Course

Remaking Nature: The Politics of Biotechnology - ARTS3243

Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

School: School of Humanities and Languages

Course Outline: School of Humanities & Languages

Campus: Sydney

Career: Undergraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3

Enrolment Requirements:

Prerequisite: 48 UOC overall, including 6 UOC at level 1 and 6 UOC at level 2 in one of the following streams, Environmental Humanities

CSS Contribution Charge: 2 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

Subject Area: Environmental Humanities

This course examines what many have called the ‘century of the gene’ and its potential for reshaping the environment and humanity. Biotechnology can be understood as a social, political and cultural project as much as a technical one. In this course we consider these issues through the prism of contemporary environmental thinking, drawing on a multidisciplinary tool kit from science studies (STS), cultural and political theory, and sociology. We retrace the emergence of biotechnology from its early imaginings through its emergence as a real project in the twentieth century, and explore a range of contemporary case-studies such as GM food, gene therapy, bio-prospecting, nanotechnology and synthetic biology. You will have the opportunity to select issues such as these for deeper exploration in group projects involving independent research and analysis.

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