 Absent Bodies
Anthropology, UN 3879 The Medical Imaginary
Comparative Literature & Society, UN3231 Rhetoric of Science
English, BC 3215 Victorian Science & Science Fiction
English, C3170 Literature & Science, 16001800
History, UN2978 Science and Pseudoscience
History, UN2112 Scientific Revolutions of Western Europe
History, BC2366 Climate & History: Intersecting Science Environment & Society
History, BC3064 Medieval Science and Society History, BC3177 Scarcity: Economy and Nature
Neuroscience and Behavior, NSBV BC3387 Topics in Neuroethics
Philosophy, UN3551 Philosophy of Science
Philosophy, UN3864 Philosophy, Science, and Politics of Learning Philosophy, UN3576 Physics and Philosophy
SCPP, BC3334 Science, State Power & Ethics
SCPP, BC3336 Genetics and Society Sociology, GU4130 Sociology of Expertise