Topics in the History of Science

Repeat Comments: May be repeated for credit.

 

Intensive study of specific problems in the history of science. Topics vary from year to year, and students may therefore repeat the course for credit.

 

Winter 21: Reimagining the Global History of Science
The field of history of science has long been conceived as a western history that begins with
Europe and culminates in the United States. This course neither begins with Europe nor
culminates with the United States. Our aim is to construct a more geopolitically informed history of
science of use in the changing circumstances of the twenty-first century by connecting the histories of science broadly conceived since pre-modern time with the contemporary world through
historical scholarship and non-scholarly sources such as journalistic reportage. We will examine
how questions concerning science and technology get framed differently in different societies. At
the same time, we recognize that the course takes place in California and in English, that is to
say, that we have a local orientation and perspective as we study world history in translation. We
will examine how scholars conceived of the ways to move away from the Eurocentric roots of
the discipline and consider the historiographic growth in these areas as well as the theoretical and
methodological challenges that accompany this work. Spanning a range of disciplines, topics,
geographies, and time periods, we will explore polemics of modernity, progress and temporality;
geographical, cultural and racial identity; and imperialism, cosmopolitanism and nationalism.