Theories of Science (KULT8850/8851): Course program, Fall 2026
Emneord (Nøkkelord):
theories of science, philosophy of science, science and technology studies, research ethics, PhD educationSammendrag
The course provides an introduction to theories of science and relevant social science and humanities scholarship, with an emphasis on the history and philosophy of science and the social organization and dynamics of various academic fields, including their strategies for producing knowledge and the interaction between research and society.
The course engages with issues such as philosophical assumptions underlying high-quality scholarship, making claims about truth and objectivity, professional and societal relevance of science, navigation of academic challenges, and classic and contemporary critiques of science. To contribute to a better understanding of academic work, insights into the history of science and academic scholarship and the key features of the modern university are provided. Moreover, the course is one of the few arenas in which PhD students from a wide variety of disciplines meet and work together, which increases their interdisciplinary sensitivities.
Referanser
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Kaiser, M (2014) The integrity of science. Lost in translation? Best practice & Research Clinical Gastroenterology. 28(2):339-347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpg.2014.03.003.
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H.M. Collins and Steven Yearly (1992). Epistemological Chicken, pp. 301-326 in Andrew Pickering (ed.): Science as Practice and Culture, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Michel Callon and Bruno Latour (1992). Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath School! A reply to Collins and Yearley, pp. 343-368 in Andrew Pickering (ed.): Science as Practice and Culture, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Noortje Marres (2018). Why We Can't Have Our Facts Back. Engaging Science, Technology and Society, vol. 4, 2018.
William Clark. 2008. Academic charisma and the origins of the research university. University of Chicago Press, p. 183-238 (chapter 6: The doctor of philosophy).
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Steven Shapin. 2010. Never pure. Historical studies of science as if it was produced by people with bodies, situated in time, space, culture, and society, and struggling for credibility and authority. The Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 1-15.
Knut H. Sørensen and Sharon Traweek: Questing Excellence in Academia: A Tale of Two Universities (Routledge 2022). Chapter 3. In the Shadows of Excellence and Neoliberal Interventions: Enactments of Academic Autonomy and Strained Collegiality (33 p.) The whole book is available here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780367259334
Rolin, K. "Situated knowledge and objectivity." In The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Philosophy of Science, pp. 216-224. Routledge, 2020.
Ashton, N. A., & McKenna, R. (2020). Situating feminist epistemology. Episteme, 17(1), 28-47.
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Bhambra, Gurminder K. (2014) ‘Postcolonial and decolonial dialogues’ in Postcolonial Studies Vol. 17(2), pp. 115-121. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2014.966414
Dankertsen, Astrid (2022) 'Avkolonisering av akademia fra et samisk perspektiv'
Gopal, Priyamvada. 2021. ‘On Decolonisation and the University’. Textual Practice 35 (6): 873–99.
Mott, Carrie, and Daniel Cockayne. 2017. ‘Citation Matters: Mobilizing the Politics of Citation toward a Practice of “Conscientious Engagement”’. Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 24 (7): 954–73.
Murrey, A., & Daley, P. 2023. 'Introduction: Learning Disobedience from the Heart of Empire'. In Learning Disobedience: Decolonizing Development Studies, London: Pluto Press, pp. 9-28.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J. 2021. ‘The Cognitive Empire, Politics of Knowledge and African Intellectual Productions: Reflections on Struggles for Epistemic Freedom and Resurgence of Decolonisation in the Twenty-First Century’. Third World Quarterly 42 (5): 882–901.
