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Engineering
STS 2140/EVSC 2070: Earth Systems Technology and Management
Michael Gorman, Professor
Earth Systems Engineering Management (ESEM) is a comprehensive perspective that combines engineering, environmental science and psychology to explore how human beings can take care of the ecosystem. Students will listen to lectures and discuss background readings from a variety of perspectives related to ESEM. Then they will apply what they have read to a practical problem: identifying and managing national parks and other national entities like monuments, battlefields, etc. Why should these places be set aside? Are they, as Ken Burns suggest, "America's best idea?" What other countries have national park strategies?
Students will go on two field trips, one to the Shenandoah National Park and the other will be to the section of the Chancellorsville battlefield that has been preservved by the Civil War Preservation Trust.
STS 2500: Technology and Race in the United States [3]
Patricia Click, Associate Professor Emeritus
Prerequisite: STS1010 or STS1500
The history of technology has much to offer in illuminating the history of race in the United States. This course will focus on the history of African-American science and technology from colonial times to the present with the intended goal of simultaneously exploring the history of race. Students will study the social and cultural context of African-Americans’ contributions to science and technology, as well as the impact of these contributions on American society and culture. In addition, students will study the impact, in general, of science and technology on African-Americans.
Throughout the course, the approach will be both historical and topical. Likewise, the topic will be explored from the perspective of current work in the fields of science, technology, and society studies. There will be an ongoing effort to understand the ways that socially constructed ideas of race influenced the development and application of science and technology and vice versa. Likewise, the course will help students explore the various ways that African-Americans used invention and technology in creative ways to counter the socially constructed ideas of race that were often expressed in technological artifacts.
Course materials will include primary documents and scholarly essays, as well as some primary audio and video materials. Course assignments for each student will include a copious amount of reading, a daily journal, three short papers, and participation as a member of a research team. The culminating experience for the course will be team research projects (substantial, team-written research papers and team presentations) on topics related to technology, race, and diversity in the twenty-first century.
STS 2500: The Curious History of Wine in Virginia: A Sociotechnical Systems Approach [3]
Kathryn A. Neeley, Associate Professor
Prerequisite: STS1010 or STS1500
From prehistory to the present, wine has played a complicated and important role in human experience in domains ranging from technical innovations, scientific discovery, economics, and politics to social relations, spirituality, aesthetics, and health. To render this vast territory manageable, the course will focus on the history of wine in Virginia with an emphasis on the pre-Revolutionary War period. Using an analytical framework that conceives of sociotechnical systems as integrating three interrelated but distinguishable elements (technical, organizational, and cultural), we will consider all aspects of the human activity of cultivating grapes; making, selling, regulating, and consuming wine; and defining its role and meaning in human experience.
In addition to pursing research into topics of their own choosing, students will contribute to background research concerning an unpublished manuscript by Robert Bolling Jr. (1682-1749) entitled A Sketch of Vineculture for Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. We will visit Bolling’s estate, Chellowe, in Buckingham County, and see the remnants of Bollings own vineyard, as well as Montdomaine Winery and Vineyard in Albemarle County to get first-hand experience of modern viticulture and wine making. There will be no wine tasting with the course.
Additional nonrefundable $50 fee required.
STS 2500: Ethics, Protocols and Practice of International Research
Cross listed with EVSC 1050
Robert Swap, Research Associate Professor
Prerequisite: at least one general science course.
Prerequisite: STS1010 or STS1500
What constitutes scientific research? What is the scientific method and how does it relate to conducting scientific research in an international setting? What are the ethics and protocols of conducting international research? And how faithfully does the actual practice of such research reflect these protocols and standards of ethics? How should students and scholars work to establish research partnerships that bring sustained benefits to the environment and to the people who inhabit the site of a given project? How can international research consortia establish a basis for community service and development? What are the ethical obligations of contemporary researchers and students who visit developing countries, especially in light of the legacy of colonialism? Through an intense combination of readings, discussions, guest presentations, and group projects, students will address all these questions. The class will be facilitated by the lead instructors with the active participation of a delegation of scholars from southern Africa; in addition, the class will also have distinguished guest instructors from the University and the wider scholarly community. Drawing on all these resources, students, working in autonomous small groups, will design a potential research project of their own and present it to the entire group.
Course focus is not so much on health/safety/risk management issues of student research but rather on student responsibilities associated with the privilege of conducting research within an international setting e.g. what to expect when conducting a research project in an unfamiliar culture, identifying and working with the values and norms of that culture, etc.
Course Objectives: Students should be able to articulate scientific questions of an international nature and defend a proposal of intended research. Their proposed efforts should incorporate concepts of the scientific method, ethics and best collaborative practices of international education and research partnerships. They should be prepared to design and undertake their own projects in partnership with colleagues in the region with a deepened awareness of both the larger issues and concrete practicalities of their chosen field of education, service and research.
An additional nonrefundable $100 fee required.
STS 2500 American Health Care: Challenges and Opportunities
Robert Powers, Professor
This course offers an opportunity to learn about the structure and function of the health care system in the United States. Lectures and classroom sessions will cover the history and current status of the education and delivery systems, and examine the challenges that face providers, patients, policy makers, and engineers as health care becomes more effective and more expensive. Issues related to manpower, financing, access, disparities, and developing technology will be examined, with discussion of approaches to understanding and addressing significant problems, challenges, and opportunities.
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