Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 1 sessions / week, 3 hours / session
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Course Description
If the twentieth century was the century of physics, the twenty-first has become the century of biology. This subject examines the cultural, political, and economic dimensions of biology in the age of genomics, biotechnological enterprise, biodiversity conservation, pharmaceutical bioprospecting, synthetic biology, global pandemic, and more. Although we examine such social concerns as genetic modification and reproductive rights, this is not a class in bioethics, but rather an anthropological inquiry into how the substances and explanations of biology—increasingly cellular, molecular, genetic, viral, and informatic—are changing, and with them broader ideas about the relationship between “nature” and “culture.” Looking at such scientific forms as cell lines, CRISPR, and epidemiological models, and drawing upon primary sources in biology, social studies of the life sciences, and literary and cinematic materials, we rephrase Erwin Schrödinger’s famous 1944 question, “What Is Life?” to ask, in the 2000s, “What Is Life Becoming?”
Required Books
Pollock, Anne. Sickening: Anti-Black Racism and Health Disparities in the United States. University of Minnesota Press, 2021. ISBN: 9781517911720. [Preview with Google Books]
Kirksey, Eben. The Mutant Project: Inside the Global Race to Genetically Modify Humans. St. Martin’s Press, 2020. ISBN: 9781250265357. [Preview with Google Books]
Roosth, Sophia. Synthetic: How Life Got Made. University of Chicago Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780226440460. [Preview with Google Books]
Additional required readings can be found in the Readings section.
Grading Policy
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Paper 1 | 25% |
| Paper 2 | 25% |
| Paper 3 | 25% |
|
Class Participation Students will also be responsible for the preparation of pre-class comments on the class website to prompt class conversation (you may miss three postings with no penalty). |
25% |
For details on the class activities, see the Assignments section.
Academic Integrity
Students are expected to adhere to MIT’s guidelines on academic integrity. Plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, cheating, or facilitating academic dishonesty may cause us to contact the Office of Student Citizenship or Committee on Discipline. If you have questions about what qualifies as plagiarism check out: Academic Integrity at MIT: A Handbook for Students.
