History 405-0-22 Sexual Knowledge: Science, Archives, Traces
Sexuality studies has flourished in recent decades amidst the multiplicities of desires, identities, and bodies. As loci of meaning-making, hierarchical differentiation, and political struggles, as well as the space of transgressive imagination and alternative subjectivities, sexuality studies has never been neutral. This course focuses on the scholarly debates over the practices and politics of sexual knowledges across historical moments, locations, and projects. We will analyze how this knowledge was (and is) produced, what counts as knowledge, who gets recognized as an Aexpert@ (and why), and who collects and curates. Our work will especially highlight the dynamic relations between story-telling, assembling, documentation, and interpretation. In doing so, we critically examine the multiple meanings of archives, their origins, and uses. Equally, we problematize the silences and so-called ephemera. Readings will include works on sexuality and bio-politics, classic works in sexology, and ethnographies. The course will also consider film and other media as well as digital archives. Finally, I hope to arrange Zoom conversations with archivists, collections curators and investigators on how they navigate collections as well as how they have assembled their research.
SESP 451-0-22 Global Histories of Engineering Education
In this course we examine what role engineering education plays, has played historically, and could play in mediating dynamics of power, in(equality), and (in)justice in society across global contexts. A wave of recent scholarship has examined the nefarious impact of new technologies on racial equity (Benjamin, 2019; Noble, 2018), social and economic justice (Eubanks, 2018), teaching and learning processes in schools (Watters, 2021), and on the health and survival of the planet itself (Crawford, 2021). Learning about the politics of technologies, and the technologies of power, is thus emerging as one of the most significant needs in education. Building from Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspectives, in this course we shift our analytic focus to the politics of engineering education institutions (Lucena, 2013; Riley, 2003). What are the historical, cultural, and political forces operating on these institutions? How do they cultivate particular kinds of engineering identities? We will ground these inquiries through case studies of specific engineering education institutions in diverse global contexts (Indonesia, India, Denmark, Iran, Chile, Kenya, and the US). Across the cases, we will carefully examine how themes such as modernization, globalization, nationalism, and militarism have shaped the content, character, and ontology of engineering education. Ultimately, we will work towards a critical, global understanding of the power, responsibility, and possibilities for socially just and ethical engineering education.
This graduate seminar asks the following questions: What do we learn about society by studying sexuality? What do we learn about sexuality by studying society? We will focus on sociological approaches to studying sexuality and link sexuality studies to broader sociological questions about culture, social interaction, social inequality, globalization, social movements, science, health, and public policy. We will explore various theoretical and methodological approaches that have been used in sociological studies of sexuality—including those that guide sexuality-related analyses of meanings and identities, practices and behaviors, politics, power, relationships, population movement, collective identities and social movements, and morality and social control.
