• Instructor: Kyla Schuller

An introduction to many of the ways feminists engage with the sciences, this course examines ways that feminists have critiqued the production of scientific knowledge as well as ways that contemporary critical analyses of gender, race, and sexuality draw on scientific research. Taking both an historical and theoretical perspective, students will explore the various ways scientists have defined gender, race, and sexual difference in humans and other animals from the nineteenth century to the present. We will investigate how dynamics of race and gender shaped specific episodes in the history of science, such as nineteenth-century race science and contemporary brain organization research. We will also look at contemporary scientific practice, especially examining the role of women in science and cultural ideas about women scientists, as well as at feminist writers who argue that we should deepen our understanding of scientific research in order to advance feminist causes. Throughout we will examine science in many genres: histories of science, fictional writing, documentary film, and feminist theory, among others.