All STS students in the MA program and in the PhD streams must register for STS 501, 502, and 597/598.
The following courses will all carry STS credit in the 2024/25 academic year. This list is not exhaustive—other course may count for STS credits with the approval of your supervisor and the STS program director. Students may register in these courses via the UBC Course Schedule.
STS Core Courses
STS 501/HIST581D: Proseminar in Science and Technology Studies/ Topics in Science, Technology, and Society (Alexei Kojevnikov)
Technology and scientific knowledge have arguably been the major source of historical change and social development in human civilizations, either ancient, modern, or postmodern. The main crises of today – climate, pandemics, militarism, virtualization of reality, racism and decolonization – all involve scientific and technological aspects and expertise as critically important factors. The seminar serves as the introduction to the multi-disciplinary field of STS (science and technology studies) and will examine classic works in history, philosophy, rhetoric, anthropology and sociology of science and technology, introducing basic methodological approaches (the strong program, feminist, post-colonial, actor-network theory, etc.) and authors, such as Thomas Kuhn, Lorraine Daston, Ian Hacking, Gyan Prakash, Bruno Latour, Simon Schaffer, Londa Schiebinger, and others. The seminar is required for graduate students in the STS Program and welcomes students from other departments and fields who are interested in STS-related topics. No prerequisite background in STS is assumed. Written assignments consist of short weekly think-pieces and the final course paper.
STS 502/PHIL561 Alan Richardson
STS597 MA Colloquium
STS598 PhD Colloquium
STS599 MA Thesis
STS Related Courses Taught by STS Affiliated Faculty
Graduate Courses
GMST521/GMST424: Selected Issues in German-speaking Culture. Special Topic: Drugs, Dams and Cosmic Conspiracies (Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)
Term 2 Tue/Th 9:30 – 11:00 Buchanan Tower 997
The course will concentrate on a strange mix of conspiracy theories and outlandish mega-projects that emerged in the early 20th century. Some were ridiculous, some explicitly genocidal; some have disappeared, others are still with us or have recently returned. We will discuss their cultural and historical origins and how they are related to totalitarian visions of control and a radical reconstruction of the world and even life itself. THe focus will be on three case studies:
* Dams and Ethnic Terraforming, or, Draining the Mediterranean: The Atlantropa Project and the Generalplan Ost
* Drugs: Speed and LSD during and after the Third Reich (includes reading of Leo Perutz, Saint Peter’s Snow)
* Alien Dreams: Nazi UFOs, Antarctica and the Interplanetary Resurrection of the Dead
Note: This course is taught in English. As GMST 424 is the permanent replacement for GERM 408, students can receive credit for only one of the two.
ENGL535: Nineteenth-Century Minds and Machines (Suzy Anger)
EDCP557: Issues in the Teaching and Learning of the Science (Samia Kahn) – 2024S
PHIL560: Feminist Philosophy of Science (Alison Wylie)
The very idea of feminist philosophy of science is, for some, radically untenable; as an explicitly political stance, feminism can have nothing to do with science or how we understand it philosophically. The “value-free” ideals that underpin such objections have faced sustained critique on many fronts in recent decades. In this seminar we take the history of debate and the legacies of standpoint theory as a frame for exploring these ongoing debates.
ENGL565: Studies in Environmental Humanities (Alexander Dick) 2024S
Undergraduate Courses
GMST274: The Frankfurt School (Ilinca Lurascu)
PHIL310: The Philosophy of Aristotle (Sylvia Berryman)
Study of Aristotle’s philosophy, with an emphasis on his new approach to the study
of the natural world and his contributions to ethics. Studying Plato first (Phil 310 or
a similar course) is helpful and recommended, but not required.
PHIL337: Ethics for the Sciences (Alison Wylie)
Scientific research has an impact on all of us, and on every aspect of our lives. This course will provide an introduction to ethics issues that are raised by the (non-medical) social and natural sciences. It is organized around three central questions: what counts as “responsible conduct of research” (RCR)?; who is accountable for the social and environmental impacts of research?; what role do social values play in science and what role should scientific research play in policy-making?
PHIL362: History and Philosophy of Economics from Aristotle to Adam Smith (Margaret Schabas)
The development of economic thought from Aristotle to Adam Smith, focusing
primarily on the conceptual foundations of economics, particularly the problems of
value, distribution, and economic growth.
PHIL363: History and Philosophy of Economics from Ricardo to Keynes (Margaret Schabas)
The development of economic thought from David Ricardo up to the present,
including such figures as Mill, Jevons, and Keynes, focusing primarily on the
conceptual foundations of economics, particularly the problems of value,
distribution and growth.
PHIL364/HIST394: Darwin, Evolution, and Modern History (John Beatty)
In this course, we will investigate the development of evolutionary thought, paying special attention to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. To broaden our perspective, we will consider not only the scientific but also the social, political, economic, religious, and philosophical sources of Darwin’s thought. We will also consider his influence in all these areas. The Darwinian revolution was an historical development of wide-ranging significance.
ENGL393: Environmental Humanities (Alexander Dick)
PHIL461: Philosophy of Social Science (Margaret Schabas)
Topics in the philosophy of science of special concern to the social sciences: the
problem of objectivity, the use of models and evidence, causation and causal
reasoning, formal methods, the status of social kinds and norms, scientific
explanation, laws.
PHIL469: Topics in Philosophy of Science (Alan Richardson)
More to come soon
