Spring 2024 Undergraduate Courses

HSCI

HMED

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HSCI 1101: Digital World

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

Instructor: Honghong Tim

Dates: 01/16/2024 - 4/29/2024

Meeting Times: MoWeFr 12:20PM - 1:10PM

Location: Anderson Hall 270

Units: 3.0

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

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

Instructor: Susan Jones

Dates: 01/16/2024 - 04/29/2024

Meeting Times: TTh 9:45 AM11:00 AM

Location: Mayo Building C231

Units: 4.0

HSCI 1714/3714: Stone Tools to Steam Engines: Technology and History to 1750

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

Instructor: Mary Thomas

Dates: 01/16/2024 - 04/29/2024

Meeting Times: Mo 6:00PM - 8:45PM; We 6:00PM - 8:45PM

Location: Bruininks Hall 530A; Bruininks Hall 330

Units: 3.0 - 4.0

HSCI 3242/5242: Navigating a Darwinian World

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. More Info

Instructor: Mark Borrello

Dates: 01/16/2024 - 04/29/2024

Meeting Times: TTh 11:15 AM12:30 PM 

Location: Mechanical Engineering 25

Units: 3.0

HSCI 3421/5421: Engineering Ethics

Ethical issues in engineering research and engineers' public responsibility/practice, using historical cases; historical development of engineering as a vocation/profession; ethical implications of advanced engineering systems such as nuclear weaponry and networked communications. More Info

Instructor: Jennifer Alexander

Dates: 01/16/2024 - 04/29/2024

Meeting Times: MWF 10:10 AM11:00 AM

Location: Appleby Hall 303

Units: 3.0

HSCI 3611/5611: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Rise of Modern Science

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. More Info

Instructor: Victor Boantza

Dates: 01/16/2024 - 04/29/2024

Meeting Times: MW 11:15 AM12:30 PM

Location: Amundson Hall 120

Units: 3.0

HSCI 4455: Women, Gender, and Science

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. More Info

Instructor: Anna Graber

Dates: 01/16/2024 - 04/29/2024

Meeting Times: MW 02:30 PM03:45 PM

Location: Bruininks Hall 121

Units: 3.0

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HMED 3002W: Health Care in History II

The course explores the history of medicine from the early 1800s through the present day. Topics covered include the history of public health, germ theory, medical technology, surgery, empire and medicine, health insurance, and mind-body medicine. Hands-on work at the Wangensteen Historical Library will also enrich our understanding of diseases as more than objective biological entities. Special attention is paid to the ways culture, race, and economy have shaped the history of healthcare over time. More Info

Instructor: Wayne Soon

Dates: 01/16/2024 - 04/29/2024

Meeting Times: MWF 10:10 AM11:00 AM

Location: Bruininks 312

Units: 4.0

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

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. More Info

Instructor: Joe Shackelford

Dates: 01/16/2024 - 04/29/2024

Meeting Times: TTh 11:15 AM12:30 PM

Location: Bruininks Hall 512A

Units: 3.0

HMED 3055: Women, Health, and History

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. More Info


Instructor: Jennifer Gunn, Matthew Reznicek

Dates: 01/16/2024 - 01/16/2024

Meeting Times: TTh 09:45 AM11:00 AM

Location: Bruininks Hall 530A

Units: 3.0