85032 - Social Studies of Sciences (1)

Learning outcomes

The lectures and the tools provided bring students to examine, using original texts and documents, some key questions concerning the role of science and technology in contemporary society.

Course contents

Subject of this module: "Gender, science and society".

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the students will have: conducted an in-depth exploration of historical cases and contemporary data in order to understand the interactions between science and society and the way they have evolved over time; learned to assess the sources and use the critical tools needed to navigate independently in a society in which science, technology and medicine have for centuries represented fundamental factors of development as well as key cultural and educational resources.

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Course contents

This course aims to investigate the topic of interactions between science and society while focusing on the concept of gender, which will constitute the setting off point of the first lesson.

It will proceed on the basis of questions, starting with the following:

- What is science and how does it operate?

- Whether the topic is evolutionism, vaccines or the internet, how do male experts and, more rarely, female experts convince their communities and the general public that the scientific facts they produce are valid?

After introducing students to some of the different points of view put forward in the twentieth century to answer these questions, we will address them independently as a class, using the case of women's alleged "inferiority".

Women's inferiority - physical and cognitive, as we identify it today - in relation to men has been considered a natural fact for several millennia and, as such, has been the subject of inquiry by natural philosophers and scientists. Luckily for both women and certain minorities, however, sometimes scientific facts are only "temporarily right", as the Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-1988) has also pointed out; indeed, Feynman will often be cited in this course.

We will therefore look at long-term developments on the subject of "women's inferiority", from Aristotle to Darwin to gendered medicine. However, this exploration will begin from the present moment because our aim will be to develop an answer, supported by the data, to the doubts and uncertainties that affect us most directly, asking for instance:

- Despite the fact that it has been proven for decades now that there are no natural or scientific reasons to explain women's enduring social marginality, why do the "common sense" beliefs held by even the most highly educated components of humanity continue to accuse science and scientists of "biologizing determinism"?

- Why does this continue to occur even though, for some time now, the concept of gender has been integrated into many cutting-edge scientific laboratories even while it struggles to take root in the social sciences and humanities, particularly in southern Europe?

It is questions like these that will help us to investigate the way shared social values make their way into laboratories, conditioning how even the most keen-minded of scientists interpret the data before them. By examining these processes without falling into the commonplace trap of condemning science and scientists, we will be able to understand the importance of the relationship between experts and an informed public that does not depend on hearsay to develop its ideas. If, as we shall see, the relationship between science and society operates in both directions, it is not only experts who are socially responsible for what happens in laboratories, but also society or, in other words, all of us.

By conducting an investigation in these contexts, we will be able to develop answers - possibly temporary, but certainly supported by data-to questions such as: - Why is it more common in Italy than elsewhere to deny that science is actually cultural? What are the educational, economic and social implications of this tendency?

- Why, according to PISA data, do girls in many countries have more trouble than boys in mathematics, while in some countries their performance is equal to or better than that of boys?

- Why are women currently under-represented in Silicon Valley, even though historical research shows that until the early 1980s they played a pioneering role as both researchers and entrepreneurs in computer science, the skill set that drives the world's economies?

Readings/Bibliography

The program is the same for both attending and non-attending students, including Erasmus students, and consists of:

1. studying the modules and texts on the e-Learning platform, which can be accessed automatically by students who have signed up to include this course in their curriculum. In particular, the program will include: 1/A. an anthology of brief texts by historians and sociologists of science and scientists, which we will discuss in class [approximately 100 pp]; 1/B. B. Latour, La scienza in azione. Introduzione alla sociologia della scienza, Edizioni di Comunità, Turin, 1998, pp. 3-81 [the book is out of print but, with the author's permission, the sections to be studied will be uploaded to the e-Learning platform].

2. P. Govoni, Che cos’è la storia della scienza, nuova edizione ampliata e rivista, Rome, Carocci, 148 pp. (the volume will be available in January 2019).

Teaching methods

Face-to-face lessons and in-depth seminars. The e-Learning platform will provide: a detailed overview of the topics covered in each individual lesson;  articles and essays in pdf format; and illustrative Power Point presentations.

Students' participation in the classroom is of great importance in this course. Group discussion and inquiry-based learning will be encouraged. For this reason, students will be given the opportunity- individually or in small groups - to organize presentations on the topics covered by the course, in agreement with the professor. Up to 3 points can be earned by delivering an in-class presentation.

Towards the end of the course, students will be able to take a short written exam on what discussed during the lessons. They will be able to earn up to 5 points with the in itinere exam, which will be added to their exam scores.

Assessment methods

Oral exam

At the oral examination, students will be asked to respond to 2 or, at most, 3 questions outlined under points 1 and 2 of the Texts/Bibliography section, starting with a topic of their choice. The duration of the exam will be inversely proportional to the student's preparation: from a minimum of approximately 10 minutes to a maximum of approximately 20 minutes. The suggestions for delivering an in-class presentation provided in the link will also be useful for the oral exam.

Assessment criteria:

Assessment will be based on: the student's knowledge of the texts outlined under points 1 and 2 of the Texts/Bibliography section; ability to state arguments coherently, succinctly and in an individual manner; accuracy of expression.

Grades are in calculated out of a maximum of thirty points and vary from 18/30, for a passing grade, to 30/30 and Honors, for an excellent grade. For further information please refer to the professor's website.

Teaching tools

PowerPoint; E-learning platform.

Office hours

See the website of Paola Govoni