Historical actors are emotional beings. Studies of emotion and cognition over the past several decades show that emotions shape sensory perception, communication, motivation, and decision-making. This seminar explores the variety of ways that historians of science, medicine, and technology can approach the emotional worlds of historical subjects and integrate analysis of emotion-centered cognitive processes into their research. The seminar explores literature in philosophy of science, cognitive science, psychology, and history of emotions, alongside works and methods in history of science, medicine, and technology.

• Days/Times: W 4:00PM - 6:30PM
• Instructor: Frumer, Yulia
• Room: Gilman 300
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 12/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

This research seminar focuses on “historical catachresis” as a mode of analysis. Drawing inspiration from Gayatri Spivak's adaptation of Derrida's concept of catachresis, historical catachresis (as developed by feminist intellectual historian Tani Barlow) treats ubiquitous terms not as stable referents, but as repositories of social experience and normalizing strategies. By focusing on these terms as sites of "occulted evidence," historians can uncover the ways in which ideas, objects, and subjects were constructed and contested in specific historical moments. This seminar will examine different categories such as “scientist,” “woman,” “medicine,” and “magic,” without presuming them to be universal or transhistorical entities. Doing so emphasizes the future anterior, or what objects/subjects "will have been,” as a way to keep open the possibilities and contingencies of the past.

• Days/Times: T 4:00PM - 6:30PM
• Instructor: Li, Lan
• Room: Gilman 300
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 10/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

Reports by faculty, students, and invited speakers.

• Days/Times: Th 3:00PM - 4:50PM
• Instructor: McManus, Alison L
• Room: Gilman 300
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 7/20
• PosTag(s): n/a

The seminar introduces classic and recent scholarly literature for a series of discussions on significant themes and debates in history of science, medicine, and technology in East Asia. Students learn the necessary scholarly background to effectively evaluate ideas and approaches in the subject and gain critical perspectives for their own research. The final project can be either an historiographical essay or a term paper based on original research. Students are recommended to attend lectures in AS.140.305 when possible.

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Jiang, Lijing
• Room: Gilman 300
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 9/12
• PosTag(s): n/a

This seminar surveys major scientific developments from the mid-18th century to the present, with a focus on the physical, chemical, and biological sciences. It consists of weekly reading assignments which highlight canonical events in modern science, raise historiographical questions, and model historical research methodologies.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: McManus, Alison L
• Room: Gilman 361; Gilman 361
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 1/7
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Frumer, Yulia
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 6/7
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Jiang, Lijing
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 6/7
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: McManus, Alison L
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 7/7
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Leslie, Bill W
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Mercelis, Joris Hans Angele
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 4/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Principe, Lawrence
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 4/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Portuondo, Maria M
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 4/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Allen, Meagan Selby
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 4/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

For graduate students in the History of Science and Technology Department Only.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Frumer, Yulia
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 7/7
• PosTag(s): n/a

For graduate students in the History of Science and Technology Department Only.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Jiang, Lijing
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 7/7
• PosTag(s): n/a

For graduate students in the History of Science and Technology Department Only.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Mercelis, Joris Hans Angele
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 4/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

This course introduces basic computational techniques in the context of empirical humanistic scholarship. Topics covered include the command-line, basic Python programming, and experimental design. While illustrative examples are drawn from humanistic domains, the primary focus is on methods: those with specific domains in mind should be aware that such applied research is welcome and exciting, but will largely be their responsibility beyond the confines of the course. Students will come away with tangible understanding of how to cast simple humanistic questions as empirical hypotheses, ground and test these hypotheses computationally, and justify the choices made while doing so. No previous programming experience is required.

• Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
• Instructor: Lippincott, Tom; Sirin Ryan, Hale
• Room: Krieger 304
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 8/10
• PosTag(s): n/a

This course introduces substantial machine learning methods of particular relevance to humanistic scholarship. Areas covered include standard models for classification, regression, and topic modeling, before turning to the array of open-source pretrained deep neural models, and the common mechanisms for employing them. Students are expected to have a level of programming experience equivalent to that gained from AS.360.304, Gateway Computing, AS.250.205, or Harvard’s CS50 for Python. Students will come away with an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different machine learning models, the ability to discuss them in relation to human intelligence and to make informed decisions of when and how to employ them, and an array of related technical knowledge.

• Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Backer, Samuel Ehrlich; Messner, Craig A
• Room: Maryland 114
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 7/10
• PosTag(s): n/a

Independent research for graduate students in the History of Science and Technology Department only.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Frumer, Yulia
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 7/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Leslie, Bill W
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Principe, Lawrence
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 4/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Portuondo, Maria M
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Frumer, Yulia
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

From embellished silver pens and abolitionist secretary desks to contemporary artists manipulating historical postcards and making fax collages, this course will explore the materiality, technologies, and aesthetics of written communications from the 18th century to the present. This research-centered course will engage directly with objects in the Baltimore Museum of Art collection, in preparation for an upcoming exhibition. Topics include the development of specific decorative arts and designs in conjunction with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century postal and bureaucratic history, letter-writing as a mode of resistance, strategic illegibility and asemic writing as a form of critical artistic practice, and the importance of mail art as conceptual and institutional critique. Includes hands-on work in the museum and class visits with BMA curator Dr. Leslie Cozzi.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Brown, Rebecca Mary
• Room: Gilman 177
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 4/5
• PosTag(s): HART-MODERN

Reports by staff members, students, and invited speakers.

• Days/Times: Th 3:00PM - 4:50PM
• Instructor: Allen, Meagan Selby; McManus, Alison L
• Room: Gilman 300
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 4/20
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Jiang, Lijing
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

For graduate students in the History of Science and Technology Department Only.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Jiang, Lijing
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

What does it mean for the history of science to have a history of its own? In this course, we explore historiography of science, medicine, and technology and learn how to make it work for us. In addition to acquainting ourselves with the oft-cited classics and the rising stars in the field, we will learn how to make the most of previous scholarship by identifying explicit and implicit research motivations, discussing how difference in topics necessitates different source materials and research questions, and learning about the relationship between the argument and the writing style, as well as the form, content, and organization of the work. Rather than treating historiography as a pesky obligation, we will learn how to take advantage of historiography to become more mindful of our own motives behind telling histories of science, medicine, and technologies, to forge our own scholarly identities, and begin developing our own scholarly voices.

• Days/Times: T 4:00PM - 6:30PM
• Instructor: Frumer, Yulia; Greene, Jeremy
• Room: Gilman 300
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

For graduate students in the History of Science and Technology Department Only.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Principe, Lawrence
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 3/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

For graduate students in the History of Science and Technology Department Only.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Frumer, Yulia
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

Ants, bees, beetles, fleas and flies, caterpillars and butterflies: as the earth’s most abundant animals, insects are arguably the most important player in our interactive environment. In this seminar, we will explore the diverse world of insects and other arthropods in philosophy, literature, and the sciences in order to gain a new perspective on current trends in animal and environmental studies in the US and Europe. Reading our way from John Donne’s “The Flea” and Robert Hooke’s “Micrographia” to Bernard Mandeville’s “The Fable of the Bees,” Barthold Heinrich Brockes insect-poems, E.T.A. Hoffmann’s infamous novel “The Flea,” to Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” Heidegger’s contentious bee-example, Uexküll’s biosemiotics, Deleuze and Guattari’s “A Thousand Plateaus” (they characterize our industrial time as “the age of insects”) and Donna Haraway’s “tentacular thinking,” we will ask how concepts and stories of insects and the insectile reflect and shape the ways we imagine our cultural as well as ecological milieus. We will look more closely at how entomological imaginaries evolved over time and shed light on different forms of interaction with the environment, politics, and (cultural, biological) diversity. This course covers a wide range of sources from different European languages (made available in English translations) and gives a survey of major junctures in the history of literary forms, scientific practices, and philosophical concepts.

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 3:30PM
• Instructor: Frey, Christiane
• Room: Gilman 443
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/12
• PosTag(s): n/a

Under the guidance of the faculty advisor, this course is for HST graduate students who are attending a directed readings course or preparing a dissertation.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Li, Lan
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

For graduate students in the History of Science and Technology Department Only.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Leslie, Bill W
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a

For graduate students in the History of Science and Technology Department Only.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: McManus, Alison L
• Room:  
• Status: Closed
• Seats Available: 5/5
• PosTag(s): n/a