Science matters: anthropological perspectives and interventions in the making of scientific knowledge - Detailseite

How do we think and problematise scientific knowledge-making as an object of anthropological enquiry? This seminar builds on key concepts and issues of socio-cultural anthropology and traces their development and application in science & technology studies (STS) and related fields. The aim of the seminar is to situate and contextualise the theoretical and methodological tools and commitments of STS and thus understand their specific genealogies, efficacies and blind-spots. Specifically, the seminar
·       introduces some of STS’s core ideas, categories and devices (e.g. assemblage, inscription, boundary object, natureculture, enactment, symmetry, controversy)
·       discusses them in relation to concrete examples and ethnographies (e.g. Tsing 2005, 2015; Knorr Cetina 1999; Subramaniam 2014; Mol 2003; Haraway 1990; Verran 2001, 2002)
·       connects them to analytical traditions in broader social and cultural theories including feminist, postcolonial, poststructuralist and Marxist approaches;
 
This is a reading-heavy course. Please prepare text excerpts for each session and upload them to Moodle by Tuesday, 9:00am. Each excerpt should contain a brief summary of the text’s key arguments (50%) as well as questions, thoughts, gripes and suggestions for debate (50%). Thanks.