printer friendly pageAA 120Q: Building Trust in Autonomy
Major advances in both hardware and software have accelerated the development of autonomous systems that have the potential to bring significant benefits to society. Google, Tesla, and a host of other companies are building autonomous vehicles that can improve safety and provide flexible mobility options for those who cannot drive themselves. On the aviation side, the past few years have seen the proliferation of unmanned aircraft that have the potential to deliver medicine and monitor agricultural crops autonomously. In the financial domain, a significant portion of stock trades are performed using automated trading algorithms at a frequency not possible by human traders. How do we build these systems that drive our cars, fly our planes, and invest our money? How do we develop trust in these systems? What is the societal impact on increased levels of autonomy?
Last offered: Winter 2017
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR, WAY-SMA
AFRICAAM 122F: Histories of Race in Science and Medicine at Home and Abroad (AFRICAST 122F, CSRE 122F, HISTORY 248D)
This course has as its primary objective, the historical study of the intersection of race, science and medicine in the US and abroad with an emphasis on Africa and its Diasporas in the US. By drawing on literature from history, science and technology studies, sociology and other related disciplines, the course will consider the sociological and cultural concept of race and its usefulness as an analytical category. The course will explore how the study of race became its own ¿science¿ in the late-Enlightenment era, the history of eugenics--a science of race aimed at the ostensible betterment of the overall population through the systematic killing or "letting die" of humanity¿s "undesirable" parts, discuss how the ideology of pseudo-scientific racism underpinned the health policies of the French and British Empires in Africa, explore the fraught relationship between race and medicine in the US, discuss how biological notions of race have quietly slipped back into scientific projects in the 21st century and explore how various social justice advocates and scholars have resisted the scientific racisms of the present and future and/or proposed new paths towards a more equitable and accessible science.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
AFRICAAM 223: Literature and Human Experimentation (COMPLIT 223, CSRE 123B, HUMBIO 175H, MED 220)
This course introduces students to the ways literature has been used to think through the ethics of human subjects research and experimental medicine. We will focus primarily on readings that imaginatively revisit experiments conducted on vulnerable populations: namely groups placed at risk by their classification according to perceived human and cultural differences. We will begin with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), and continue our study via later works of fiction, drama and literary journalism, including Toni Morrison's Beloved, David Feldshuh's Miss Evers Boys, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann and Vivien Spitz's Doctors from Hell, Rebecca Skloot's Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical and policy writings of the period; and our ultimate goal will be to understand modes of ethics deliberation that are possible via creative uses of the imagination, and literature's place in a history of ethical thinking about humane research and care. Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Ikoku, A. (PI)
;
Jayasinghe, D. (TA)
AFRICAAM 229: Literature and Global Health (AFRICAST 229, COMPLIT 229, CSRE 129B, FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234)
This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Ikoku, A. (PI)
;
Jayasinghe, D. (TA)
AFRICAST 122F: Histories of Race in Science and Medicine at Home and Abroad (AFRICAAM 122F, CSRE 122F, HISTORY 248D)
This course has as its primary objective, the historical study of the intersection of race, science and medicine in the US and abroad with an emphasis on Africa and its Diasporas in the US. By drawing on literature from history, science and technology studies, sociology and other related disciplines, the course will consider the sociological and cultural concept of race and its usefulness as an analytical category. The course will explore how the study of race became its own ¿science¿ in the late-Enlightenment era, the history of eugenics--a science of race aimed at the ostensible betterment of the overall population through the systematic killing or "letting die" of humanity¿s "undesirable" parts, discuss how the ideology of pseudo-scientific racism underpinned the health policies of the French and British Empires in Africa, explore the fraught relationship between race and medicine in the US, discuss how biological notions of race have quietly slipped back into scientific projects in the 21st century and explore how various social justice advocates and scholars have resisted the scientific racisms of the present and future and/or proposed new paths towards a more equitable and accessible science.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Hill, R. (PI)
AFRICAST 135: Designing Research-Based Interventions to Solve Global Health Problems (AFRICAST 235, EDUC 135, EDUC 335, HRP 235, HUMBIO 26, MED 235)
The excitement around social innovation and entrepreneurship has spawned numerous startups focused on tackling world problems, particularly in the fields of education and health. The best social ventures are launched with careful consideration paid to research, design, and efficacy. This course offers students insights into understanding how to effectively develop, evaluate, and scale social ventures. Using TeachAIDS (an award-winning nonprofit educational technology social venture used in 78 countries) as a primary case study, students will be given an in-depth look into how the entity was founded and scaled globally. Guest speakers will include world-class experts and entrepreneurs in Philanthropy, Medicine, Communications, Education, and Technology. Open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
Instructors:
Sorcar, P. (PI)
;
Naim, K. (TA)
AFRICAST 141A: Science, Technology, and Medicine in Africa (ANTHRO 141A)
Africa is often depicted as a place simply in need of science, technology, andnmedicine. This class will introduce students to the culture and politics of science innsub-Saharan Africa: to the diverse and rich traditions, histories and contemporarynpredicaments of knowledge practices on the continent. We will consider the rolenof science in the colonial period, covering the expansion of European empires intonAfrica and the forms of technical knowledge that colonial governments encountered, especially as they relate to health and the environment. We will examine the role of science at African independence and in international development work. Finally, we will discuss the techno-politics of medical training and research, resource extraction, and the internet in contemporary Africa. This course will provide some important background for those with an applied interest in Africa as well as provide an introduction to a growing area of scholarship. Course materials include historical and ethnographic works, as well as primary sources and films emphasizing scientific practice in the context of geopolitical relations of power and inequality.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
AFRICAST 229: Literature and Global Health (AFRICAAM 229, COMPLIT 229, CSRE 129B, FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234)
This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Ikoku, A. (PI)
;
Jayasinghe, D. (TA)
AFRICAST 235: Designing Research-Based Interventions to Solve Global Health Problems (AFRICAST 135, EDUC 135, EDUC 335, HRP 235, HUMBIO 26, MED 235)
The excitement around social innovation and entrepreneurship has spawned numerous startups focused on tackling world problems, particularly in the fields of education and health. The best social ventures are launched with careful consideration paid to research, design, and efficacy. This course offers students insights into understanding how to effectively develop, evaluate, and scale social ventures. Using TeachAIDS (an award-winning nonprofit educational technology social venture used in 78 countries) as a primary case study, students will be given an in-depth look into how the entity was founded and scaled globally. Guest speakers will include world-class experts and entrepreneurs in Philanthropy, Medicine, Communications, Education, and Technology. Open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
Instructors:
Sorcar, P. (PI)
;
Naim, K. (TA)
AFRICAST 249: Bodies, Technologies, and Natures in Africa (ANTHRO 348B, HISTORY 349)
This interdisciplinary course explores how modern African histories, bodies, and natures have been entangled with technological activities. Viewing Africans as experts and innovators, we consider how technologies have mediated, represented, or performed power in African societies. Topics include infrastructure, extraction, medicine, weapons, communications, sanitation, and more. Themes woven through the course include citizenship, mobility, labor, bricolage, in/formal economies, and technopolitical geographies, among others. Readings draw from history, anthropology, geography, and social/cultural theory.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
Instructors:
Hecht, G. (PI)
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