Introduction to recent literature in the history of science, medicine, and technology, to historiographic issues, and to methods used in historical research and
writing. The course will provide participants with an overview of both the history and the current state of the field, with particular attention paid to the research
and expository methods employed in historical scholarship.
1. Lively and informed participation in all conference sessions.
2. A short (4-5 page) essay-review of one of the texts read for the course. Essay-review due 16 Oct (Friday) 5:00 pm. Dropoff box located outside door to WLH 315. For good examples of the "essay-review" genre, look at recent issues of ISIS (a major journal in History of Science).
Research prospectus of one page, due 27 Oct (Tuesday) in class.
Primary source analysis of one page, due 3 Nov (Tuesday) in class.
3. A substantial term paper (15-20 pages) on a topic agreed upon with the instructor). Paper due 7 Dec (Monday) 5:00 pm. Dropoff box located outside door to WLH 315.
Readings will include the following books (available at Labyrinth):
Methods:
Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd edition, University of Chicago Press; (1996)
Ian Hacking: Representing and Intervening. Cambridge University Press (1983)
Literature:
Steven Shapin: The Scientific Revolution. University of Chicago Press (1998)
F.L. Holmes: Meselson, Stahl, and the Replication of DNA: A History of 'The Most Beautiful Experiment in Biology. Yale University Press (2001)
8 Sept: What is HSHM: The Program(s) of the Historian. "What is Theory?"
Methods Section
15 Sept: Kinds of history: Content, Analysis, and Interpretation. Read: Kuhn
22 Sept: Biography. What is a "Life"? A "Scientific Life?" Read: Charles E. Rosenberg, Woods or Trees? Ideas and Actors in the History of Science. Isis, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Dec., 1988), pp. 564-570 and W C Summers, Biographies. Encyclopedia of Microbiology. (Moselio Schaechter, Editor), pp. 17-23 Oxford: Elsevier.
29 Sept: Narrative. Read: Paul A. Roth Narrative Explanations: The Case of History History and Theory, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Feb., 1988), pp. 1-13
6 Oct Sources: Documents, Artifacts, Testimony and Interviews. Read: Holmes
Literature Section
13 Oct The Concept of "The Literature". Is there a "Canon?" Read: John Guillory , Canon, Syllabus, List: A Note on the Pedagogic Imaginary, Transition, No. 52 (1991), pp. 36-54
16 Oct Essay Review Due
20 Oct Realism and Science. Role of "stance".. philosophical, psychological, political, "theoretical commitments" Read: Hacking
27 Oct (Research Prospectus Due)
3 Nov (Primary Source Analysis)
10 Nov Revolutions, Read: Shapin
17 Nov TBA Read TBA
1 Dec Final Discussion Read: TBA
7 Dec Final Paper Due
This page was last updated on 26 August 2009.