Science and Technology in North America
Course:BTAN33005BA02, Spring 2012
Time & place:Friday08:00-09:40; Main Bldg., Studio 111
Instructor:Zoltán Simon ()
Main Bldg., Room 118 (: 512-900 / 22069)
Office hours:Tuesday14-15(GÖCS 202), Friday 10-11 (Main Bldg. 118)
Course objectives:
In this seminar we will explore the role of science and technology in the contemporary context, with special emphasis on the United States, but also supported with comparative examples from Canada and European countries. The aim of the seminar is to deepen students’ understanding of certain important aspects of American culture and civilization, as they relate to science and technology. Topics are tailored to provide an up-to-date survey of various current issues that shape the United States as a global scientific and technological, and thereby also economic, political and military superpower in the early 21st century. Familiarity with these issues is deemed important for a well-informed student of American studies, especially with a view to subsequent studies at graduate level.
Procedures
Two or three articles, book chapters or excerpts (compiled into an electronic course packet distributed in class) relating to the specific topic of the class will be assigned for reading for each class session, which will then serve as the springboard for in-class discussions. The class will be conducted as a seminar, with some lecture complemented by students’ contributing periodic short papers presented in class, followed by discussion of the readings and related issues.
Requirements and evaluation:
Each student is required to give a 10-minute oral presentation on a pre-approved issue connected to the topic of the given class session. Students are also required to keep up to date about issues related to the topic of the course in the North American context by way of paying attention to the news media and coming to class prepared to talk about their findings. There will be a mid-term in-class exam, as well as an end-term research paper due toward the end of the semester. The final grade will be calculated on the basis of the following: active participation in discussions, in-class presentation, mid-term paper, final research paper (at 25% each).
Schedule of classes and topics
Week 1 – Orientation and introduction to the course
Week 2 – Defining science, applying technology
Michael Cusack, “Science and Technology: An American Record”; Roderick Nash, “Machines and Americans”; Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society (excerpt)
Week 3 – The American technological sublime
David E. Nye, American Technological Sublime (excerpts); Zoltán Simon, The Double-Edged Sword (excerpts from Chapter I)
Week 4 – Transportation (from railroading to aviation)
David Laird, “Versions of Eden: The Automobile and the American Novel”; John William Ward, “Charles Lindbergh: His Flight and the American Ideal”
Week 5– War and military technology
H. Bruce Franklin, “From Realism to Virtual Reality: Images of America’s Wars”; David Nye, “Atomic Bomb and Apollo XI: New Forms of the Dynamic Sublime”
Week 6 – No class due to national holiday
Week 7– Mid-term paper
Week 8– Consultation week (no class, but the instructor is available for consultation)
Week 9 – Education and brain drain
Enrique Oteiza, “Brain Drain: An Historical and Conceptual Framework”; Laudeline Auriol, et al., “International Mobility of the Highly Skilled”; Clifford S. Mintz, “Plugging the European Brain Drain to the US”
Week 10 – Science, technology and gender
Samuel C. Florman, “The Feminist Face of Antitechnology”; Ruth Schwartz Cowan, “From Virginia Dare to Virginia Slims: Women and Technology in American Life”
FINAL PAPERS DUE BY APRIL 13!
Week 11 – Information society, media and communication
David E. Nye, “Postmodernism and the Computer Society”; Jay David Bolter, “The Network Culture”; Marshall McLuhan, Laws of Media (excerpts)
Week 12 – Medical/biotechnologies, environmental issues – ethical dilemmas
Barbara Ehrenreich, “Science, Lies and the Ultimate Truth”; David L. Wheeler, “Scientists Worry about the Implications of Genetic Testing for Inherited Disease”