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I. Courses on Nanotechnology
| Elements of Public Policy -- Science and Technology Policy (426) in 2006 Fall
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| Department: | Political Science |
| This course examines the institutions and processes of public policy in the United States, with a focus on how those institutions operate for science and technology policy. In particular, we will investigate public policy for nano-scale science and engineering (NSE, or nanotechnology) as a case in point. The class will cover national legislative, executive, and bureaucratic policy making, state-level policy making, and policy processes like agenda-setting, policy selection and choice, and policy implementation and evaluation. The course will have a particular emphasis on issues of framing. Background in science is not required, and introductory texts to nanotechnology will be part of the assigned readings. Students will be challenged with a number of individual writing assignments modeled after professional public policy writing activities, e.g., press releases, hearing testimony, issue briefs, position paper, etc. The class will feature occasional guest speakers from different academic and public policy perspectives. |
| Studies in Transhumanism: Genetics, Robotics, Information Technology, Nanosciences, and the Human Future(s) (FMS 494/ENG 598) in 2006 Fall
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| Department: | Film & Media Studies, Engineering |
| This course performs a rigorous critique of the human/transhuman, exploring both in
terms of their profound historical, scientific, economic, political and ideological
implications. The course has two focal points: one, predominantly historical,
anthropological and philosophical in nature; the second, a cultural studies focus on the ideological parameters of contemporary transhuman bioinformatic sciences. First off, the course will assess Enlightenment notions of the human exploring the scientific and technological discourse of homo sapien before then moving toward the more contemporary notion of the transhuman and its ideological import for near and not so near future global culture.
We will explore several questions: what ideological forces underlie the socio-scientific production of the human in the eighteenth century (what was gained by this new
representation of man) what philosophical, scientific and cultural itineraries has this human construct taken since its Enlightenment birth (Darwin, Nietzsche, Heidegger, The Frankfort School, existentialism, Freud, Derrida, Watson and Crick, Sturtevant and Venter come to mind), what does a deconstruction of the "trans" in transhuman reveal, and what would a semiotics of the presumed "natural evolution"
(implicit in grammatical positionings of the human/transhuman construct) yield. In esssence what is the grammar of this complex ideology? Once we have preformed an autopsy on the historical anatomy of the "human," we
will then explore how various representations of the transhuman have evolved. The point of all of this to construct an archeology of both the human and the transhuman so that we can then submerge that archeology within the dominant ambitions of postmodern science and technology, particularly in the area of genetic research,
robotic engineering, computer, information and digital technology and the nanosciences. By the end of the course we will be able to read this NY Times blurb -
In the next fifty years, life spans will extend well beyond a century. Our senses and cognition will be enhanced. We will have greater control over our emotions and memory. Our bodies and brains will be surrounded by and merged with computer power. The limits of the human body will be transcended as technologies such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering converge and accelerate. With them, we will redesign ourselves and our children into varieties of posthumanity -
and identify its ideological proteins (if you will). Perhaps the prime biopolitical question for the course asks whether human technology has always been a
transhumanizing force, and, if so, from where does that production arise, what are its long term effects and are there any limits to human bioprogress? |
| Learning Community: "Nanotechnology in Society" (Learning Communities) in
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| CNS-ASU is developing integrative courses for ASUs Learning Communities (LC) initiative, in which thematically linked courses, taught in different departments but taken simultaneously by a cohort of undergraduates, bring different disciplinary perspectives to bear on an important societal issue, e.g., Nanotechnology in Society. Our LC, to be offered Spring 2007, will be designed for sophomore or higher students and will include an introductory technical course focusing on nanotechnology, a course on the societal aspects of nanotechnology, and a politics- and policy-oriented course. LC students will be able to observe and/or participate in the Scenario Development workshops and InnovationSpace activities each year and in National Citizens Technology Forums in year 3. LC will also serve as an important gateway for students to participate as research assistants for the Center. |
| Justice and the Future (394) in 2007 Spring
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| As the pace of social and technical change increases and volatility sets the tone for political, social and economic life, uncertainty over the future becomes a condition of modern times that must be coped with and better understood. This course will enable you to appreciate, analyze and critique the different ways the future is employed in contemporary society. The course draws on nanotechnology as its main case, as it aptly highlights the different ways the future is conceived, assessed and mobilized to affect change.
The course is organized around three main modules- conceptions of the future, analyzing the future, and justice and the future. We will explore a diverse range of sources of the future, including film, popular media, literature, congressional hearings, corporate strategies and scholarly accounts. You will learn how to engage analytically with different forms of evidence of the future.
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II. Instructor(s) teaching on Nanotechnology:
III. Programs, Majors and Minors
| CNS-ASU Program: |
| Program Website |
| Undergraduate Training
Undergraduate Training. CNS-ASU has already developed three undergraduate courses related to nanotechnology; "Elements of Public Policy - Science and Technology Policy", "Justice and the Future" and "Perspectives in Nanotechnology".
CNS-ASU is developing integrative courses for ASU's Learning Communities (LC) initiative, in which thematically linked courses, taught in different departments but taken simultaneously by a cohort of undergraduates, bring different disciplinary perspectives to bear on an important societal issue, e.g., "Nanotechnology in Society." Our LC, to be offered Spring 2007, will be designed for sophomore or higher students and will include an introductory technical course focusing on nanotechnology, a course on the societal aspects of nanotechnology, and a politics- and policy-oriented course. LC students will be able to observe and/or participate in the Scenario Development workshops and InnovationSpace activities each year and in National Citizens Technology Forums in year 3. LC will also serve as an important gateway for students to participate as research assistants for the Center.
CNS-ASU will also develop (for AY 06-07) a year-long, senior-level InnovationSpace course on NSE that provides design, business, and engineering training for a real-world product outcome. A joint venture among ASUs School of Design, the Fulton School of Engineering, and the Carey School of Business, InnovationSpace involves faculty and students from each school in a hands-on, product development laboratory to develop user scenarios, define new product offerings, build or conceive engineering prototypes, and create business plans and visual materials to communicate the end results. The nanotechnology InnovationSpace anticipates 2 teams of four students each year, pursuing a year-long project addressing one of the Centers cross-cutting research themes.
Graduate Training
CNS-ASU provides research training to supported graduate students in the Centers RTTA and Thematic Research Cluster programs. The Center funds four CNS graduate students and co-funds three CNS/Biodesign graduate fellows and two CNS/CRESMET graduate fellows.
CNS-ASU has developed a graduate seminar, "Science, Technology, and Societal Outcomes," that will train natural scientists, social scientists, and humanists in the methods of Real-Time Technology Assessment.
CNS-ASU will also develop a second graduate seminar that will extend the InnovationSpace concept to the graduate level, involving students and faculty from the schools of engineering, design, and business, as well as liberal arts and sciences.
CNS-ASU is implementing the "PhD plus" by requiring NSE doctoral students to include, as an element of their dissertations, a chapter on the societal context of their research. Students will be matched with a mentor, drawn from the network's social scientists or humanists, who will also serve on the student's thesis committee.
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| Major: Science, Technology, and Societal Outcomes |
| Website |
IV. Centers and Conferences
| Center: Center for Nanotechnology in Society at ArizonaState University |
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