Spring 2012
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 12-1:30pm, or by appt. Office: Pearlman
207
Teaching Fellow: Brian Fair Email:
[email protected]
Office Hours: Mondays, 1-2pm, or by appt. Office: Pearlman
104
Introduction
From the moment we are born, to when we die, our lives are shaped
by science, technology, and
medicine. This course draws on both historical and contemporary
case studies to examine how science
and medicine enter into our ideas about who we are as individuals
and members of social groups, our
understandings of health and illness, and our ideals regarding what
constitutes a good life, and a good
death. This semester, the course will focus on five central
categories of human life and social
organization that have been reshaped by contemporary biomedical
science and technology: 1) birth; 2)
self; 3) gender; 4) race; 5) mortality.
This course satisfies the Oral Communications (OC) component of the
general university
requirements.
1. Explore diverse sociological perspectives on science,
technology, and medicine;
2. Gain insight into core sociological concepts -- including
identity, gender, race, medicalization,
and embodiment -- as they can be applied to and developed within
studies of science,
technology, and medicine;
3. Consider how dimensions of social organization shape individual
experiences and social
understandings of science, technology, and medicine;
4. Critically examine the language of biomedical science and its
effects;
5. Develop oral communications skills via in class exercises,
assignments, and individual and small
group presentations, which will enhance students’ abilities
to
a. communicate and listen effectively in a range of contexts.
b. critically evaluate orally presented information and
arguments.
c. consider specific techniques for using language as a
communication tool.
1) Attendance and Engagement with Readings
This course covers a lot of material, and attendance to both
lecture and journal clubs is expected.
Consistent absences will be noted and reflected in your final
grade. Laptops are allowed but ONLY for
taking notes or examining readings. Other observed uses of your
laptop will result in a reduction of your
participation grade. You are also expected to bring readings, along
with your notes on the readings, to
class. Please be sure to do the reading thoroughly before the class
for which it is assigned.
I expect that you will be respectful of others in class. Examples
include arriving on time, not leaving
early, listening when others speak, not monopolizing discussion
time, and not having side-discussions.
Please turn cell phones and pagers off.
2) Response Papers
During the course of the semester, you are required to turn in five
response papers which address the set
of readings for that week. Your paper should concisely summarize
the key themes presented in the week’s
readings (~1page) and then either raise questions about these
themes or provide an analysis, elaboration,
or critique in your own words (1-2pp). You may refer to other
readings, personal examples, current events
and newspaper articles, or other sources to reinforce your
point(s). You should engage directly with the
readings and not simply reiterate information from lecture. These
papers should not exceed 3 pages each.
In order to help you to help you stay on track through the
semester, you are required to write a response
paper for one of the weeks in each of the following
categories:
Response Paper 1 -- Week 3 or 4
Response Paper 2 -- Week 5 or Week 6
Response Paper 3 -- Week 7 or Week 8
Response Paper 4 -- Week 9 or Week 10
Response Paper 5 -- Week 11 or Week 12
Please view response papers as writing/thinking exercises. Use them
to engage the week's materials,
respond with questions, criticisms and new ideas they suggest, and
put into words your thoughts about
these topics!
No credit will be given for response papers turned in late.
3) Leading Journal Club Meetings and Talking Points Memo
At the conclusion of each set of readings, we will meet in “journal
clubs.” These small groups will give
you an opportunity to enhance each other’s understanding of a
specific category/theme (e.g., birth, self,
gender, race, (im)mortality) by providing an overview of readings
other than those we did together as a
class. The journal clubs will also provide you with a forum for
doing a short presentation in front of a
small group, as part of the OC component of the course.
For your presentation, you can select any article from the peer
reviewed literature in science, medicine,
bioethics, social science, or public policy (we will talk more
about what this means!). I encourage you to
draw on your strengths in selecting the article. Choose something
interesting to you, related to your
major, or personally compelling! A list of possible readings is
included at the end of the syllabus, but you
are encouraged to go beyond this list to find articles, as
well.
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You are always welcome to bring relevant newspaper articles to
class, but for this assignment, you cannot
use a newspaper article.
Each student will do one journal club presentation. Depending on
the final size of the class, there will be
approximately 5 presentations in each journal club meeting. This
means that 1) students need to
coordinate amongst themselves to make sure that each student is
presenting a unique reading; 2) each
student’s presentation should be no more than 10 minutes long (so
that there is time for Q&A). You are
encouraged – but not required – to meet as a group before doing
your presentations to your journal club.
Additionally, you are required to provide your classmates
(approximately 25 in each club) with a “talking
points memo” of the article you are presenting in journal club. In
no more than 3 pages, this memo
should provide:
2) A summary of the article that describes
a. What are the key findings? What about these findings is
intriguing, important, surprising?
What do they make you think about or see differently?
b. What research was done to produce these findings?
c. How does this article connect with the theme/category and
readings that we’ve discussed
together in class?
d. Why is this an important article (For us as a class? For future
research? And/or for
policy?)?
Memos must be posted to LATTE at least 24 hours *before* the
journal club meeting, so that the other
members of your journal club have time to familiarize themselves
with the topics that will be presented
the following day.
NOTE: The reading for any journal club day consists of the memos
written by your classmates. Please
come to journal club having read the memos and prepared to ask
questions of the presenters. I reserve
the right to give quizzes in journal club, if it seems like these
memos are not being read.
4) Interview Assignment and Presentation
This course asks you to apply what you are learning in class to
events you may observe in the world,
including your own experiences and those of people you know.
Consequently, you will both write a
paper based on an interview and, in groups, you will present your
analysis to the class.
Interview Paper – Due March 28
The purpose of the interview is to learn about another person’s
experience of science, technology, and/or
medicine. Towards this end, you will interview someone who has used
or been the recipient of practices
that derive from in biomedical knowledge or technology (broadly
defined – medical advice,
pharmaceuticals, medical testing or technology, surgery, etc.),
whether as a researcher, clinician, or
patient. Your goal in this interview is to learn about science,
technology, and medicine from the
perspective of the person whom you are interviewing.
In class, we will discuss strategies for successful interviewing,
development of interview questions, and
data analysis. In general, however, you are expected to develop a
list of interview questions before
conducting the interview (and also to ask additional questions
depending upon the respondent’s responses
and context). Your interview should last about an hour (though it
could go longer), which is about the
amount of time it will take you to gather all the information you
need for this analysis. If your first
interview is much shorter than 60 minutes, you need to choose a
different respondent and/or develop
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more interview questions. The interview should be recorded (tape
and digital recorders can be checked
out at the Getz Multimedia Lab; see:
http://lts.brandeis.edu/teachlearn/multimedia/index.html ) or
you
should take detailed notes throughout, to maximize the amount of
verbatim material that will be available
for your analysis. Your respondent(s) should be chosen carefully,
as their stories of their life experiences
will be the empirical foundation for your analysis.
Minimally, your interview should address these broad domains of
experience:
- In what situation did your interviewee experience biomedical
information or technology?
What is the story of the experience?
- What specific information or technology was a part of this
experience?
- How did she learn about this information or technology? How did
she gain access to it?
How was her situation communicated to her, and by whom?
- What feelings does she have about her experience of this
information or technology? Was it
positive? Negative? Neutral? And for what reason(s)?
- What advice might she offer to improve the experience of others
in similar situations? If she
has taken any steps to improve this experience for others, please
describe them.
Your analysis will draw directly on your respondent’s account and I
expect you to use direct quotes from
the interview, as evidence for your analysis. However, you must
also draw on 4 or more course readings
to frame and analyze your respondent’s experiences and
perspectives. You are not merely retelling your
respondent’s story, but using the material from the course – and
your sociological imagination – to locate
his/her individual experiences in a broader social structural
context.
(Group) Interview Presentations – April 23 & 25
In groups, you will present key themes from your interviews to your
classmates. These presentations will
include information about your choice of interview subject, the
content of your interview, and – most
importantly – your sociological analysis of your data.
Presentations will be at the end of the semester, so
you will have the opportunity to integrate the semester’s readings
into your presentation. You will get
some time in class to work on this presentation, but you should be
prepared to work together as a group
outside of class, as well.
Policies for Written Work
All written papers are to be typed, double-spaced, using a
11-12-pt. Times New Roman font, with one
inch margins, and must include page numbers, proper use of
citations, and bibliographies.
If you have a personal or family emergency and are unable to
complete an assignment, you must speak
with me as soon as possible so we can discuss how and when you will
complete the assignment. Do not
assume that you may hand in all of your assignments at the end of
the course, or that you will be granted
an extension. Unexcused late papers will be marked down ½ grade for
each day or part of day for which
they are late.
Assignments may not be re-written. This means you should offer your
best effort the first time and ask
questions if you need clarification before completing any of the
assignments. I strongly encourage you to
utilize the Brandeis Writing Center for help with your
assignments.
Tips for Successful Presentations
When crafting your journal club and small group presentation,
please consider the following suggestions
re: effective oral communication: 1
Clear information – no matter how lively your presentation may be,
the information that you
provide needs to be clear enough for your audience to engage with
what you are saying. In
general, this means including both general statements and specific,
concrete details and examples
that flesh them out. You may wish to write a script for yourself,
or a sketch of your presentation,
but either way, you should be prepared to speak in front of the
class without reading word for
word. In order for your presentation to go smoothly, you will need
to practice in front of a friend
or two, or in front of a mirror.
Audible and lively tone – your audience needs to be able to hear
you in order to receive your
communication, and effective speech (as compared to the written
word) requires intonation and
inflection.
Eye contact – you should look at your audience as you speak, and
look at everyone rather than
focusing on a single person. Doing this partly involves taking up
the space with your presence.
Again, it is important to practice this in order to get used to the
feeling of being the only one
speaking, and having an audience in front of you.
Additional resources
Visual aids – it can be helpful to use more than one modality in
your presentation. An oral
presentation uses sound/hearing but visual aids can add another
dimension. Drawing on the
board, presenting images of some kind (including graphs or
diagrams) can aid you in conveying
your ideas and information.
Audience engagement – a sure way to be sure your audience is with
you is to create a way for
them to participate in the presentation. You may ask questions,
involve them in a demonstration
or game, and so on. You can also use this engagement to get a sense
of how well they are taking
in the information/ideas you are providing.
Grades
Attendance 10 points
Interview Paper 30 points
1 Thanks to Professor Claudia Castenada for these guidelines.
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94-99 A 74-76 C
90-93 A- 70-73 C-
87-89 B+ 67-69 D+
84-86 B 64-66 D
80-83 B- 60-63 D-
77-79 C+ <63 F
**All written and OC projects must be completed to receive a
passing grade in this class**
Academic Integrity
You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University’s
policies on academic integrity.
Faculty will refer any suspected instances of alleged dishonesty to
the Office of Student Development and
Conduct. Instances of academic dishonesty may result in sanctions
including but not limited to failure in
the course, failure on the assignment in question, suspension from
the University and/or educational
programs.
Reasonable Accommodations
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at
Brandeis University and wish to have a
reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me
immediately. If you have questions
about documenting a disability or requesting academic
accommodations, you should contact Beth
Rodgers-Kay in Academic Services at 736-3470.
Readings
There are four books for this class, are available at the campus
bookstore and on reserve at the library:
Almeling, Rene. 2011. Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and
Sperm. Berkeley, CA: University
of California Press.
Karp, David. 2006. Is it Me or My Meds?: Living with
Antidepressants. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Morning, Ann. 2011. The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and
Teach About Human
Difference. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Skloot, Rebecca. 2010. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New
York: Crown Books.
Other course materials will be posted on LATTE.
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Week 1 Introduction
Week 2 Language and Communication in Science, Technology, and
Medicine
January 23 Anspach, Renee. 1988. “Notes on the Sociology of Medical
Discourse: The Language
of Case Presentation.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 29(4):
357-75.
AND: Please bring to class one newspaper article (2007-2012) that
pertains to science,
technology, or medicine. Be prepared to discuss what makes this
article
interesting to you.
**How to Find Articles for Journal Club**
Weeks 3&4 BIRTH
January 30 Barker, Kristin K. 1998. “A Ship Upon a Stormy Sea: The
Medicalization of Pregnancy.”
Social Science and Medicine 47:1067-76.
Bell, Ann V. 2009. “It’s Way Out of My League”: Low-income
Women’s
Experiences of Medicalized Infertility.” Gender & Society
23(5): 688-709.
February 1 Rapp, Rayna. 1998. “Refusing Prenatal Diagnosis: The
Meanings of
Bioscience in a Multicultural World.” Science, Technology and Human
Values
23(1):45-70.
February 6 Draper, Jan. 2002. “‘It Was a Real Good Show’: The
Ultrasound Scan,
Fathers, and the Power of Visual Knowledge.” Sociology of Health
& Illness
24(5): 771–795.
February 8 JOURNAL CLUB
Weeks 5&6 SELF
February 13 Dumit, Joseph. 2003. “Is It Me or My Brain? Depression
and Neuroscientific Facts.”
Journal of Medical Humanities 24(1-2): 35-47.
Karp, David. 2006. Is it Me or My Meds? Living with
Antidepressants. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
Prologue
February 15 Karp, David. 2006. Is it Me or My Meds? Living with
Antidepressants. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
*** February 20-24 – Winter Break***
February 27 Karp, David. 2006. Is it Me or My Meds? Living with
Antidepressants. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
February 29 JOURNAL CLUB
Week 7&8 GENDER
March 5 Epstein, Steven. 2004. “Bodily Differences and Collective
Identities: The Politics of
Gender and Race in Biomedical Research in the United States.” Body
& Society 10 (2-3):
183-203.
Almeling, Rene. 2011. Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and
Sperm. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press.
Introduction
March 7 Almeling, Rene. 2011. Sex Cells: The Medical Market for
Eggs and Sperm. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press.
Chapters 1-3
March 12 Almeling, Rene. 2011. Sex Cells: The Medical Market for
Eggs and Sperm. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press.
Chapters 4-5, Conclusion
March 14 JOURNAL CLUB
Week 9&10 RACE
March 19 Braun, Lundy, et al. 2007. “Racial Categories in Medical
Practice: How Useful Are
They?” PLoS Medicine 4:287:1423-1428.
Morning, Ann. 2011. The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and
Teach About
Human Difference. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
Introduction
March 21 Morning, Ann. 2011. The Nature of Race: How Scientists
Think and Teach About
Human Difference. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
Chapters 3-4
March 26 Morning, Ann. 2011. The Nature of Race: How Scientists
Think and Teach About
Human Difference. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
Chapters 5-6
Week 11& 12 (IM)MORTALITY
April 2 Skloot, Rebecca. 2010. The Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks. New York: Crown
Books. Part 1
April 4 Skloot, Rebecca. 2010. The Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks. New York: Crown
Books. Part 2
***April 6- 13 --- Spring Break***
April 16 Skloot, Rebecca. 2010. The Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks. New York: Crown
Books. Part 3
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Bell, Ann V. 2010. “Beyond (Financial) Accessibility: Inequalities
Within the Medicalisation of
Infertility.” Sociology of Health & Illness, 32(4),
631-646.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 1999. “Achievements in Public
Health – Healthier Mothers
and Babies, 1900-1999.” MMWR 48(38):849-857.
Elster, Nanette. 2005. “ART for the Masses? Racial and Ethnic
Inequality in Assisted Reproductive
Technologies.” DePaul Journal of Healthcare Law. 9: 1719-33.
Griel, Arthur L., McQuillian, Julia, Shreffler, Karina M., and
Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins. 2011. “Race-
Ethnicity and Medical Services for Infertility: Stratified
Reproduction in a Population Based Sample of
U.S. Women.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 52(4):
493-509.
Kuppermann, Miriam et al. 1999. “Who Should Be Offered Prenatal
Diagnosis? American
Journal of Public Health 89:1592-3.
Moreau, Caroline, Bouyer, Jean, Ducot, Beatrice, and Remy Slama.
2010. “When Do Involuntarily
Infertile Couples Choose to Seek Medical Help?” Fertility and
Sterility 93: 737-44.
SELF
Hacking, Ian. 2005. “Genetics, Biosocial Groups & the Future of
Identity.” Daedalus Fall:81-95.
Haraway, Donna. 1989. “The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies:
Determinations of Self in Immune
System Discourse.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural
Studies. 1:3-43.
Joyce, Kelly. 2005. “Appealing Images: Magnetic Resonance Imaging
and the Production of
Authoritative Knowledge.” Social Studies of Science 35(3):
437–462.
Racine, Eric, et al. 2005. “fMRI in the Public Eye.” Nature Reviews
Neuroscience 6(2): 159-164.
Savulescu, Julian, and Anders Sandberg. 2008. “Neuroenhancement of
Love and Marriage: The
Chemicals Between Us.” Neuroethics 1 (2008): 31-44.
Shostak, Sara, Jeremy Freese, Bruce G. Link, and Jo C. Phelan.
2009. “The Politics of the Gene: Social
Status and Beliefs about Genetics for Individual Outcomes.” Social
Psychology Quarterly 72(1): 77-93.
GENDER
Inhorn, Marcia C., and Emily Wentzel. 2011. “Embodying Emergent
Masculinities: Reproductive and
Sexual health Technologies in the Middle East and Mexico.” American
Ethnologist 38(4):801-815.
Mamo, Laura and Jennifer Ruth Fosket. 2009. “Scripting the Body:
Pharmaceuticals and the (Re)Making
of Menstruation.” Signs 34: 925-49.
11
Martin, Emily. 1991. “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has
Constructed a Romance Based on
Stereotypical Male-Female Roles.” Signs: Journal of Women in
Culture and Society 16(3): 485-501.
Oudshoorn , Nelly. 1999. “On Masculinities, Technologies, and Pain:
The Testing of Male
Contraceptives in the Clinic and the Media,” Science, Technology,
and Human Values 24: 265-89.
Pietilä, Ilkka and Marja Rytkönen. 2008. “‘Health is Not a Man’s
Domain’: Lay Accounts of Gender
Difference in Life-Expectancy in Russia.” Sociology of Health and
Illness 30(7): 1070–1085.
Poovey, Mary. 1986. “‘Scenes of an Indelicate Character'’ The
Medical ‘Treatment’ of
Victorian Women.” Representations 14: 137-168.
Richardson, Sarah. 2010. “Sexes, Species, and Genomes: Why Males
and Females Are Not Like Humans
and Chimpanzees.” Biology and Philosophy 25: 823-41.
Schiebinger, Londa. 1986. “Skeletons in the Closet: The First
Illustrations of the Female
Skeleton in Eighteenth-Century Anatomy.” Representations 14: 42-
82.
Springer, Kristen W. and Dawne M. Mouzon. 2011. “‘Macho Men’ and
Preventive Health Care:
Implications for Older Men in Different Social Classes.” Journal of
Health and Social Behavior 52(2)
212–227.
RACE
Burchard, Esteban González, et al. 2003. “The Importance of Race
and Ethnic Background in Biomedical
Research and Clinical Practice.” The New England Journal of
Medicine 348:1170-1175.
Duster, Troy. 2005. “Race and Reification in Science.” Science
307:1050-1051.
Fullwiley, Duana. 2007. “The Molecularization of Race:
Institutionalizing Human Difference in
Pharmacogenetics Practice.” Science as Culture 16(1): 1- 30.
Nelson, Alondra. 2008. “Bio science: Genetic Genealogy Testing and
the Pursuit of African Ancestry.”
Social Studies of Science, 38(5): 759-78.
Sankar, Pamela. 2003. “MEDLINE Definitions of Race and Ethnicity
and Their Application to Genetic
Research.” Nature Genetics 32:119.
Shim, Janet K. 2005. “Constructing 'Race' across the Science-Lay
Divide: Racial Formation in the
Epidemiology and Experience of Cardiovascular Disease.” Social
Studies of Science 35(3): 405-36.
Tehranifar, Parisa, et al. 2009. “Medical Advances and
Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Cancer Survival.”
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention 18:2701-2708.
(IM)MORTALITY
Benjamin, Ruha. 2011. “Organized Ambivalence: When Stem Cell
Research & Sickle Cell
Disease Converge.” Ethnicity & Health 16(45): 447-463.
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Kaufman, Sharon R. Janet K. Shim, and Ann J. Russ. 2004.
“Revisiting the Biomedicalization of Aging:
Clinical Trends and Ethical Challenges.” The Gerontologist
44(6):731-8
Landecker, Hannah. 2002. “New Times for Biology: Nerve Cultures and
the Advent of Cellular Life in
Vitro.” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and
Biomedical Sciences 33:667-694.
Scott, Christopher T., Jennifer McCormick, & Jason Owen-Smith.
2010. "Federal policy and the use of
pluripotent stem cells." Nature Methods. 11: 866-867.
Scott, Christopher T., et al. 2011. "Democracy Derived: New
Trajectories in Pluripotent Stem Cell
Research." Cell. 145(6): 820-826.