Colonial Science and Its Legacies (U04485)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : SPS-3-SUCS

This interdisciplinary option aims to introduce issues surrounding the history and sociology of science and technology as they were mediated by colonial empires. To achieve this aim we will examine the social construction and implementation of scientific knowledge in a variety of disciplines, spaces and time periods, with an emphasis on India and Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course includes material from roughly 1750 until the 1960s and will use examples from around the globe, although with emphasis on Indian and African contexts. Our concerns in this course will include:

the role of scientific knowledge as a justifier of colonial intervention;
the appropriation of local knowledge and its incorporation into western science;
mechanisms for technology transfer;
how western science influenced, and was influenced by, the wider world;
the influence of place on scientific knowledge;
the history of development schemes and the necessity of understanding this history for current development policy and analysis.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Science Studies Unit, (School of Social and Political Science, Schedule J)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

? Additional Class Information : A single two-hour session per week consisting of two parts: one hour for lecture and one hour for seminar discussion.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

be able to offer their own analyses of the practices of colonial science using theoretical tools from within the history and sociology of scientific knowledge and technology;

possess an advanced knowledge of the historiographical and sociological literature which addresses the themes of the course;

gain experience in dealing with primary source materials and learn to assess these materials critically;

develop their skills in essay-writing and oral presentation.