Course Descriptions
HSTC 1201 Introduction to the History of Science I: from the Ancients to the Birth of the Modern
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course covers the historical foundations of science, from ancient Babylonia to the Enlightenment. Open to first-year students and above, it can be taken as a humanities or a science course and serves as preparation for its modern counterpart,
HSTC 1202.03 /
HSTC 2212.03 /
HIST 2076.03 /
SCIE 2002.03.
NOTES:
HSTC 1201.03 and HSTC1202.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
HSTC 2211.03,
HIST 2075.03,
SCIE 2001.03
EXCLUSIONS: HSTC 1200.06, HSTC 2200.06, HIST 2074.06, SCIE 2000.06
HSTC 1202 Introduction to the History of Science II: From The Birth of the Modern to the Present
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course covers the creation of modern science, from the radical changes of the Enlightenment to contemporary notions of technoscience and our place in nature and the cosmos. It follows the themes and contexts introduced in
HSTC 1201.03/
HSTC 2211.03/
HIST 2075.03/
SCIE 2001.03. Open to first-year students and above, it can be taken as a humanities or science credit.
NOTES:
HSTC 1201.03 and
HSTC 1202.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year
FORMAT:
PREREQUISITES:
HSTC 1201.03 or permission of the instructor
CROSS-LISTING:
HSTC 2212.03,
HIST 2076.03,
SCIE 2002.03
EXCLUSIONS: HSTC 1200.06, HSTC 2200.06, HIST 2074.06, SCIE 2000.06
HSTC 2001 Beginnings of Wisdom: Science in the Pre-modern World
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course introduces key developments in pre-modern science. Fundamental concepts in the physical sciences, astronomy and cosmology are treated through the study of primary sources from antiquity (Near Eastern and Greco-Roman) and the medieval Islamic, Jewish and Christian cultures. We will be attentive to the wider cultural contexts in which science was pursued and to intersections between science and other ways of knowing (e.g., myth, magic, religion).
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
CLAS 2001.03
EXCLUSIONS: HSTC 2000X/Y.06
HSTC 2002 Medieval Natural Philosophy: From the Roman Empire to the Age of Dante
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course introduces key developments in medieval understandings of nature (better called "natural philosophy" than "science") through a direct engagement with primary sources. We consider how the texts and authorities of antiquity (Plato and Aristotle, most notably) were assimilated, adapted, and transformed during the Roman Empire, in Islam, and in later medieval Christian Europe. Questions such as the role of ‘nature’ in defining human happiness, the good life, and the character of political power will figure prominently. We will attend to the limits of ‘natural’ reason in relation to established disciplines like theology, as well as more contested areas of knowledge such as magic, astrology and alchemy. The approach taken will be that of intellectual history, in the sense that we will focus on fundamental concepts articulated by the authors and on careful textual exegesis, while always attentive to the wider historical and cultural contexts. Especially given that this course's authors, texts, and contexts are quite distant in time from our contemporary world, there will also be occasions for us to reflect on the challenges facing the modern inquirer into pre-modern conceptions of nature and scientific knowledge.
FORMAT:
PREREQUISITES:
HSTC 2001.03 is recommended, but not required.
CROSS-LISTING: CLAS 2002.03
EXCLUSIONS: HSTC2000X/Y.06
HSTC 2011 The Lecture Series
CREDIT HOURS: 3
In some years a lecture series course is offered. Students are allowed to take up to three such courses, one for each year of upper-level study. Each course will consist of six bi-weekly evening lectures given by specialists from Atlantic Canada and beyond, and a weekly two-hour seminar. The lecturers will offer students reflections on a number of contemporary issues and themes. Each year a different theme will be explored.
NOTE: Course Details listed here also apply to
HSTC 3011/
HSTC 4011.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
HSTC 3011.03,
HSTC 4011.03
HSTC 2102 Origins of Modern Medicine
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course looks at defining moments that led to modern health and medicine, beginning with the ancient world leading up to the development of ‘modern’ institutionalized medicine at the birth of the 20th Century. Focus will be on changing ideas about the causes of disease and the possibilities of medicine, but also on the broader conceptions of health, life and death and their social/cultural place. This class also stands as the Core Area Credit in the Medical Humanities Certificate Program.
FORMAT:
HSTC 2105 The Life, Science and Philosophy of Albert Einstein
CREDIT HOURS: 3
In 1999
Time Magazine named Albert Einstein "Person of the Century" for the impact his scientific work had not only on physics, but also on culture in general. In this course, we will explore how Einstein's proof of the existence of atoms, his belief in light particles (the photons), and his application of the famous principle of relativity revolutionized both modern physics and philosophy. We will also pay attention to the main events of Einstein's life (his divorce, the rise of Nazism in Germany, etc.), Einstein's pacifism and Zionism, his attitude toward religion and his personal relationships with other scientists (Poincaré, Bohr, etc.) to understand the personal, social and cultural contexts in which these revolutionary theories were developed. NO prior knowledge of physics, mathematics, or philosophy is expected. This course is for everyone with interest in science, but is not a science course (mathematics will be kept at a minimum).
FORMAT:
HSTC 2120 Magic, Science and the Occult: from Antiquity to Postmodernity
CREDIT HOURS: 3
A perennial source of fear and fascination, magic and related forms of ‘occultism’ (e.g. alchemy and astrology) have been dismissed as pseudo-science and even stigmatized as ‘Satanism’. This course aims to recover the original meaning of occultism from the perspective of the practitioners of magic. It explores the origins and development of the ‘occult sciences’, highlighting their often-overlooked contributions to the history of science, and their continuing evolution in the modern world.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
HIST 2990.03,
EMSP 2360.03,
RELS 2120.03
HSTC 2202 The Beginnings of Western Medicine: the Birth of the Body
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course will look at how the body was viewed in ancient scientific theory and practice. Western medicine as a rationalized scientific practice finds its origins in the ancient Greek philosophical and medical texts attributed to “Hippocrates”. Through a close reading of selected ancient medical texts, this course will explore ideas of how the human body is constituted, how it relates to the Cosmos as a whole, what the role of the physician was seen to be, and how illness and healing were seen as changes in the balance of the components of the body.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
CLAS 2202.03
HSTC 2204 The Darwinian Revolution
CREDIT HOURS: 3
Arguably, the Darwinian Revolution marks the greatest revolution in our conception of nature and our place within it, deeply challenging received views on chance, teleology, history, the soul and nature. This course opens up the historical and philosophical background to the Darwinian revolution, the main episodes of that revolution and the consequences for contemporary moral, scientific and social theory. Emphasis will be placed on reading contemporary primary texts.
FORMAT:
HSTC 2205 Totalitarianism and Science
CREDIT HOURS: 3
The question of who has authority over funding, direction and priorities of modern science is a central political concern. This course considers the case of totalitarian states (USSR and Nazi Germany) and consists of two parts. Part I analyses the essential features of totalitarian regimes. Part II concentrates on the fortune of particular sciences (medicine, biology, physics) under them.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
HIST 2985.03,
CTMP 2205.03
HSTC 2206 Bio-Politics: Human Nature in Contemporary Thought
CREDIT HOURS: 3
To what extent do biology and culture determine what it is to be human? Drawing on theorists ranging from Foucault to Steven Pinker, this course will examine the recent political, moral and existential issues raised by attempts to answer that question. Topics will include socio-biology, evolutionary psychology, the construction of human kinds and the problem of free will.
FORMAT: Lecture
CROSS-LISTING:
CTMP 2203.03
HSTC 2209 Environmentalism: origins, ideals, and critique
CREDIT HOURS: 3
In this course, we examine the ideals of environmentalism from its origins in the late 18th century to the present. Topics include the romantic critique of industrialization, forest management and sustainability, wilderness preservation, animal rights, radical environmentalism, and environmental justice.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
CTMP 2206.03
HSTC 2210 Engineering the Planet: the Anthropocene Era, from Prehistory to Today's Global Crisis
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course explores the notion of the Anthropocene, the idea that the Earth has been significantly and permanently altered by human activity. Through the lens of environmental history, the course examines the material, social, political, and conceptual technologies used to relate and manipulate environments over the last 12 000 years.
FORMAT:
LECTURE HOURS PER WEEK: 3
EXCLUSIONS: HSTC 3210.03
HSTC 2211 Introduction to the History of Science I: from the Ancients to the Birth of the Modern
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course covers the historical foundations of science, from ancient Babylonia to the Enlightenment. Open to first-year students and above, it can be taken as a humanities or a science course and serves as preparation for its modern counterpart,
HSTC 1202.03/
HSTC 2212.03/
HIST 2076.03/
SCIE 2002.03.
NOTES:
HSTC 2211.03 and
HSTC 2212.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
HSTC 1201.03,
HIST 2075.03,
SCIE 2001.03
EXCLUSIONS: HSTC 1200.06, HSTC 2200.06, HIST 2074.06, SCIE 2000.06
HSTC 2212 Introduction to the History of Science II: From The Birth of the Modern to the Present
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course covers the creation of modern science, from the radical changes of the Enlightenment to contemporary notions of technoscience and our place in nature and the cosmos. It follows the themes and contexts introduced in
HSTC 1201.03/
HSTC 2211.03/
HIST 2075.03/
SCIE 2001.03. Open to first-year students and above, it can be taken as a humanities or science credit.
NOTES:
HSTC 2211.03 and
HSTC 2212.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year
FORMAT:
PREREQUISITES:
HSTC 2211.03 or permission of the instructor
CROSS-LISTING:
HSTC 1202.03,
HIST 2076.03,
SCIE 2002.03
EXCLUSIONS: HSTC 1200.06, HSTC 2200.06, HIST 2074.06, SCIE 2000.06
HSTC 2220 IDEAS OF THE SEA AND SEAFARING: INTERCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
CREDIT HOURS: 3
A survey of intercultural ideas of the sea and seafaring from ancient to modern times. Topics include oceanic myths and origin stories, the myth of Atlantis, marine natural history, sea monsters, mermaids, the law and freedom of the sea, Black Atlantic identity, scientific sea voyages, oceanic science fiction, modern sea power, and marine conservation.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
EMSP 2490.03,
CTMP 2207.03
HSTC 2301 The Sciences of Disaster
CREDIT HOURS: 3
Headlines today are full of news of global environmental disaster—from flooding in Bangladesh to forest fires in Canada, from earthquakes in Japan to hurricanes in the Caribbean. Reports evoke the image of powerful natural forces striking unsuspecting populations, leaving death and destruction in their wake. In this course, we will reckon with two conflicting assumptions embedded in these narratives: that these disasters are ‘natural’ and that today’s climaterelated disasters are unprecedented. We will begin by studying different logics under which humans have worried that 'natural' disasters might be manmade, focusing on recent scholarship that argues that social inequalities shape the impacts of disaster. Next, we study specific sciences of disaster and the imperial settings in which they developed. We will then consider the political processes by which new events have come to be recognized as natural
disasters. Finally, we will analyze the politics of disaster in our changing climate.
FORMAT: Lecture
HSTC 2310 Women and Gender in Early Modern Science
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course will explore the roles of women, and questions about women’s nature, in the development of Early Modern science. The course will consider several interrelated aspects of scientific culture in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries: first, we will look at the place of women in the scientific institutions of the time. The second part of the course will look at the contributions of some particular women to the fields of physics, astronomy, botany, and medicine. We will then examine how science interpreted sex and gender. Finally, the course will explore the ways in which gender and nature were portrayed in the broader cultural context. We will, for example, discuss the ways in which women were depicted as scientists and as symbols of science in art and literature.
FORMAT:
CROSS-LISTING:
EMSP 2310.03,
GWST 2310.03
HSTC 2340 The Origins of Science Fiction in Early Modern Europe
CREDIT HOURS: 3
In 1500, literate Europeans lived in a bounded, geocentric universe. By 1800, the sun had replaced the earth at the centre of a limited planetary system situated in infinite space. These changes prompted early modern philosophers, scientists and writers to consider the possibility that the universe might contain a plurality of worlds. This course will explore the ways in which the “plurality” theme was developed in some of the earliest works of science fiction. We will consider this theme as it appears in stories of intergalactic voyages, utopian societies, and encounters with extraterrestrial beings, paying special attention to the ways in which early modern writers used these tales to speculate on philosophical, political, and scientific issues.
FORMAT: Seminar
CROSS-LISTING:
EMSP 2340.03
EXCLUSIONS:
EMSP 2330.03