Course Description
In recent years literary study has been transformed by expanded notions
of textuality that allow a wide range of cultural documents and artifacts
to be read using literary methods. This seminar will explore similar possibilities
for narrative by using literary techniques to read and interpret narratives
of scientific legitimation. One of the ways in which scientific enterprises
gain credance for their visions is to tell stories about the world; yet,
as Donna Haraway has remarked, not all stories are equal. What makes one
kind of scientific story better than another? What cultural work do scientific
narratives perform, in and out of scientific communities? What are the social
and cultural mechanisms that establish legitimation within science, and
how are they related to narrative construction? What semiotic codes circulate
among and between scientific practices, artifacts, researchers, and texts?
How do these codes come together to produce narratives? What are the limits
of reading scientific narratives as if they were literary texts? To explore
these questions, we will read some of the important texts in the emerging
interdisciplinary field known as the cultural studies of science.
In Leviathan and the Air Pump, Shapin and Schaffer argue that scientific
"facts" emerge not from experimental results but from their interpolation
into scientific practice and discourse. This important early work in the
social construction of scientific knowledge will be followed by Shapin's
"House of Experiment in Seventeenth Century England," in which
he expands these ideas to include social class; "Writing Science: Fact
and Fiction" by Bruno Latour and Francoise Bastide, where they discuss
how scientists construct texts; and "The Social Construct of Facts
and Artifacts" by Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker, where they discuss
how technology, discourse, and design intermingle. Following these article
we will read another classic, Bruno Latour's Science in Action, where
he develops an "actor" theory of scientific knowledge to tie together
artifact, researcher and practice in a common semiotic field. Next come
a series of texts relating language and scientific inquiry, including excerpts
from Andrea Nye's Words of Power; Paul Edwards on how the social
construction of scientific knowledge resembles hypertext; and John Law on
"The Heterogeneity of Texts." Sharon Traweek's ethographic study
of high energy physics, Beamtimes and Lifetimes, will give further
insight into the relation between narrative construction and scientific
theory and practice. Following this ethnographic study, we turn again to
texts with Greg Myers' Writing Biology. Continuing with biology is
Donna Haraway's "Universal Donors" and selections from Simians,
Cyborgs and Women. Donna Haraway'swill provide context for discussing
narrative constructions in contemporary genetic theories about race and
ethnicity. Evelyn Keller's Secrets of Life, Secrets of Death explores
the connection between narrative and contemporary developmental and molecular
biology. Finally, a scientist, Jay Labinger, is given a chance to respond
from a working scientist's view point in "View from a Petri Dish,"
which we will read along with the multiple responses that appeared with
it from prominent researchers in the social studies of science.
Course Procedures.
Virtual Discussions. Class participants will be asked to sign up
for a Bruin On-line account, if they do not already have one, so that we
can use a class listserv to circulate materials among ourselves and facilitate
on-going discussions about the works. Each participant is asked to make
a posting to the class listserv on at least three of the weekly selections
throughout the term (that is, on three different weeks), and of responding
to at least three postings made by others. Postings should be made no later
than 8:00 am on Monday morning on the day we will discuss the material in
class.
Posing Provocative Questions. In addition, each participant is asked
to take responsibility for posing a few opening questions for us for one
of the seminars. These should not be long presentations--not to exceed five
minutes--and can be informal in nature. The idea is to highlight what you
think are central issues to get the discussion started.
Final Seminar Paper. Each participant will be asked to write a final
paper, of substantial length, that is potentially publishable. You are urged
to choose your topic by no later than May 13, when I will ask for a brief
abstract from you. Papers are due by 5:00 pm on Monday, June 10.
Course Readings
The following texts are available is the bookstore.
Shapin, Steven and Simon Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes,
Boyle, and the Experimental Life.
Latour, Bruno, Science in Action.
Traweek, Sharon, Beamtimes and Lifetimes.
Myers, Greg. Writing Bilology
Haraway, Donna. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women.
Keller, Evelyn. Secrects of Life, Secrets of Death.
The following articles and excerpts will be available in multiple copies
in the English Reading room. You are urged to make your own copies from
the xeroxes on reserve.
Shapin, Steven. "The House of Experiment in Seventeenth-Century England."
"Pump and Circumstance: Boyle's Literary Technology."
Latour, Bruno and Francoise Bastide, "Writing Science--Fact and Fiction."
Pinch, Trevor and Wiebe Bijker, "The Social Construction of Facts and
Artifacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology
Might Benefit Each Other."
Nye, Andrea. Excerpts from Words of Power. Edwards, Paul. "Hypertext
and Hypertension."
Law, John. "The Heterogeneity of Texts."
Haraway, Donna. "Universal Donors in a Vampire Culture."
Labinger, Jay. "View from a Petri Dish," with responses.
Monday, April 1. Introduction.
Monday, April 8. Shapin and Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air-Pump.
Monday, April 15. Shapin, "The House of Experiment in 17th-Century
England." (xerox). and "Pump and Circumstance: Boyle's Literary
Technology." (xerox). Latour and Bastide, "Writing Science: Fact
and Fiction." (xerox). Pinch and Bijker. "The Social Construction
of Facts and Artifacts." (xerox).
Monday, April 22. Latour, Science in Action.
Monday, April 29. Nye, Words of Power. (Excerpts on xerox). Selections:
'Introduction,' pp. 1- 6; "The Desire of Logic," p. 9-22; "Weaving
the Seine of Logos," pp. 23-40; "Breaking the Power of the Word,"
pp. 129-138; "The Marriage of Mathematics and Language," pp. 139-
153; and "Frege's Thoughts,"pp. 154-162. Edwards, "Hypertext
and Hypertension." (xerox). Law, "The Heterogeneity of Texts."
(xerox)
Monday, May 6. Traweek, Beamtimes and Lifetimes.
Monday, May 13. (Time to be arranged.) Abtracts Due. Myers, Writing
Biology.
Monday, May 20. Haraway, "Universal Donors." Haraway, Simians,
Cyborgs and Women. Part Two, "Contested Readings: Narrative Natures,"
pp. 71-126. "Situated Knowledges," pp. 183-202.
Monday, May 27. Time to be Arranged. Keller, Secrets of Life, Secrets
of Death.
Monday, June 3. Labinger, "View from a Petri Dish" with
responses; reports on final projects.