HIST 3635
Science in Popular Culture
Course Description
The goal of this course is to explore and understand the category of “popular science” as a historical phenomenon. A few central questions will guide our course: How do ideas about science and technology appear in our everyday lives? What kind of perceptions do laypeople have about science and scientists? What shapes these perceptions, especially our often-reflexive association of science and technology with “progress”? How are our expectations of the future shaped by perceptions (and often misperceptions) of scientific and technical knowledge? How are racial, gender, and sexual categories (and inequalities) both reinforced and subverted by popular science? What role does modern capitalism play in reinforcing certain ideas as normative and others as ‘deviant’? Finally, what are the meaningful divisions between “science” and “popular science”?
Although the course will draw from contemporary concerns, our discussions will be firmly grounded in historical contexts dating back to the period after the Scientific Revolution. And while we will explore some aspects of popular science on the global stage, we will be limited largely to popular science in the West.
The course will begin with an exploration of a distinct category of ‘popular science’ during the Enlightenment and then move, thematically, through a number of broader historical trends (such as industrialization, war, the rise of modern capitalism, the introduction of nuclear energy, etc.) into the early 21st century. During the semester, we will study a variety of popular scientific forms, such as science fiction, magazines, comics, movies, documentaries, TV shows, graphic novels, and the internet.
A major goal of the course will be to develop students’ reading, research, and writing skills. With those objectives in mind, students will be required to engage in critical analysis of all the assigned readings and master the skill of primary and secondary historical research. By the end of the semester, students will produce a solid research paper structured around a compelling and original historical argument communicated cogently and convincingly
Science in Popular Culture
Course Description
The goal of this course is to explore and understand the category of “popular science” as a historical phenomenon. A few central questions will guide our course: How do ideas about science and technology appear in our everyday lives? What kind of perceptions do laypeople have about science and scientists? What shapes these perceptions, especially our often-reflexive association of science and technology with “progress”? How are our expectations of the future shaped by perceptions (and often misperceptions) of scientific and technical knowledge? How are racial, gender, and sexual categories (and inequalities) both reinforced and subverted by popular science? What role does modern capitalism play in reinforcing certain ideas as normative and others as ‘deviant’? Finally, what are the meaningful divisions between “science” and “popular science”?
Although the course will draw from contemporary concerns, our discussions will be firmly grounded in historical contexts dating back to the period after the Scientific Revolution. And while we will explore some aspects of popular science on the global stage, we will be limited largely to popular science in the West.
The course will begin with an exploration of a distinct category of ‘popular science’ during the Enlightenment and then move, thematically, through a number of broader historical trends (such as industrialization, war, the rise of modern capitalism, the introduction of nuclear energy, etc.) into the early 21st century. During the semester, we will study a variety of popular scientific forms, such as science fiction, magazines, comics, movies, documentaries, TV shows, graphic novels, and the internet.
A major goal of the course will be to develop students’ reading, research, and writing skills. With those objectives in mind, students will be required to engage in critical analysis of all the assigned readings and master the skill of primary and secondary historical research. By the end of the semester, students will produce a solid research paper structured around a compelling and original historical argument communicated cogently and convincingly