STV Courses Fall 2005

Each of the Science, Technology, and Values courses listed has a cross-listing in one or another of the regular departments of the university. STV Minors may enroll in these as STV courses.

STUDENTS WISHING TO USE STV COURSES TO SATISFY UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENTS MUST REGISTER FOR THEM AS DEPARTMENTAL COURSES, FOR EXAMPLE, AS A PHILOSOPHY RATHER THAN AS AN STV COURSE. STUDENTS SHOULD ALSO CONSULT WITH THE STV DIRECTOR (Dr. Alpert) BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO "DOUBLE-COUNT" STV COURSES FOR UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENTS. THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR STUDENTS OUTSIDE THE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND LETTERS.

All courses listed as STV offerings are open only to students enrolled in the STV Minor until the end of the third period of registration. After this date enrollment is open on a space-available basis. All STV courses are "Premission required" courses.  YOU SHOULD EMAIL YOUR COURSE REQUESTS TO DR. ALPERT (salpert@nd.edu) SO YOU CAN BE PUT ON THE REGISTRATION LIST FOR EACH CLASS. This list will be used as the basis for authorizing registration in STV courses.  Permissions must be set within your records for the courses you request, so it is incumbent upon you to make sure you've make your requests known to Dr. Alpert well before your registration time. (Dr. Alpert will go into your registration record to give you permission, so you should then be able to register without incident.)  

Priority for authorization numbers will be given to seniors during first period, juniors during second period, sophomores during the third. You will be required to use your enroll in the STV courses you've requested within 24 hours of your registration time, or else you will forfeit that authorization.

STV 20556 (formerly STV 256) IS REQUIRED FOR ALL STUDENTS IN THE STV MINOR.  NOTE THAT IS WILL BE TAUGHT IN FALL 2005.

Students will satisfy the distribution requirements by taking a course in each of the three reconfigured clusters: "Human Dimensions of Science and Technology" (Human Dimensions); "Science, Technology and Ethics" (Ethics); and "Science, Technology and Public Policy" (Public Policy) with the fourth course either in one of these areas or from those marked "Elective."

Fall 2005 STV Course Offerings
    (Unless otherwise noted, all courses are 3 credit hours)

STV 20139  Minds, Brains and Persons          
Stubenberg, Leopold
        T R 12:30 - 1:45P  (section 01)     14435
        T R   2:00 - 3:15P  (section 02)    15852      (Human Dimensions)

This course will treat some central issues in the philosophy of mind, such as freedom of the will, personal identity, and the relationship between mind and body.

STV 20245 01 Medical Ethics             
Solomon, David
M W 10:40 - 11:30A         13560                        (Ethics)

An exploration from the point of view of ethical theory of a number of ethical problems in contemporary biomedicine. Topics discussed will include euthanasia, abortion, the allocation of scarce medical resources, truth telling in the doctor-patient relationship, the right to medical care and informed consent and human experimentation.
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STV20247 01 Environmental Ethics              
DePaul, Michael
T R 2:00 - 3:15P              15851                            (Ethics)

This course is concerned with the relationship between human beings and the rest of the natural world, and critically examines various proposals that have been made about how we ought to treat plants, animals, ecosystems, future generations, and scarce natural resources.
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STV20304 01 Energy & Society  
 Dobrowolska-Furdyna, Malgorzata
T R 3:30 - 4:45P          13497                      (Public Policy)

A course developing the basic ideas of energy and power and their applications from a quantitative and qualitative viewpoint. The fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) are studied together with their societal limitations (pollution, global warming, diminishing supply). Nuclear power is similarly studied in the context of the societal concerns that arise (radiation, reactor accidents, nuclear weapons proliferation, high-level waste disposal). The opportunities as well as the risks presented by alternative energy resources, in particular solar energy, wind, geothermal and hydropower, together with various aspects of energy conservation, are developed and discussed. This course is designed for the non-specialist.

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STV20431 01 Phil & Cosmology: A Revolution    
Brading, Katherine
T R 9:30 - 10:45A                      14433                 (Elective)

In the 17th century there was a revolution in our view of the cosmos and of our own place in it. Most vivid, perhaps was the change from believing that the Earth is at the center of everything to believing that the Earth is just one planet among many, orbiting the sun. This course will consider how and why these changes took place.
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STV20461 01 Nuclear Warfare                    
Wiescher, Michael
T R 12:30 - 1:45P                                16305                     (Elective)

Nuclear phenomena; nuclear fission and fusion. Nuclear weapons. Effects of blast, shock, thermal radiation, prompt and delayed nuclear radiation. Fire, fallout, ozone-layer depletion, electromagnetic pulse, "nuclear winter." Medical consequences, physical damage, effects on the individual and on society. Defensive measures and their feasibility. Scenarios for war and peace, proliferation of nuclear weapons material, recent diplomatic history. U.S. Bishops' Pastoral Letter. The course is open to all students and counts for science majors as a general elective credit.

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STV20556 01 Science, Technology, & Society      
McKim, Vaughn
M W F 12:50 - 1:40P             13551                  (Core Course)
   
This course introduces the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies. Our concern will be with science and technology (including medicine) as social and historical, i.e. e., as HUMAN, phenomena. We shall examine the divergent roots of contemporary science and technology, and the similarities and (sometimes surprising) differences in their methods and goals. The central theme of the course will be the ways in which science and technology interact with other aspects of society, including the effects of technical and theoretical innovation in bringing about social change, and the social shaping of science and technology themselves by cultural, economic and political forces. Because science/society interactions so frequently lead to public controversy and conflict, we shall also explore what resources are available to mediate such conflicts in an avowedly democratic society.

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STV30110 01 Health, Healing and Culture                
Lende, Daniel
T R 12:30 - 1:45P           14228               (Human Dimensions)

This course introduces the field of medical anthropology, which examines beliefs, practices, and experiences of illness, health, and healing from a cross-cultural perspective. This course will consider the ways in which medical anthropology has historically been influenced by debates within the discipline of anthropology, as well as by broader social and political movements. Particular emphasis will be placed on the importance of viewing biomedicine as one among many culturally constructed systems of medicine.
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STV40144 01 Religion and Science                   
Rea, Michael
M W 1:30 - 2:45P            16378                   (Human Dimensions)

An examination of the nature and limits of both scientific and religious knowledge, and a discussion of several cases in which science and religion seem to either challenge or support one another.

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STV40166 01 History of Modern Astronomy            
Crowe, Michael
M W 1:30 - 2:45P               16319                      (Human Dimensions)

The course traces the development of astronomy and cosmology from the late 17th century to the 1930s. Attention is given to the interactions of astronomy with other areas of science and with philosophical, religious, and social factors.
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STV40172 01 History of Chinese Medicine                
Murray, Dian
T R 9:30 - 10:45A           16385                       (Human Dimensions)

In light of the contemporary currency of certain Chinese practices in the field of alternative medicine, this course will explore the phenomenon of Chinese traditional medicine in both its historical and contemporary settings. The first unit, Medicine in Ancient China, will explore the earliest medical ideas of the Chinese and will demonstrate how the state's political unification gave rise to a correlative cosmology that not only included Heaven and Earth, but also human beings as integral elements of an organic cosmos. The second unit will explore the influences and contributions of Taoism (Daoism) and Buddhism to Chinese medicine and will explore what it meant to be both physicians and patients in late imperial China. The third unit will focus on medicine in contemporary China and will feature the experiences of Elisabeth Hsu, a student of Chinese medical anthropology who as a part of her doctoral research enrolled as a student in Yunnan Traditional Chinese Medical College between September 1988 and December 1989. We will conclude the course with a brief examination of the influence of Chinese medicine on the contemporary world.
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STV40319 01 Self, Society & Environment            
Weigert, Andrew
T R 2:00 - 3:15P                 13531                       (Public Policy)

This course introduces students to social psychological aspects of the natural environment. Issues considered include interacting with different environments, symbolic transformations of environments, competing accounts and claims concerning environments. With an overview of basic information, these issues are discussed from the perspectives of individual self and sociocultural institutions. The course touches on alternative ways of envisioning, interacting, and valuing human-environment relations with an eye toward individual and collective change.
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STV40401 01 The Future of Energy                        
Incropera, Frank
W 6:30 - 9:00P                            16032                                     (Elective)

This three-credit course provides a comprehensive treatment of the role of energy in society and may be taken concurrently by engineering and non-engineering students. It proceeds along two parallel tracks, one dealing with the scientific/technical foundations of energy utilization and the other with its economic, political, environmental and ethical implications. Scientific/technical issues will be treated at a level that is appropriate for non-engineers and at the same time beneficial to both engineers and non-engineers. The required background in mathematics is largely confined to high school algebra, with occasional use of elementary concepts from differential and integral calculus.
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STV40402 01 Wireless Communications       
(FOUR CREDIT HOURS)                   
Costello, Daniel & Huang, Yih-Fang
T R 9:30 - 10:45A                       16033                  (Elective)

This survey-style course offers an opportunity to gain a basic understanding of the technical, regulatory and busines aspects of the wireless revolution and its impact on society. It is intended for both engineering and non-engineering students. The course will include such topics as the representation, transmission and reception of information in electrical form, the physical properties of radio signals and other wireless media, the principles and challenges of sharing a common medium, and privacy and security issues, as well as the social and commercial implications of wireless communications.
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STV43134 01 Addiction, Science, & Values       
Manier, A.
M W 1:30 - 2:45P                15848         (Human Dimensions)

Students will be introduced to topics in the ethics of care for the indigent; to alternative therapies for recovery and maintenance; and to current brain models of addiction. They will be placed as volunteers (for 14 weeks) with institutions serving indigent recovering addicts in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties.
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STV43396 01 Tpc/Ecol: Environmental Justice     Shrader-Frechette, Kristin
W 4:00 - 6:30P                13774                       (Public Policy)

This course will survey environmental impact assessment (EIA), ecological risk assessment (ERA), and human-health risk assessment (HHRA); ethical and methodological issues related to these techniques; then apply these techniques to contemporary assessments for which state and federal governments are seeking comments by scientists and citizens. The course is hands-on, will have no tests, but will be project-based, with students working on actual assessments that they choose (about 2500 are done in U.S. each year). The goal will be to teach students EIA, ERA, and HHRA and how to evaluate draft analyses, particularly those used to site facilities or make environment-related decisions in which poor people, minorities, and other stakeholders are themselves unable to provide comments. Course will cover flaws in scientific method and flaws in ethics that typically appear in these assessments.