Science, Environment and Technology Studies (SETS)
Within Reed’s curriculum, the SETS track within Anthropology brings a uniquely anthropological lens to the broad array of topics covered in critical science and technology studies and environmental studies. Such a focus acknowledges the importance and centrality of interrogating the diversity of cultural understandings and practices involved in relations between humans, technology, scientific practice, and the environment. Anthropology’s central concepts and methodological approaches provide unique perspectives on diverse human interactions with physical and biological elements (ranging from chemicals, geological formations, forests, water, animals, microbes, computer codes), the production of scientific knowledge based upon these interactions, and emerging technologies. This work informs critical analysis of science and environmental policies, as well as related social phenomena, conveyed in the teaching and advising in SETS within the Department of Anthropology. Anthropological approaches to science, environment and technology issues require specific programmatic approaches, including a proficiency in ethnographic methods, such as participant observation, structured interviews, and field notes, as well as a familiarity with anthropology’s foundational conceptual frameworks.
The Anthropology-SETS concentration allows students to bring together a rigorous foundation in anthropology with in-depth coursework in MNS fields and SETS-related courses across the college. Students should plan the concentration in close consultation with the adviser, seeking out a course of study in MNS fields and across the college that both fulfills group, divisional, and major requirements and explores the relationship between science, environment, technology, and society from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The concentration must be approved by the students’ adviser when the major is declared. Students may petition the department for exceptions to the allied fields requirement.
Requirements
See the Academic Catalog for SETS requirements.
Statistics courses offered at Reed
- Math 141 - Introduction to Probability and Statistics (Prerequisite: three years of high school mathematics)
- Math 241 - Data Science (Prerequisite: Math 141 or equivalent)
- Math 243 - Statistical Learning (Prerequisite: Math 141, or experience with linear regressions and programming.)
- Math 343 - Statistics Practicum (Prerequisite: Math 243, or Math 241 with permission of the instructor.)
- Math 391 – Probability (Prerequisites: Math 113 and 202)
- Math 392 - Mathematical Statistics (Prerequisite: Math 391 or consent of the instructor)
- Econ 311 - Survey of Econometric Methods (Prerequisite: Econ 201)
- Econ 312 - Theory and Practice of Econometrics (Prerequisites: Econ 201 and Math 141 or similar introduction to statistics, or consent of the instructor)
- Psych 348 - Research Design and Data Analysis
- PoliSci 311 - Introduction to Quantitative Analysis in the Social Sciences
- Soc 311 - Research Methods (Prerequisites: Soc 211 and one additional unit in sociology)
- Soc 380 - Networks and Social Structure (Prerequisites for sociology credit: Soc 211; for political science credit: PoliSci 240 and one upper-level international relations course)
Anthropology of Science, Environment and Technology Studies Courses
- Anth 201 Topics in Contemporary Anthropology: Anthropology of Global Health
- Anth 201 Topics in Contemporary Anthropology: Global Political Ecology
- Anth 201 Topics in Contemporary Anthropology: Decolonizing Archaeology
- Anth 308 Social History of Obsidian
- Anth 3XX African Technoscience
- Anth 341 Medical Anthropology
- Anth 342 Language and Medicine
- Anth 360 Country and City in Latin America
- Anth 375 Anthropology of Science
- Anth 377 Labor, Value, and Land in India
- Anth 378 Nature, Culture, and Environmentalism
- Anth 387 African Bodies: Medicine, Labor, Modernity
- Anth 397 Media Persons Publics
- Anth 442 Ontological Politics
- Anth 465 Suffering, Narrative, and Subjectivity
SETS-related courses from across the college
Students are strongly encouraged to seek out complementary courses that speak to themes in science, technology and environmental studies that they are interested in. For example, the histories and cultural politics of environmentalisms; the ethics and efficacies of statistics and quantitative methods; the histories and cultural politics of medicine and/or public health; the nature, ethics and politics of the laboratory; comparative histories and philosophies of science; or critical media and technology studies.
From the 2019-2020 Catalog
- ART 181 - Architectonic Structures
- ART 190 - Art and Photography I
- ART 195 - Digital Imaging/Processing
- ART 196 - Digital Video/Interactive Art
- ART 291 - Art and Photography II
- ART 292 - Drawing with Light
- ART 293 - Internet Literacy, Culture, and Practice
- ART 294 - Photography in the Expanded Field
- ART 346 - Introduction to Media Studies (Crosslisted with German 346)
- ART 361 - Intermediate Photography and Digital Media
- ART 365 - Intersection: Architecture, Landscape Sculpture
- ART 374 - New Media/Old Media—Experiments in Optical Media and Computation
- CSCI 315 Ethics and Public Policy
- ECON 351 Environmental Economics
- ECON 352 Natural Resource Economics
- ECON 354 Economics of Science and Technology
- ECON 391 Health Economics
- ECON 392 Health in Poor Countries
- HIST 240 World Environmental History
- HIST 270 Introduction to American Environmental History
- HIST 302 Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Change
- HIST 310 Water and the American West
- HIST 312 The Environmental History of the American West
- HIST 313 Wildlife in America
- HIST 317 The American Earth: U.S. Environmental History in the Twentieth Century
- HIST 323 Rice in East Asia
- HIST 339 Science and Islam: Global Histories
- HIST 337 Battle of the Books: The Beginnings of the Modern Sciences
- HIST 344 The Psychoanalytic Tradition in Historical Perspective
- HIST 345 Whole Earths, Globalizations, and World Pictures
- HIST 360 Histories of the Anthropocene
- LIT 346 Introduction to Media Studies (also German 220/Art 346)
- LIT 362 Red Sci-Fi: Science Fiction in Soviet Literature and Film (also RUS 362)
- LIT 366 Literature of Destruction (also RUS 366)
- LIT 375 Chinese Strange Writing: From Ghost Stories to Sci-Fi (also CHIN 375)
- LIT 392 Nuclear Literatures: A Comparative Approach (also (RUS 392)
- LIT 361 Decentering the Human (also SPAN 361)
- PHIL 205 Introduction to Philosophy of Science
- PHIL 316 Philosophy of Science
- PHIL 318 Philosophy of Biology
- PHIL 411 Advanced Topics in Metaphysics (Topic: The Metaphysics of Science)
- POL 344 International Environmental Politics
- POL 359 Weapons, Technology, and War
- POL 368 Environmental Politics and Policy
- POL 442 Nuclear Politics
- POL 444 Global Risk Politics
- POL 469 Food Politics and Policy
- SOC 326 Science and Social Difference
- SOC 350 Sociology of Science