Gender Issues in Science and Health (250-0-20)
Topic
Race, Gender, & Sexuality in Science & Anti-Scienc
Instructors
Ann Kathryn Wilkinson
Meeting Info
Parkes Hall 215: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
Is race "real"? Do men and women have different brains? Is sexuality a choice (and should that matter)? This course examines the way these and other questions have been taken up in scientific discourse and how, in turn, scientific discourse has become a battleground in political disputes over trans rights, gender equality, and racial justice in the United States and beyond. We will approach race, gender, and sexuality as biosocial constructs, exploring their roles in debates about the relationship between biology and society, nature and culture, human similarity and difference, and knowledge and politics. Course modules will: contextualize how cultural understandings of human difference have shaped—and still impact--the development of Western science; examine contemporary scientific questions related to sex, gender, race, & sexuality, genetic diversity, medicine, technology, and the role of science in contemporary politics; explore how social inequalities can become embodied and produce biological effects; and interrogate the contemporary politicization and instrumentalization of scientific discourses related to race, gender, and sexuality, including by White supremacist, anti-trans, and anti-feminist movements.
Learning Objectives
• Critically evaluate claims about the biology of race, sex, gender, and sexuality and be able to deconstruct and explain them to others.
• Analyze the significance and persistence of biological determinism in debates about social inequality in the US and beyond.
• Explain trends in the contemporary politics of science and knowledge with respect to race, gender, and sexuality, including the role of misinformation and resurgent regressive political movements.
Teaching Method
Lecture/Reading
Evaluation Method
- attendance
- class participation
- collaborative (social) reading
- biweekly quizzes
- final creative project
Class Materials (Required)
In canvas.
Class Materials (Suggested)
Fuentes, Agustin. 2022. Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You, Second Edition.
Class Attributes
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area