Spring 2023 HSTM Undergrad Courses

HSCI courses - Spring 2023

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HSCI 1011: Digital World

Description: Essential knowledge and critical perspective to understand today's Digital World. The history and social impact of the digital revolution, including security, surveillance, "virtual reality," and the future of the Internet. More info. 

Units: 3.00

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 - May 01, 2023

Meeting times: MW 12:20 PM - 1:10 PM 

Location: Willey Hall 125

Instructor: Honghong Tinn

HSCI 1212: Life on Earth: Origins, Evolution & Ecology

Description: How have people explained where life came from and how it has developed over time? We examine controversies over life's origins, the Holocene extinction, human population growth, the Dust Bowl and soil conservation, DDT and falcon repatriation, and disease and responses to pandemics. Evolution, natural theology. Ecosystems. More info.

Units: 4.00

Dates: TTh 09:45 AM – 11:00 AM 

Location: Mayo Bldg/Additions C231

Instructor: Susan Jones

HSCI 1714: Stone Tools to Steam Engines: Technology and History to 1750

Description: Technology is an enormous force in our society, and has become so important that in many ways it seems to have a life of its own. This course uses historical case studies to demonstrate that technology is not autonomous, but a human activity, and that people and societies made choices about the technologies they developed and used. It asks how technological differences between nations influenced their different courses of development, and why some societies seemed to advance while others did not. We ask how technological choices can bring about consequences greater than people expected, and how we might use this knowledge in making our own technological choices. In particular, we explore the historical background, development, and character of the most widespread technological systems the world has known, from prehistoric stone tool societies, through Egypt and the pyramids, ancient Greece and Rome, the explosion of Islam, and the dynamic and often violent technologies of medieval Europe. More info. 

Units: 3.00

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Multiple sections. 

Instructor: Mary Thomas

HSCI 1815: Making Modern Science: Atoms, Genes and Quanta

Description: This class is the second part of a two-semester introductory survey of the history of science. The two parts can be taken independently of one another. This class covers a selection of developments in physics, chemistry, biology, and geology from the 18th-20th C. We examine the reasoning of some of the leading scientists involved, while being sensitive to the broader social and cultural contexts in which they worked. We also pay attention to the ways in which we obtain knowledge in the history of science. To allow for meaningful analysis of the material, the course is clustered around a few pivotal episodes: the chemical revolution of the late-18th C., the Darwinian revolution of the 19th C and the relativity and quantum revolutions of the early-20th C. We also study the impact of these scientific developments on society. In particular, we look at the reaction of various religious groups to Darwin's theory and at the development of nuclear weapons made possible by the development of modern physics. We pay special attention to the increasingly international character of science during the period covered in this class, while emphasizing differences between the developments in various countries (notably Britain, Germany, France, and the United States). The objective of the course is to give you a better understanding not just of the historical development of scientific ideas but also of the role science plays in modern societies by tracing how it came to play that role. Style: 75% Lecture, 25% Discussion. Read more.  

Units: 4.0 

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Location: Armory Building 116

Instructor: William Vogel

 

HSCI 3242: Navigating a Darwinian World

Description: In this course we grapple with the impact of Darwin's theory of evolution in the scientific community and beyond. We'll examine and engage the controversies that have surrounded this theory from its inception in the 19th century through its applications in the 21st. What made Darwin a Victorian celebrity, a religious scourge, an economic sage and a scientific hero? We'll look closely at the early intellectual influences on theory development; study the changing and dynamic relationship between science and religion; and critically analyze the application of Darwin's theory to questions of human nature and behavior. Read more.  

Units: 3.0

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Location: Bruininks Hall 131A

Instructor: Mark Borrello

 

HSCI 3611: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Rise of Modern Science

Description: Understanding the origins of our own culture of Modern Science in the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. Newton's ambiguous legacy; science as wonder and spectacle; automata and monsters; early theories of sex and gender; empire and scientific expeditions; reshaping the environment; inventing human sciences; Frankenstein and the limits of science and reason. Read more.  

Units: 3.0

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Location: Mechanical Engineering 321

Instructor: Victor Boantza

 

HSCI 3714: Stone Tools to Steam Engines: Technology and History to 1750

Description: Technology is an enormous force in our society, and has become so important that in many ways it seems to have a life of its own. This course uses historical case studies to demonstrate that technology is not autonomous, but a human activity, and that people and societies made choices about the technologies they developed and used. It asks how technological differences between nations influenced their different courses of development, and why some societies seemed to advance while others did not. We ask how technological choices can bring about consequences greater than people expected, and how we might use this knowledge in making our own technological choices. In particular, we explore the historical background, development, and character of the most widespread technological systems the world has known, from prehistoric stone tool societies, through Egypt and the pyramids, ancient Greece and Rome, the explosion of Islam, and the dynamic and often violent technologies of medieval Europe. Read more.  

Units: 3.0

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Multiple sections.

Instructor: Mary Thomas

 

HSCI 3815: Making Modern Science: Atoms, Genes and Quanta

Description: How scientists like Darwin and Einstein taught us to think about nature; everything from space, time and matter to rocks, plants, and animals. Read more.  

Units: 4.0

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Location: Armory Building 116

Instructor: William Voegel

 

HSCI 4121W: History of 20th-Century Physics

Description: The transition from classical to modern physics (relativity, quantum) and its architects (from Planck and Einstein to Heisenberg and Schrödinger). The WWII bomb projects in the US and in Germany. Post-war developments (solid state, particle physics).

Prereq: calculus or permission from the instructor. Read more.  

Units: 3.0

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Location: John T. Tate Hall 110

Instructor: Michel Janssen

 

HSCI 4455: Women, Gender, and Science

Description: Three intersecting themes analyzed from 1700s to the present: women in science, sexual and gendered concepts in modern sciences, and impact of science on conceptions of sexuality and gender in society. Read more.  

Units: 3.0

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Location: Bruininks Hall 121

Instructor: Anna Graber

HMED courses - Spring 2023

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HMED 3002W: Health Care in History II

Description: HMED 3002W explores the history of medicine from the late 1700s through present day. It uses disease as a framework to look at the ways in which medical knowledge, the practice of medicine, and the experience of providers and patients has changed over time. Hands-on work with archival materials from places like the Wangensteen Historical Library will reveal that diseases are more than just objective, biological entities. They are also cultural constructs that are deeply entwined with social, political, and economic factors. Read more. 

Credits: 4.00

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 - May 01, 2023

Location: Amundson Hall 156

Instructor: TBD

 

HMED 3040: Human Health, Disease, and the Environment in History

Description: Introduction to historical relationship of human health and the environment. How natural/human-induced environmental changes have, over time, altered our experiences with disease and our prospects for health. Read more.

Units: 3.0

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Location: Cooke Hall 215

Instructor: Jole Shackelford

HMED 3055: Women, Health, and History

Description: Women's historical roles as healers, patients, research subjects, health activists. Biological determinism, reproduction, mental health, nursing, women physicians, public health reformers, alternative practitioners. Gender disparities in diagnosis, treatment, research, careers. Assignments allow students to explore individual interests. Read more.

Units: 3.0

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Location: Bruininks Hall 530B

Instructor: Macey Flood

HMED 3993: Directed Study

Description: Guided individual reading or study. Read more.

Units: 1.0 - 4.0

Dates: Jan 17, 2023 – May 01, 2023

Location: None

Instructor: Jennifer Gunn

Course catalog

HSCI/HMED Courses

View the HSCI/HMED course catalog to view frequency of offering and short descriptions for all HSCI/HMED courses.

You can also view the full department course offerings on the MyU portal.