Gender, Race, and Science

Race, Gender, and Science

Sociology 499 | Fall 2012

Professor Katie Hasson Tuesday 4:00-6:50

Email: Vivian Hall 214

Office hours: Thursday 10:30-12:30, KAP 364A

Is race biological? Do men and women really have different brains? As sociologists, we are trained to seek out the social sources of difference between individuals or groups, and we often take for granted that race and gender are socially constructed. And yet, every day we hear of studies claiming that hormones, genes, or brains determine differences between men and women or among racial and ethnic groups. In this course we will learn how to think sociologically about these scientific claims as we explore the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, science and medicine. We will begin by examining how scientific thought about race and gender has changed over time, how it is socially and culturally influenced, and what is at stake in scientific practices of categorization. We continue by exploring how medical research has incorporated race and sex, as well as how medicine constitutes and acts on raced and gendered bodies. We conclude with a consideration of genetics. Throughout these discussions, we will pay close attention to the processes through which knowledge is produced, to science as a practice and an institution, and to the question of who gets to “do science” and how this affects the knowledge produced.

Course requirements (and grading):

Attendance and Participation (15%): Your participation is essential for this seminar. This is not a lecture course and you are expected to take an active role in shaping the class. Therefore, I expect you to come to class having read the assigned texts and prepared to share your thoughts, questions, and observations about them as we collectively work through the material. Attendance is mandatory. I will take attendance during each class meeting, and two or more absences will negatively impact your grade. Please talk to me in advance if you know you will miss class, or contact me as soon as possible afterward in the case of unexpected absence.

Reading Response Blog Post (25%): Students will post responses to the week’s readings five times during the semester (your choice). In these short posts (~350-600 words), you will briefly summarize a few key points made by the authors and then go beyond what the authors have written to provide your own critical commentary or reflection on the issues they raise. For example, you might write about how the readings connect to or contradict other readings from the course, think through the implications of the authors’ arguments for a topic you are interested in, or raise questions you think the author has not taken into account. You could also use the readings to analyze a related news article or other media text – or even to start analyzing your own research data! Each blog post should conclude with at least one substantive question or point that could be used to spark discussion in class or in the comments. I highly encourage you to read and comment on each other’s posts. Commenting on the will count toward your participation grade.

Reading responses must be posted to the blog (on Blackboard) by 8pm the night before class to get full credit. They will be graded on a scale of 0 to 5. You must complete all 5 reading response blog posts by NOVEMBER 6.

Glossary and Background Presentation (10%): Starting in Week 7, students will work in groups to collect and present to the class background information and context for the scientific issues covered in the readings for the week. On Monday by 5pm, the group will post to the course wiki a short glossary of ~5-10 technical terms/concepts necessary for understanding the readings, as well as links to resources where classmates can find basic information, related news articles, images/video clips, etc. At the beginning of class, the group will provide a very brief (< 10 minutes) presentation outlining the scientific concepts/issues.

Research Paper

All seminar participants will write a 15-page research paper that addresses a sociological question related to the intersections of race, gender, and science/technology/medicine. Your research will include reading existing literature and collecting and analyzing your own original data (interviews, observations, statistics, or texts (legal documents, newspaper articles, novels, etc.). Throughout the semester, you will complete several smaller assignments that will help you through the research and writing process. In the first few weeks of class you will pick a topic, formulate a research question, choose a source of data and method of analysis, and meet with me to discuss your research project. As the semester continues, you will workshop your research question, theoretical framework, and initial findings with your fellow classmates. At the end of the semester, you will present a 10-minute summary of your research to the class.

Research Paper Proposal – Due September 25, in class (5%)

Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography – Due THURSDAY, October 18 (5%)

Data and Analysis Memo – Due THURSDAY, November 15 (5%)

In-Class Research Presentation - Weeks 14 and 15 (5%)

The last two class meetings are reserved for 15-minute presentations of your research to the class. By this time you should have a nearly-complete draft of the research paper, which you will use to prepare a summary of your research to present to the group.

Research Paper Final Draft – Due December 18 (30%)

Course Policies:

Statement for Students with Disabilities:

Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.

Statement on Academic Integrity:

USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A:

http://web-app.usc.edu/scampus/1100-behavior-violating-university-standards-and-appropriate-sanctions/

USC has provided a very helpful guide to recognizing and avoiding plagiarism. Please familiarize yourself with this guide and ask me if you have any questions. The guide can be found here:

http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/forms/tig.pdf

Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be found at: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/.

Plagiarism or cheating will result in a failing grade for the course.

Policies on Extensions:

Illnesses. Only students who can produce medical documentation from a licensed health professional will be granted an extension on papers and other assignments.

Family Emergencies. Other sudden and unexpected circumstances will be considered if students can produce a letter of support from campus student services.

Electronics Policy:

This is a small class that is based primarily on student discussion and participation. It is thus extremely important that you give your full attention to the class and your classmates. For this reason, I ask you to please turn off all cell phones, tablets, ipods, and any other electronic communication devices before class starts. Further, I strongly discourage you from using your laptop during class. If you do use your laptop during the class, please turn off your wi-fi access and use your computer only to take notes or read course-related documents. Failure to do so will negatively impact your participation grade.

Required Texts

Selected readings available on blackboard and through electronic reserve (ARES)

Roberts, Dorothy E. 2011.Fatal invention: how science, politics, and big business re-create race in the twenty-first century. New York: New Press.

Jordan-Young, Rebecca. 2010.Brain storm: the flaws in the science of sex differences. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Metzl, Jonathan. 2009.The protest psychosis: how schizophrenia became a Black disease. Boston: Beacon Press.

Course Schedule and Reading Assignments

Part I: Science of Race and Gender

Week 1: August 28 // Intro

Week 2: September 4 // Histories of Sexed and Raced Bodies

Roberts, Dorothy. 2011. Fatal Invention. Ch. 1, “The Invention of Race,” and Ch. 2, “Separating Racial Science from Racism.” Pp. 3-54.

Oudshoorn, Nelly. 1994. Beyond the Natural Body: an archeology of sex hormones. Introduction, pp. 1-14. (Bb)

Fausto-Sterling, Ann. 1995. “The Five Sexes” (Bb)

Suggested reading:

Roberts, Celia. 2002. “A Matter of Embodied Fact: Sex hormones and the History of Bodies.” Feminist Theory 3(1): 7-26.

Reardon, Jenny. 2005. Race to the Finish: Identity and Governance in an Age of Genomics. Ch. 2: “Post-World War II Expert Discourses on Race” (17-44).

Week 3: September 11 // Thinking about Science as Social and Cultural

Nancy Leys Stepan. 1993. “Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science.” In The Racial Economy of Science, edited by Sandra Harding. Bloomington: Indiana Univ Press, 359-376. (Bb)

Martin, Emily. 1991. “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles.” Signs 16(3): 485-501. (Bb)

Oudshoorn, Nelly. The Male Pill: A Biography of a Technology in the Making. Ch. 1 “Designing Technology and Masculinity: Challenging the Invisibility of Male Bodies in Scientific Medicine” (3-17). (Bb)

Suggested reading:

Haraway, Donna. 1997. Modest ennium. FemaleMan Meets Oncomouse. New York: Routledge. pp. 23-39 in Ch. 1.

Week 4: September 18 // Human/Animal and Nature/Culture

Schiebinger, Londa. 2004. Nature’s Body: Gender in the Making of Modern Science. New Brunswick: Rutgers Press. Ch. 2, “Why Mammals are Called Mammals” (40-74). (Bb)

Terry, Jennifer. 2000. “‘Unnatural Acts’ in Nature: The Scientific Fascination with Queer Animals.” GLQ 6(2):151-193. (Bb)

Thompson, Charis. 2002. “When Elephants Stand for Competing Philosophies of Nature: Amboseli National Park, Kenya” in Complexities: social studies of knowledge practices. (166-190). (Bb)

Suggested reading:

Haraway, Donna. 1996. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective” In Feminism and Science, edited by Evelyn Fox Keller and Helen E. Longino. New York: Oxford Press, 249-263.

Part II: Race, Gender, Medicine

Week 5: September 25 // Medical Research: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Sexuality

Briggs, Laura. 2002. Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. Berkeley: UC Press. Ch. 4, “Demon Mothers in the Social Laboratory: Development, Overpopulation, and “The Pill,” 1940-1960” (109-141). (Bb)

Washington, Harriet. 2006. Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Doubleday. Ch 7, “‘A Notoriously Syphilis-Soaked Race’: What Really Happened at Tuskegee” (157-185). (Bb)

Landecker, Hannah. 2000. “Immortality, In vitro: A History of the HeLa Cell Line.” Pp. 53-73 in Biotechnology and Culture: Bodies, Anxieties, Ethics, edited by Paul Brodwin. (Bb)

Suggested reading:

Marks, Lara. 2001. Sexual Chemistry: A History of the Contraceptive Pill. New Haven: Yale Press. Ch. 4, “Human Guinea Pigs?” (89-115).

Epstein, Steven. 2007. Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research, Ch. 9 “The Science of Recruitmentology and the Politics of Trust” (182-202)

Due in class: Research Question and Methods Memo

Week 6: October 2 // The Politics of Medical Research: Inclusion, Difference, and Globalization

Library Class – MEET AT THE LIBRARY AT 4PM – Location TBA

Roberts, Dorothy. 2011. Fatal Invention. Ch. 5, “The Allure of Race in Biomedical Research.” Pp. 104-122.

Epstein, Steven. 2004. “Bodily Differences and Collective Identities: The Politics of Gender and Race in Biomedical Research in the United States.” Body & Society 10:183 (Bb)

Petryna, Adriana. 2007. “Globalizing Human Subjects Research” Pp. 33-60 in Global Pharmaceuticals: Ethics, Markets, Practices, edited by Petryna, Lakoff, and Kleinman. Durham: Duke Univ Press. (Bb)

Week 7: October 9 // Diagnosing Difference and Producing Raced (and Gendered) Bodies

Shim, Janet. 2005. “Constructing Race across the Science-Lay Divide: Racial Formation in the Epidemiology and Experience of Cardiovascular Disease.” Social Studies of Science 35(3): 405-436. (Bb)

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. 2008. “The Bare Bones of Race.” Social Studies of Science 38(5): 657-694. (Bb)

Kaw, Eugenia. 2003. “Medicalization of Racial Features: Asian-American Women and Cosmetic Surgery,” pp.184-200 in Rose Weitz (ed.), The Politics of Women’s Bodies (2nd ed.). (Bb)

Suggested reading:

Kahn, Jonathan. 2008. “Exploiting Race in Drug Development: BiDil’s Interim Model of Pharmacogenetics.” Social Studies of Science 38(5):737-758.

Week 8: October 16 // Diagnosing Difference and Producing Gendered (and Raced) Bodies

Karkazis, Katrina. 2008. Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience. Duke University Press. Ch. 4: “Boy or Girl? Bodies of Mixed Evidence and Gender Assignment” pp. 89-122 and Ch. 5 “Fixing Sex: Surgery and the Production of Normative Sexuality” (133-176). (Bb)

Roberts, Celia. 2007. Messengers of Sex: Hormones, Biomedicine, and Feminism. New York: Cambridge Univ Press. Ch. 4 “Elixirs of Sex: Hormone Replacement Therapies and Everyday Life” (111-136). (Bb)