INTR 201 - History of Science and Race

Credits: (3)
College Curriculum: COLL 200
Domain (Anchored): CSI
Domain (Reaching Out): ALV, NQR

This class examines how, during the past two hundred years, science has both promoted and debunked the idea of race and racial hierarchy. We will read primary scientific texts in order to, first, see how what counts as “scientific knowledge” has changed during the past two centuries. Second, see how scientists have dealt with the problem of explicit or implicit value judgments in scientific research regarding race. Third, to discover how different scientific methdologies have developed over time. Last, to learn some basics of evolutionary biology from Darwin through the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis of the 20th century.