How do technologies bring forward new forms of social and political life? How do history, cosmology, and economy configure the use of biotechnologies? We will explore questions such as these that animate recent work in medical anthropology and science and technology studies. Topics that we will consider include infrastructure and “datafication”; design and globalization of technologies; the ethics of new technologies, including genetic testing and artificial intelligence; and technologies involved in asthma care.
The course consists of lecture, discussion, and in-class problem work. Active participation in each class session is a requirement of this course. The ability to participate in discussions is an important skill and vital to the creation of academic communities. We will cultivate critical and creative thinking about medical technologies through regular reading response posts of images and text on Canvas; workshopping abstracts for the final paper; and collaborative work in-class.