Skip to main content

Seminar-Problems in Comm Studies (425-0-1)

Topic

Science, Technology, Policy

Instructors

Rayvon David Fouche

Meeting Info

Frances Searle Building 1483: Thurs 3:00PM - 5:50PM

Overview of class

Science and technology exist in ecosystems that govern their creation, development, consumption use, and disposal. Yet, these ecosystems are far from perfect. They are riddled with expected and unforeseen affordances-social, cultural, technical, and material-that demand institutionalized interventions in the form of policy. Yet, how do we build and sustain an equitable balance between the often-opposing forces of science, technology, and policy? This course will wade into the thickets of science, technology and policy to study some of the most interesting and contentious science and technology from our current moment and the recent past such as artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, vaccines, climate engineering, gender affirming treatment, gene editing, nuclear power generation, human subjects research, and others.