Incorporating a curatorial component into the history of science seminar

Incoporating a curatorial component is ideal for training students in object-centered epistemologies. This material approach is situated in recent interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences scholarship which focuses on material culture and everyday practices to access histories of marginalized social groups and epistemologies. This sample syllabus is set up for the resources at a major research university. However, it can be adapted to courses even without easy access to archival materials and exhibition space. Numerous DH tools allow students to create digital exhibitions using the digitized collections on Google Art Project, or personal websites of museums like MoMA. For sample DH tools and resources see: http://dhforsts.wordpress.com/

A third option is to ask students to create models. For an STS course, for example, students could create analog or digital models that relate STS theories and methods to specific case studies.

A fourth option is to create an exhibit from found objects in the context of recent STS literature on the social biography of things, tracking objects as they shift from the everyday to the epistemic thing under scientific scrutiny.

Petrou syllabus, Labs on the Go semester.2

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