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Autumn Quarter 2023

STSS 591: Science, Technology, and Society Studies in Action (2 credits)
David Ribes

Fridays
1:30 pm - 3:20 pm, MGH 228

Provides an advanced introduction to science, technology, and society studies. Includes topics of active research interest in history and philosophy of science; social studies of science; science and technology policy; and ethics and equity issues.

Winter Quarter 2024

ETHICS 501/ATMS 591 (with PHIL 417/ENVR 417) Ethics, Science and Geoengineering (5 credits)
Steve Gardiner

Day Wednesdays
Time 3:30-6:00 p.m.

Geoengineering - roughly the intentional technological manipulation of the earth's environment on a global scale - is becoming a hot topic in climate change circles, as well as in the broader science and ethics communities. In this interdisciplinary seminar course, we will consider the science of geoengineering, and the ethical considerations at stake, including governance. We will concentrate on solar radiation management techniques, such as stratospheric sulfate injection, and marine cloud brightening. Scientifically, we will look at how such mechanisms affect the climate system, trajectories for research, and levels of uncertainty. Ethical topics will include emergency arguments for geoengineering, moral hazard, justice, political legitimacy, and ethical regulation of research and perhaps deployment. Versions of the course are cross-listed in Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Studies and Philosophy. Entrance is via instructor permission only. Students outside the physical sciences should contact Steve Gardiner (at smgard@uw.edu).

PHIL 441: Public Heath Ethics (5 credits)
Carina Fourie

Tuesdays and Thursdays
12:30-2:20 p.m.

We will assess the ethical assumptions and implications of public health policy and practice, and health sciences research, with particular focus on how social and global injustice impacts health. As part of our assessment, we will identify which theories of justice and injustice are most suitable to health policy, research, and practice, considering real-life contemporary and historical health inequities such as those related to structural racism, gender, disabilities, and socioeconomic status. Conceptual and applied public health problems to be examined include how to define health, how to understand the public health focus on "populations," how gendered assumptions impact health sciences research, and how to conceive of health equity in relation to pandemics. We will also examine justice and human rights with regards to global health, using HIV-AIDs in the Global South, as our primary case study.

GWSS 490: Digital Capitalism and Data Colonialism (5 credits)
Kavita Dattani

Tuesdays and Fridays
2:30-4:20 p.m.

How are 'digital' and 'data' implicated in global relations of power? What are the connections between historical processes of colonialism and newer data-driven digital systems? This course will cover key debates relating to digital capitalism, data colonialism and their inequalities. We will delve into the different dimensions of capitalism/colonialism and how they are reproducing intersectional inequalities through digital means. We will look at different kinds of technologies including digital labor platforms, biometrics, surveillance tech and AI tools. Students will work towards building a short podcast broadly on the themes of digital capitalism and data colonialism based on staged assignments throughout the course. This will give students the opportunity to take a deep dive into a course topic of their choice while building accessible knowledge and scholarship.

ETHICS 511: Ethics Matters (5 credits)
Sara Goering

Thursdays
3:30-5:20 p.m.

This course aims to introduce graduate and professional students from a wide range of backgrounds to some common moral concepts and to provide a basic philosophical framework for thinking about related issues that arise within their own disciplines or fields. Topics will likely include moral status, autonomy, respect, integrity, trust, responsibility and forgiveness. Students will submit weekly critical reading questions, produce a short paper/project proposal with annotated bibliography, and write a term paper with a required and graded draft (draft to be presented to the class in a mini-conference). An alternative to writing a final term paper would be to produce a more public-facing product (e.g., podcast episode, webpage, short opinion piece) on a course-related topic, designed for greater accessibility and wider impact (with a presentation of a draft version during the mini-conference).

ENGL 568 Principles and Practices of Technical and Scientific Communication (5 credits)
Josephine Walwema

Mondays and Wednesdays
1:30-3:20 pm, 234 THO

This course proceeds from the premise that theoretical and rhetorical principles govern effective and ethical communication across a range of contexts. In this course, students will learn theories that inform specific communication skills associated with reporting technical and scientific information and will interrogate a series of the relationships among rhetoric, science, technology, theories of communication, and how they drive social change. Students will develop the pragmatic skills needed in the modern workplace and write a series of documents ranging from process descriptions, proposals, memos, feasibility reports to research projects. The course is both writing and reading intensive.

Spring Quarter 2024

COM 540: Rhetoric of Science (5 credits)
Leah Ceccarelli

Tuesdays
3:30-6:20 pm, 242 CMU

This graduate seminar will examine the interdisciplinary field of scholarship known as the "rhetoric of science." We will study the rhetorical structure of arguments made by scientists to their peers, the rhetorical strategies used by scientists when they communicate outside their fields of expertise, and the persuasive moves made by publics engaging technoscientific issues. Questions for discussion will include: How do scientists use language, situation, culture, and prior tradition to reach intersubjective agreement about their discoveries and theories? In what ways are the argumentative standards applied by scientists in their fields of expertise similar to those applied by arguers in public or private settings? How do scientists communicate with the public? What does public discourse about science reveal about our attitudes toward science? What happens when there is a crisis involving science or technology in the public sphere and scientific expertise is unable to resolve doubt and warrant deliberative action? We will read a number of critical works in the field, to see how rhetorical scholars have added to our collective knowledge about the communicative practices of scientists. We will discuss some of the larger theoretical and practical issues that arise from the rhetorical interpretation of science. And over the course of the quarter, each student will write a paper that engages in the rhetorical criticism of a piece of communication about science. No background in rhetoric or science is necessary to take this course. This seminar can be used by STSS graduate certificate students who are not in the Department of Communication to fulfill the broad perspectives course requirement. For more information, contact the professor at cecc@uw.edu.

INSC 598 C: Feminist STS Studio (3 credits)
Nassim Parvin

Tuesdays
3:30-6:20 pm, 074 MGH

What might feminist theory have to do with information technology or vice versa? Are there strategies, methods, and techniques that distinguish feminist praxis from other modes of knowledge making and world building? This special topic course integrates theoretical readings with studio and interventionist practice. In doing so, students learn the foundations for critically engaging the historical, political, and philosophical grounding of emerging technologies while drawing on design-based practices and methods of inquiry to question their dominant logic and imagine alternate possibilities. We will actively think through a range of existing and emerging technologies alongside the oft techno-utopic discourses that animate their designs. Examples include existing technologies such as digital maps, smart cities, smart homes, or self-tracking devices as well as emerging technologies such as smart dust or smart forests. Readings are selected from an interdisciplinary array of sources including feminist science and technologies (feminist STS), design studies, critical information studies, feminist theory, and postcolonial theory. The course is open to PhD students across disciplines in UW. No prior studio or design experience is required. Please contact nassimi@uw.edu and ischoolphd@uw.edu with your interest to receive permission.

Programs

History and Philosophy of Science - Major (UW Seattle)
http://depts.washington.edu/hps/

Science, Technology and Society - Major (UW Bothell)
http://www.uwb.edu/sciencetechsociety

Comparative History of Ideas - Major (UW Seattle)
http://depts.washington.edu/chid/